On-demand webinar: Driving business value with skills featuring Forrester

Becoming a skills-based organization can feel like “jumping into the deep end,” but that jump will be much easier for skills transformation leaders who can make a strong business case for the change, according to Forrester Principal Analyst, Future of Work, Betsy Summers.

“No one's going to give you a gold star for being a skills-based organization,” Summers says in a recent SkyHive by Cornerstone webinar. “All the people care about is, are we actually able to achieve our objectives and our goals?”

In the webinar, Summers offers strategies and tips based on her research on successful skills transformation efforts.

“When we do our surveys at Forrester, skills come up as the number one or number two reasons for some kind of blocker or barrier to the business,” says Summers, who covers the future of work for Forrester Research. “Business leaders are questioning ‘How do I resolve that?’”

For example, in one case a medical manufacturing company was faced with a business challenge of shifting away from brick-and-mortar stores to other channels. By adroit use of skills intelligence for internal mobility, the company was able to redeploy 20% of their workforce, compared to only 11% historically, which saved them $1 million in severance and recruiting costs.

“Their CFO said this is one of the most lucrative and creative investments in HR ever made,” Summers says. Cases like that provide the starting point for the five tips Summers offers for using skills intelligence effectively.

Five Tips for Using Skills Intelligence Effectively

First, identify the compelling business problem or problems to be solved. Summers says skills intelligence is a tool to solve business problems, but organizations need to be clear on what the problems are.. “Really identifying that business problem you're trying to solve will help direct what metrics, what KPIs you're measuring, how you are actually tracking progress,” Summers says.

But the process is important, with most organizations using manual methods of managing skills that aren’t “fit for purpose.” she says. Information sources are siloed, and different terms are being used for the same skill or role. Many companies have “prep work” they have to do around skills normalization–making sure everyone is using the same definitions–before they can be effective in skills transformation.

Second, gather trusted partners internally and externally to anticipate and overcome problems. Value isn’t something that comes solely from technology, Summer explains. There are multiple stakeholders around the organization who need to think about talent management in new ways to ensure the company really gets value out of the changes.

Third, partner in lock-step with key functional leaders. “(Skills transformation leaders) don't want people to feel like this is something that HR is thrusting upon people,” Summers states. “And so it's important to make sure that you are always talking to business leaders about what they need, what skills they think are critical, making sure that what you are building or bringing into the organization will work for them and their workforce.”

Fourth, start small to go big with incremental steps. A pilot-project approach allows organizations to try out strategies and build support among stakeholders, says Summers.

‍Fifth, wield change leadership to drive momentum and confidence. Employees will be asked to put in the effort to build skills profiles and do things differently, so they need to see a payoff for their effort. “What we want to make sure of, especially for the workforce, is that [employees] see the value as well,” Summers says.