Become a skills-based organization with skills intelligence

The 2023 Future of Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlighted a trend that we’ve known to be true for some time now: Organizations are being forced to rethink how they operate in a digital world as new technologies, new processes, and, most importantly, new skills turn entire industries on their heads. 

The report found that by 2025, 44 percent of skills required for jobs will have changed, and a staggering six in ten workers will need retraining or reskilling before 2027. At the same time, workplace training is declining, with only 30 percent of employees in the UK reporting that they have received training, reskilling, or upskilling. 

As demand for new skills continues to accelerate, reskilling and upskilling offer organizations the opportunity to stay ahead of the competition. Given that recent estimates say AI alone will cause a 65 percent shift in job skills by 2030, L&D leaders must take note and prepare a futureproof skills strategy that can meet tomorrow’s workforce challenges.

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Why skills?

Skills are the foundation of the global economy. They link education (where skills are learned), human capital (where they grow), jobs (where they are needed), and production (where they are used). Across companies, industries, and labor markets, skills connect these elements and help explain changes in the labor market.

Skills also offer a unique perspective when applied to the labor context. Using skills to measure human capital effectively eliminates the bias or subjectivities regarding age, gender, ethnicity, or educational background, as often observed in the traditional ways of evaluating individual workers. For example, industry leaders like IBM leverage skills to drive diversity and inclusion.

This is called skills-based workforce planning. It uses skills intelligence to measure human capital objectively, without being overly influenced by a candidate's personal traits or the flexibility of job roles. This promotes fairness and equity and enables companies to tap into a diverse talent pool and promote an agile workforce.

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What is meant by skills intelligence?

Skills intelligence is the strategic use of data and analytics about an organization's workforce's skills inventory and capacity. 

It involves gathering, analyzing, and leveraging data about employees' skills and those needed for various company roles, thereby informing decision-making in recruitment, training, talent development, and succession planning.

Skills intelligence draws from diverse data sources, such as human resources (HR) records, performance evaluations, training history, certification records, project outcomes, and even external market data on skill trends and demands. Advanced analytics tools and platforms like SkyHive can collect and process this data into actionable insights.

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Why does it matter?

Imagine asking a roomful of CEOs and CHROs if they truly understand their workforce's skills, identify skills gaps, and foresee demand for future skill sets. Most would likely admit to not having a clear picture. 

How can leaders plan effectively without knowing their current capabilities? 

The L&D function must first lay a solid foundation by gaining deep knowledge of their existing workforce’s skills and their organization’s true capabilities—and the best way to do this is to use the insights gained from skills intelligence to build a skills inventory.

A skills inventory (or talent inventory) traditionally involves manually mapping positions to skills and using tools like Microsoft Excel for data storage. 

However, today's advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and deep learning, can automate this process by extracting skills from resumes, job descriptions, and titles. This automation of skills mapping generates data-driven insights, a core focus of SkyHive technology.

A comprehensive skills inventory provides a snapshot of your company's collective capabilities, empowering leaders to evaluate opportunities and make informed decisions that maximize the potential of their greatest asset—their people. 

Five ways skills intelligence can futureproof your workforce

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1. Organizational agility

Organizations that take skills intelligence seriously and implement a skills-based approach to workforce planning quickly realize one thing: Today’s employees need to continuously acquire and hone skills to keep ahead of shifting demands, the accelerated pace of digital transformation, and the need to stay agile. 

By using skills intelligence to align employees to tasks and projects that are more suited to their core competencies (rather than solely relying on their job roles and titles), HR leaders enable the organization to pivot and react to emerging challenges. This is because skills intelligence facilitates talent allocation across projects and teams by providing a clear overview of each employee's skills and competencies, naturally lending itself to assembling agile teams with the right mix of skills needed to address any need. 

Skills-enabled agility goes beyond teams, though. With skills intelligence, organizations can also adopt agile workforce planning methodologies. Rather than relying solely on traditional workforce planning cycles, which may be rigid and time-consuming, skills intelligence enables dynamic workforce adjustments. HR leaders can quickly pivot hiring strategies, modify training programs, or redeploy talent based on evolving skill requirements, market shifts, or project demands.

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2. Talent screening and recruitment

Time-to-hire figures are increasing worldwide. According to a recent report by Hired, companies in the U.S. took an average of 60 days to fill open positions in 2022, up from 52 days in 2021. This makes it clear that HR leaders must change their recruitment strategies and focus on adopting measures to speed up talent screening and recruitment processes. 

Skills intelligence transforms talent acquisition by shifting the focus from traditional qualifications to specific skills and competencies. HR and L&D teams can use skills inventories to create detailed skill profiles for each role, outlining the core competencies, technical skills, and soft skills required for success. 

This approach streamlines recruitment processes, improves candidate matching, and reduces time-to-hire. Moreover, skills-based hiring promotes diversity and inclusion by emphasizing objective skill assessments over subjective criteria, leading to a more balanced and equitable recruitment process.

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3. Training and development

With organizations already reporting that one of the most significant barriers to growth is a lack of skilled talent, there’s a looming skills crisis that could prove fatal to organizations that aren’t prepared to tackle it. 

Skills intelligence revolutionizes training and development strategies by providing actionable insights into skill gaps and learning needs across the organization. Skills inventories help pinpoint where employees need to improve or learn new skills, especially as technology evolves or industries change.

This information allows HR and L&D teams to design targeted training programs, personalized learning pathways, and competency-based assessments. Skills intelligence also facilitates continuous learning, upskilling, and reskilling, enabling employees to stay competitive and adaptable against a backdrop of widespread technological innovation and disruption.

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4. Skills gap analysis and succession planning

According to a 2022 Deloitte CEO survey, skills and labor shortages are one of the primary reasons cited as affecting the proper execution of commercial strategies. These shortages arise due to skills gaps in an organization, and the only way an organization can overcome a skills gap is to bolster its skills inventory to align with its long-term goals.

A skills intelligence platform like SkyHive can leverage skills inventories, skills taxonomies, and market skills intelligence to not only identify skills gaps that exist within your organization but also analyze them to help you overcome them.

What’s more, robust skills and intelligence can help you enhance succession planning by identifying high-potential employees based on their demonstrated skills, performance, and growth potential. This reduces the likelihood of significant skills gaps reoccurring in the future. 

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5. Empowering employees

Skills intelligence empowers employees by giving them visibility and control over their development and career progression. Skills inventories, for example, can serve as a roadmap for individual learning and growth, highlighting areas for development or specialization. 

Employees can use this information to set meaningful career goals, explore learning opportunities, and take ownership of their professional development. Skills intelligence also helps to foster a culture of continuous learning, skill mastery, and career mobility, leading to higher job satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates.

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Unleash your workforce’s potential 

Deep, unambiguous knowledge of your organization’s skills posture is a non-negotiable requirement for futureproofing your workforce. It’s the best way to equip your employees to tackle the unforeseeable challenges yet to come as technological change continues to rip up the rule book and redefine the very nature of work. 

Fortunately, SkyHive has the solution: A SaaS platform that uses artificial intelligence to drive unparalleled insights into the skillset of your workforce, supporting rapid reskilling and upskilling through talent acquisition, onboarding, and learning and development.

Do you want to learn more? Book a demo with SkyHive by Cornerstone.