Get the House in Order
At our July 15 meeting we were focused on aspects of workforce readiness and workforce planning that are internal to the organization, such as skills catalogs and databases, identifying needed future skills, leadership’s role in enabling talent movement, internal talent marketplaces, upskilling / reskilling programs, and more! Tom Stone, a Sr. Research Analyst at i4cp, shared some new data from i4cp's Workforce Readiness study as input for questions of the outstanding panel we hosted which included:
- Ann Taylor, Sr. Director, Talent Management & Experience at Land O’ Lakes
- Scott Smith, CHRO at DirectTV
- Jacob Goodapple, Org and Leadership Dev Leader at Humana
Here are some highlights from the meeting:
- When asked to describe or define "Workforce Readiness," responses from meeting participants included "having the appropriate capability to deliver on business strategy and results - now and in the future," "having the right people in the right roles at the right time from whatever place," and "talent for today and tomorrow."
- Cataloging skills and skills databases.
- i4cp's Workforce Readiness survey included 53% who said their organization has insufficient data about the current skills and capabilities of the workforce, and only 18% who said they have a skills database that includes skills profiles for either all employees (10%) or critical roles only (8%). 27% went so far as to agree that LinkedIn knows more about their workforce than their organization does.
- Smith noted that a critical step was to communicate the "why" of creating the skills database, stressing that it wasn't to rank or rate employees, but rather for talent and organizational planning to execute on strategy. Doing this helps to make sure the database will be maintainable going forward, since you need to rely on employees to do that so they need to buy into the goals.
- Smith also said that they now use an inference model that leverages AI and automation to infer employees' skills beyond what they have expressly indicated in LinkedIn or elsewhere. Pilots were used to determine that about 80-90% of the time the AI is accurate, but that it is critical that employees be able to edit and adjust the results.
- Taylor stressed the importance of having one source of truth, one skills taxonomy in organizations, otherwise the employee experience will suffer from having to use multiple systems.
- Taylor said the excitement here arises when leaders can then leverage the skills database to offer project, gig, or job opportunities to members of their teams.
- Goodapple said that at Humana they started out using IBM's skills library but have since switched to Workday's. They have approached it by both identifying skills needed for each job role and skills that each employee have. He noted they share four use cases with managers to help them understand the benefits of using skills management and that indicates an organization's level of maturity in this area. They currently have consultants working with some technical areas of the business to determine the varying levels of skills via both active and passive means.
- Smith said that they too started with IBM's skill dictionary, but then customized it for ATT's needs over time. He also noted that it is important to stress that employees need to be honest about their various skill proficiency levels, otherwise they'll be matched to opportunities that aren't the right fit (either too high or too low)--so again, communicating the "why" of this initiative is critical.
- Identify skills required by the organization in the future.
- i4cp's Workforce Readiness survey results included that only 35% indicated their organizations are currently identifying skills that will be required in the future, but only 16% said they are effective at doing so. Lack of clarity around needed future skills and capabilities was the #3 most often cited barrier to building workforce readiness.
- Goodapple noted that like many organizations they are undergoing a cloud technology transformation, and that one element of this has involved determining the current and future skills needed to support cloud technology, and then doing a skills gap analysis of their IT function.
- Taylor shared the example of leadership in the organization identifying ahead of time some new skills needed by the sales team, and then adjusting to fill those skill gaps.
- Smith said that they make available the job descriptions of all job roles, not only open job postings. This way, employees can see learn key things about each job role such as skills, promotion rates, exit rates, etc., so they can better pursue careers with the organization. Employees have rated this platform as the #1 most popular HR technology in the organization.
- Leaders have a role to play in promoting workforce readiness.
- i4cp's Workforce Readiness survey results included that 42% agreed or strongly agreed that their organization has managers who often hoard high-performing talent rather than encourage internal movement. Only 32% indicated their organization is effective at facilitating internal movement of employees, and only 12% indicated their organization recognizes/rewards managers for talent movement.
- Smith said that the best leaders both develop and release talent, that is they are not hoarding the talent on their team, but rather encourage talent mobility in the organization. He said that leaders that do this get known for doing it, and attract talented, motivated individuals into their organizations.
- Goodapple noted that Humana's CEO is very bullish on driving enterprise talent, and this includes lateral moves being encouraged for career growth. When leaders hoard talent, it is often due to a lack of a pipeline to replace those individuals, so a focus has been placed on strengthening the pipeline in key areas.
- Taylor noted the importance of democratizing opportunities, beyond the usual suspects and known high potentials. Encouraging leaders to be more inclusive in where they look for talent has become more important.
- Internal Talent Marketplaces are seen as platforms at many organizations.
- i4cp's Workforce Readiness survey results included that only 19% indicated to a high or very high extent that their organizations currently leverage Internal Talent Marketplaces to access needed skills or capabilities, but 39% said such marketplaces have the greatest opportunity for as a skills source for the future.
- Smith said that at AT&T they launched what they call an "Opportunity Marketplace" to match employee's interests and availability with open needs, projects, and gigs in the organization. It is a helpful mechanism for employees to skill up or even find a future full-time job.
- Taylor said that at Land O' Lakes they will be launching an internal talent marketplace in about a month. The focus is on development, and avoiding needing to exchange inter-departmental dollar amounts, etc. The key is giving people agency around where their passions are and career growth areas.
- Goodapple said that at Humana there is a focus on internal movement and development relative to external hiring, with the caveat that such an internal focus does not directly help with overall employee diversity targets (though as a positive employee practice it can help with retention of diverse employees.)
- Upskilling and reskilling programs are important, and there is room for improvement.
- i4cp's Workforce Readiness survey results included that only 12% said their organization’s current upskilling / reskilling efforts were effective to a high or very high extent. Only 31% indicated their organization offers job rotations in support of continuous skilling of its employees, only 25% indicated they have upskilling/reskilling rewards / recognition programs, and only 16% have compensation programs that support upskilling / reskilling.
- Smith noted the importance of executive leadership support for upskilling / reskilling initiatives. Otherwise it will look like an HR project, rather than a company mantra. There needs to be a rallying cry--that this is critical for the future of the company.
- Goodapple noted that upskilling is usually the easier program of the two, as reskilling involves a longer and more extensive learning journey. Not everyone in an organization will be motivated and committed enough to want the new skills change required.
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