The Role of Skills and Why Assessment Data is Your Secret Weapon

More is Being Demanded from Organizations

Employees are demanding career advancement, personal empowerment and a job that aligns to their personal beliefs and lifestyle. All companies are facing common issues with employee engagement and retention, so what is the answer?

In his keynote, Josh Bersin shared how skills-based approaches can really benefit employees by helping to realize their expectations of the role and provide the self-confidence to reinvent their career within the company.

Dynamic companies have moved from job-centric to people-centric models to maximize the value of employees and harness the strengths of Gen Z talent, who will dominate the workforce in the next decade. This change suits employees who are motivated by seeing their contribution to business outcomes, and having variation in their roles, even if it is outside the remit of their traditional job description. Companies need to evolve their processes to accommodate this change, so rewards and recognition are not just based on what an employee does in their defined role, but what they actually contribute across the business.

“Employees are speaking up and we must adapt to a new level of activism, empowerment, and feedback.”

- Josh Bersin

2025 Will Be the Year of Employee Activation

There is a significant shift in HR to focus on enhancing employee engagement and activation. In our survey, 42% of respondents stated that employee-centric data was the most valuable opportunity for their future HR strategy. As organizations aim to leverage insights to empower their workforce, it is clear that prioritizing employee needs is becoming essential for HR teams.

Employees are one of the most important sources of information. Activating employees enables them to speak up and make decisions at a local level that will allow the company to operate better. That may be individuals self-identifying areas that they need development, tools that would help improve their ability to do their job or communicating other tasks which they feel are better suited to their skills. This has the added advantage of improving employee engagement providing the business creates bespoke learning pathways to achieve mutual goals.

In a panel discussion with industry leaders, the challenge of reskilling and upskilling workforces was discussed. They highlighted the importance for organizations to plan their approach and start by targeting areas where there is an appetite for development, or a team or department that has recently undergone transformation and employees would benefit from additional support.

Change management is key—educating, and informing leaders to buy-in to the process and understand the value that leveraging the right data can bring will help make development initiatives a success. A key expectation of current and future workforces is transparency, if the workforce is unaware of how data is used, how it helps the organization, and what the value proposition for the employee is, then any new processes are more likely to fail.

The Right Data Can Be Your Secret Weapon

Skills data may not be new, but the way organizations are using the data has changed. There are different measures for skills, and there is a big difference between inferred skills, assessed skills and those that are self-reported. Leaning into assessment data can provide real business value by accurately identifying the skills within your population, potential of your teams, and skills gaps that need development—accelerating employee and business growth.

A static view of data is a huge challenge for organizations, reflecting the need for real-time insights. HR teams need to understand different data sources, how they compare, and what to leverage when making critical people decisions in hiring and talent management.

Check out Part 2 of our Virtual Summit Event to watch Josh Bersin’s full keynote, the panel discussion and an insightful skills Q&A.