Article · 5-minute read
By Lucy Costello & Karen Fung – 9th October 2024
Our current series of virtual roundtable events brings together talent practitioners from across the globe to share ideas, experiences and practical solutions around various topics and, whilst the world of virtual meetings/events is ever growing, it was great to have the opportunity to see so many of our clients face-to-face in Manchester.
Our first Hot Topics event created an interactive forum for individuals to network, share challenges and discuss new approaches for skills-based hiring and development; gathering practitioners from a range of fields produced some insightful conversations and thoughts around what’s next.
To start the day, we explored what we mean by skills, specifically looking at scientific solutions across the talent cycle, from that initial interaction with your organization as a hopeful applicant to someone looking to grow within the business.
You can learn more about our stance on skills and how we define them in our recent whitepaper – Science – driving the skills revolution
We asked the group to reflect on some recent statistics (detailed below), which prompted some rich discussions around what that looked like for their organizations as well as the impact on recruitment and development. For the attendees, the McKinsey statistic (below) resonated most, with many citing the pace of change and an aging workforce as the culprit.
One manufacturing organization commented on the digitalization of their production line and its impact on the requirements for skills in technology alongside workers’ willingness to unlearn and relearn the new technology. This is echoed by another organization who is facing a widening skills gap as older workers approach retirement while entry-level colleagues are yet to master the skills of their older counterparts, as well as new and emerging technology.
Another organization shared their internal strategy around reskilling their entire IT team to create an open culture and horizontal movements within the organization by focusing on the underlying skills within these job roles.
87% of companies worldwide recognize that they already face skill gaps or anticipate them within a few years.
McKinsey & Co.
50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025 as the adoption of technology increases, and the skillsets required to thrive in this environment rapidly change.
World Economic Forum
67% of CEOs are recruiting for key skills and capabilities.
PwC UK
The majority of the group were surprised with how high statistics were around a skills-focused workplace, highlighting the varying stages that organizations are at when looking at skills potential.
For organizations at the research or early stage of this journey, get in touch; we’re happy to help support you and your organization in navigating the research and understanding the current thinking around this trend that we are seeing all over the news.
To step it up, we then wanted to discuss the challenges and approaches for skills-based talent management, with a wealth of knowledge across various industry sectors. This was a great opportunity for individuals to share and reflect on their assessment approaches and to learn from others.
The issue of siloed teams was something the group resonated with in terms of talent acquisition versus talent development and the barriers that then creates for employees.
Some of the roundtable conversations resulted in individuals sharing their personal experiences around the changes in required skills for roles. Across different industries, the impact technology is having on roles was consistent across the whole group.
One common challenge amongst attendees was the push for better use of data where insights can underpin both recruitment decisions and development planning. Many articulated the increasingly blurred boundary between Talent Acquisition and Talent Development as they transition into a skills-based organization and the need for skillsets to be fluid in order to meet the changes in the business.
This was the hands-on element of the session, where we brought skills-based recruitment to life, with a view on how our tools can support organizations. An example recruitment process, and later a development program, highlighted how maintaining a consistent language for both the organization and the individual can support them on their journey within the organization.
This is where we shared the latest research into the science behind a skills-based approach and our new solution to support with this.
This solution has been developed through a human-centered design process where we have connected with real users, understood their problems and tested our approach at multiple steps of the design journey.
This approach has led us to the creation of this solution where we are distilling our science to optimize talent outcomes with pre-configured packages and automation created by our experts. We are providing you with the tools to identify critical skills in a matter of minutes, all while retaining the precision and quality we are known for with our role profiling tools and dashboards. This also provides talent teams transitioning to skills-based approaches with new frameworks to apply for talent identification.
The shift to a skills-based focus is a hot topic right now and an area in which we’re keen to share our research with you, guiding you through how our tools and reports can support you in skills-based assessment processes.
The statistics, although surprising for some people, highlighted the various stages organizations are at in their shift to a skills-based approach.
Look out for more in-person Hot Topics events from us coming soon.
© 2024 Saville Assessment. All rights reserved.
