Summary. The economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to leave more than 140 million people out of work and another 1.6 billion at risk of income loss. Unfortunately, many of the jobs lost simply won’t return. At the same time, certain companies and industries like logistics and manufacturing can’t hire fast enough. Shifting to a skills-focused approach is a viable solution to an evolving workforce dilemma. Evaluating employees and new hires based on their skill sets instead of their work history can help level the playing field — and help companies realize the talent they already have. It also makes talent pools more diverse and often makes hiring more effective. The author offers three ways for companies to upskill and reskill their existing workforce and take a skills-based approach to hiring new employees.
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With the global economy experiencing massive change, upskilling and reskilling have taken on a renewed sense of urgency. Success through these transitions requires major shifts in thinking about how hiring and employee development are done.
The economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to leave more than 140 million people out of work and another 1.6 billion at risk of income loss. Unfortunately, many of the jobs lost simply won’t return. At the same time, certain companies and industries like logistics and manufacturing can’t hire fast enough. Shifting to a skills-focused approach is a viable solution to an evolving workforce dilemma.
Workers often don’t realize that the skills they have for one job can be easily transferred to another — nor do employers. Take food servers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. More than 70% of them have the skills needed to succeed in customer service, which is currently one of the most in-demand jobs on LinkedIn. Had servers and people hiring for customer service specialists known they already had many of the required skills, we may have seen a significant shift of out-of-work food servers into in-demand roles instead of seeing those positions go unfilled.
Evaluating employees and new hires based on their skill sets instead of their work history can help level the playing field — and help companies realize the talent they already have. It also makes talent pools more diverse and often makes hiring more effective.
This is the future of hiring and development. To get ahead of it, companies need to start weaving learning into their company cultures. Organizations slow on the uptake will be left behind and forced to deal with unsatisfied and unmotivated employees and significantly less innovation overall. At a time when talent is the number-one commodity in business, companies can’t afford to remain stuck in old mindsets.
Here are three ways companies can upskill and reskill their existing workforce and take a skills-based approach to hiring new employees.
Support new career paths for your employees
Many large enterprises around the world have viewed the need to upskill their current talent as urgent for the last few years and have invested millions — and in some cases, billions — in “future proofing” their employees, arming them with the skills required to adapt to changing work. For example, JPMorgan Chase added $350 million to their $250 million plan to upskill their workforce. Amazon is investing more than $700 million to provide upskilling training to their employees. PwC is spending $3 billion to upskill all of its 275,000 employees over the next three to four years; the mantra of the program is “New World, New Skills.” The pandemic accelerated this need for companies of all sizes, as many needed to retool their employees quickly to fulfill changed business priorities.
If your company is unable to support a structured learning program, encourage managers to find out what other areas of the company their employees are interested in learning about and help them participate in cross-functional meetings and projects. Allow them to spend 10% of their work time on that cross-functional work.
You shouldn’t have to switch companies to get ahead —creating and supporting these learning programs not only shows your employees that you’re invested in their future, but they also open different pathways for growth internally and can evolve into new career paths. In Northrop Grumman’s Pathways program, for example, employees do three 12-month stints in different roles before choosing the path they’d ultimately like to follow.
Don’t wait for the next crisis to begin the process of reskilling employees for critical roles. Employees who see good opportunities to learn and grow are 2.9 times more likely to be engaged. Creating internal programs that identify and address skill gaps not only helps prepare for future disruptions but also helps your strongest and most dedicated employees feel secure.
Give employees learning time and rewards
According to a June 2020 survey conducted by Glint, a human resources software company owned by LinkedIn, an overwhelming number of employees — 97% — want to expand or at least continue the amount of time they spend learning. What’s more, opportunities to learn and grow have emerged as the strongest driver of work culture.
Executives and managers should make it clear that ongoing education is integral to personal career growth and can be done on company time. To help foster a learning culture, encourage employees to block out calendar time for learning each week or month — and do the same. If managers have dedicated learning time, employees will be more likely to follow suit.
It can be stressful to juggle learning with looming deadlines or client needs. Remind yourself and your team that the investment in learning will pay off for their careers and the organization, and give specific guidance in employee growth plans. For example, an employee can make it an end-of-quarter deliverable to spend four hours each month on learning courses, then discuss their learnings during their annual review.
Some businesses promote their learning programs with contests and incentives. Rewards, whether monetary or internal kudos, can boost employee participation considerably. Executive and manager participation is a must — it’s crucial for us to lead by example. Even putting the most recent course you watched below your email signature signals to employees that it’s a priority for you.
Shift to a skills-based approach when hiring
In the past year, LinkedIn has seen a 21% increase in job postings advertising skills and responsibilities instead of qualifications and requirements in the U.S., and the number of positions that don’t require a degree increased by nearly 40% in 2020 compared to 2019.
Taken together, we can see companies are starting to be more intentional about hiring for a candidate’s future potential, not their past history. But it’ll be a long road. Our traditional recruiting processes still place an emphasis on certain types of education, experience, or personal referrals that can lead to a homogenous workforce.
Start by rethinking your job descriptions. Focus on the results you’d like to see, rather than the type of qualifications that you think could deliver them. Highlighting the desired skills — the candidate’s ability to perform certain tasks — gets to the same results without creating an unnecessary barrier to entry, like a requirement for a four-year degree.
Of course, the job post is one of the earliest steps in your hiring process. Once you’ve removed unnecessary barriers to entry, you’ll still need a skills-based way to assess candidates and find your finalists. If you’re looking beyond education and experience, what should you evaluate?
Stay focused on skills — and the assessments that can measure them. From hard skill evaluations like coding tests, to innovative soft skill assessments, to “job auditions,” there are plenty of ways to gauge a candidate’s ability to perform without relying on their education or experience as proxies. Even asking unexpected interview questions can let you see how a candidate processes information and problem-solves in real time. It’s also never too early to discuss learning commitments during interviews with candidates — it may even make you more attractive as an employer.
The payoff? A wider, more diverse talent pool and perhaps stronger retention: Employees without a traditional four-year degree stay at companies 34% longer than those with such a degree, according to LinkedIn data. While this could be a sign that it’s more difficult for them to find their next job, it could also be a sign that they’re simply more engaged and feel like the company is betting on their success. As LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report showed, 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career.
By taking a skills-based approach to the hiring process, diplomas and titles can sit alongside assessments, certifications, endorsements, and other alternate methods for determining the capability and fit of a candidate. What’s more, by focusing on skills, employers can increase the size of their talent pools, allowing them to pinpoint quality applicants for hard-to-fill roles. Once you’ve hired them, keep your employees engaged and your company ready to adapt to changing demands by creating a culture of learning. It’s how we’ll start hiring and developing talent for the future, not the past.
FAQs
What is skills-based approach to talent? ›
Skills-based talent management focuses on identifying and nurturing skills within your existing workforce. This strategy is a natural result of the shift in today's economy towards a knowledge-based system where the intellectual capital of employees plays a more significant role.
What is skills-based approach? ›A skill-based approach emphasizes the ongoing. development of language skills, such as. phonemic awareness, spelling, sentence. construction, reading fluency, and vocabulary. development in reading comprehension.
What are the benefits of skills-based hiring? ›- Reduction in total time-to-hire. Time-to-hire is the time between a candidate applying to join a company and accepting a job offer. ...
- Reduction in total cost-to-hire. ...
- Reduction in mis-hires. ...
- Improved team morale. ...
- Higher employee retention.
To summarize, the skills model consists of three competencies: problem- solving skills, social judgment skills, and knowledge. Collectively, these three components are positively related to effective leadership performance (see Figure 3.2).
How do you approach identifying and developing talent in a team? ›- Acknowledging the potential of each employee.
- Building on employee strengths.
- Moving workers to positions where they are better suited.
- Creating plans to help teams grow and thrive over time.
- Focusing on talent development initiatives that encourage growth.
- Skill Training Example #1 – On-site practical training.
- Skill Training Example #2 – Shadowing.
- Skill Training Example #3 – Simulation Training.
- Skill Training Example #4 – Role-Playing.
- Skill Training Example #5 – Hackathon.
- Skill Training Example #6 – Virtual Reality (VR) Training.
The three elements of the Three-Skill Approach are technical, human, and conceptual skill. Technical skill is the knowledge and proficiency someone has in a specific area. This skill is extremely important in the lower levels of management, but as you work your way up technical skill becomes less important.
Why is the skills approach important? ›The skills approach to leadership focuses on the belief that certain abilities, knowledge, and skills that can be learned or developed are important to leadership. This theory evaluates the success of a leader on the basis of what they can accomplish.
What is the purpose of skill-based training? ›Skills-based training programs typically focus on teaching students how to perform a job. A skills-based program can be designed for people without absolutely no experience in a particular industry, or it can be directed at people who already work in a field and want to improve their skillset.
What are 3 benefits of work based learning? ›Benefits to schools:
Enable students to share their experiences with peers and teachers. Provide staff development opportunities. Increase staff understanding of the workplaces for which they are preparing students. Expand curricula by using workplaces as learning environments.
Why are skill-based plans usually well accepted by employees? ›
Skill-based plans are generally more accepted by employees because it is easy for them to see the connection between the plan, the work, and the size of the paycheck. Consequently, the plans provide strong motivation for individuals to increase skills that in the end benefit them and their organizations.
What is an example of talent development? ›Providing training and coaching to employees is an example of a strategy for talent development because it helps employees learn new skills, which can help with career advancement. It also allows them to develop their strengths and improve on weaknesses.
What are the four steps in developing talent? ›- Implement a Formal Identification Process. Make it an annual or twice-yearly event in which all areas of your organization can participate simultaneously. ...
- Build a Personal Development Plan. ...
- Challenge Them. ...
- Establish a High Potential Program.
- Clearly defined responsibility. ...
- A Focus on talent not skill. ...
- Time and priority. ...
- Real training. ...
- A culture of talent development.
The Three Skill Approach explains that a leader is required to have three main skills in order to become a successful leader. With these three skills, a leader will be much effective and influential. With a skilful leader and loyal followers, the goals of any organization can be reached a lot easier and faster.
What is the three skill approach summary? ›What is Katz's Three-Skill Approach? It is a theory that categorizes and articulates the competencies required for management by hierarchy and skill level. The framework divides managers into three levels: first-line management, middle management, and top management.
What are the components of skill approach? ›- Individual Attributes,
- Competencies,
- Leadership Outcomes,
- Career Experiences and.
- Environmental Influences.
- Drive goal alignment and determine metrics. ...
- Create a strong employer brand. ...
- Focus on employee experience. ...
- Encourage a high-performance culture. ...
- Gain a single-source view of employees.
Put simply,it is a training and development tool that prepares employees for future roles in the business. The aim of the program is to identify skill gaps, offer learning and training opportunities, and encourage employees to grow in line with organizational goals.
How do you develop a talent management strategy? ›- Identify business objectives. ...
- Match talent to your objectives. ...
- Diagnose your talent obstacles. ...
- Decide where you need to focus. ...
- Create a plan of attack. ...
- Get input from key stakeholders. ...
- Identify where technology could help.
What is skill based behavior examples? ›
The performance of routine actions governed by stored patterns of behavior. Examples might be the use of a hand tool by an experienced mechanic or the initiation of an emergency procedure by a trained and experienced operator.
What are the steps of skill based training? ›WHAT IS IT? Behavior Skills Training (BST) is a four-step procedure for teaching new skills, involving the following: Instruction, Modeling, Rehearsal, and Feedback (Miltenberger, 2004).
What are 3 skills you could learn through on-the-job training? ›- Industry or product knowledge.
- Professionalism.
- Leadership.
- Customer service.
- Time management.
- Strategic thinking.
Strengths of the skill approach is that it is a leader centered model that stresses the importance of developing leadership skills, is intuitively appealing, provides an expansive view of leadership incorporates a wide variety of components, and provides a structure that is very consistent with a curriculum of most ...
What are the three skills approach to leadership? ›Robert Katz identifies three critical skill sets for successful leaders: technical skills, interpersonal (or human) skills, and conceptual skills. Leaders must possess certain technical skills that assist them in optimizing managerial performance.
What are the 3 key characteristics of competency based learning? ›The concept of competency-based learning focuses on 3 key characteristics: learner-centric, differentiation, and learning outcomes.
What is the skills based approach to leadership? ›The skills leadership theory defines effective leadership with a set of skills rather than personality traits. By measuring a leader's performance by the skills they possess, the skills leadership theory allows anyone interested in becoming a leader to learn the skills required to become one.
What is one of the strengths of the skills approach __________________? ›What are strengths of the skills approach? First approach to conceptualize and create a structure of the process of leadership and around skills.
What is the importance of skill management? ›Management skills are important for many reasons. They position you to act as an effective leader who can make good decisions, an effective communicator with the soft skills necessary to inspire a team, and a problem-solver who can bring clarity to any situation.
What is a skill based intervention? ›Skill-building interventions teach youth skills to manage social interactions and control executive responses such as anger and impulsivity. Skills may be interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, mindfulness strategies for managing emotions, stress, and improving focus, and other similar skills.
What is the importance of skill acquisition training? ›
The importance of skill acquisition are:
Improved Strategic Planning. Crisis Management Capabilities. Better Decision-Making Ability. Improved Communication With Stakeholders.
A Work-Based Learning Program provides employers an opportunity to prepare future employees by exposing them to real world work experiences.
What are two examples of work-based learning? ›- Job Shadowing.
- Career Mentorship.
- Career Related Competitions.
- Informational Interviews.
- Paid Internships.
- Non-paid Internships.
- Practicum.
- Service Learning.
Example-based learning using worked examples can foster clinical reasoning. Worked examples are instructional tools that learners can use to study the steps needed to solve a problem.
What are the benefits of skills-based organization? ›Deloitte found that skills-based organizations are 52% more likely to innovate, and 57% more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively and efficiently. Being able to deftly redeploy resources also means you are better able to respond to customer needs, as they change, with the right skills.
What is an example of skills-based pay? ›For example, under the skill-based pay model, a team lead with several decades of management experience may earn higher compensation than a less-experienced candidate applying for the same position.
What does it mean to be a skills-based organization? ›The Conference Board defines a skills-based organization in the following way: Skills-based organizations define how work is accomplished by deconstructing roles and jobs into critical tasks and outcomes and identifying the current and emerging human skills required to complete the work.
What are the two development methods under developing talent? ›Employees can benefit from two types of talent development: upskilling and reskilling. Upskilling prioritizes the development of skill sets directly related to their role so that employees can be more efficient and effective at their jobs.
What are four talents examples? ›- Writing.
- Researching.
- Brainstorming.
- Inspiring.
- Self-managing.
- Networking.
- Innovating.
- Listening.
The truth is that all of us have a great many skills and we are highly talented in our own ways. There are three types of skills: functional, self-management and special knowledge. Functional skills are abilities or talents that are inherited at birth and developed through experience and learning.
What are the four key elements of talent management? ›
This wheel provides a reminder of those 4 key elements of ASPIRE: Acquisition, Succession Planning, Improvement, Retention and Engagement, and you've got your full life cycle there. And that should put you in good stead when you start thinking about a talent management strategy.
How do you develop talent development? ›Training is an important part of talent management. But talent development also includes elements such as mentoring and coaching, job shadowing, and on-the-job experience—all of which can help employees identify their goals, earn the capabilities they need to reach those goals and improve performance.
How do you identify and develop talent? ›- Positive energy/attitude.
- An entrepreneurial spirit.
- Innovation or creativity.
- A commitment to your startup's culture and mission.
- Effective communication skills.
- Integrity.
- Teamwork.
- A customer focus.
- Skill Training Example #1 – On-site practical training.
- Skill Training Example #2 – Shadowing.
- Skill Training Example #3 – Simulation Training.
- Skill Training Example #4 – Role-Playing.
- Skill Training Example #5 – Hackathon.
- Skill Training Example #6 – Virtual Reality (VR) Training.
What is Katz's Three-Skill Approach? It is a theory that categorizes and articulates the competencies required for management by hierarchy and skill level. The framework divides managers into three levels: first-line management, middle management, and top management.
What is the three skill approach to leadership? ›Robert Katz identifies three critical skill sets for successful leaders: technical skills, interpersonal (or human) skills, and conceptual skills. Leaders must possess certain technical skills that assist them in optimizing managerial performance.
What is an example of a skill development? ›These are the skills that you do not learn from outside but develop over time with experience. For instance, skills like time management, collaboration, problem-solving, decision making, ability to work in a team, working under pressure, proficiency in communication, etc are some of the soft skills.
What is a skill based task? ›A computer-based instructional program that requires learners to complete a task by demonstrating mastery of a set of skills in successfully completing the task.
What are the three 3 main types of managerial skills identified by Robert Katz which skills are most important to each level of management and why? ›- Technical skills.
- Conceptual skills.
- Human or interpersonal management skills.