About half of the global workforce will require reskilling by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Also, according to Gartner’s research, 58% of the workforce will need new skill sets to do their jobs successfully. Jobs and competencies are continually evolving. Therefore, the demand for upskilling and reskilling will continue to grow over the next few years to adapt to digitalization, robotization, automation, and the ensuing skills gaps. As per Gartner’s 2021-2023 emerging technology roadmap survey, IT executives see talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to most emerging technologies.

Also, according to Gartner’s research, 58% of the workforce will need new skill sets to do their jobs successfully.

Upskilling and reskilling vs. external hiring

Decision-makers may wonder why they should consider reskilling their staff instead of focusing on employing a new generation of employees who have already invested in learning the new skills required by the company. While new hires have this one advantage, existing employees have many more, making internal talent development a significant, mission-essential goal.

Employees that have worked for a company for a long time have a solid awareness of the company’s needs, clients, customers, and partners. It takes longer to recruit and train new employees than it does to develop new, paradigm-shifting technologies. Moreover, Workable has estimated that it could take up to 8 months for a new employee to become fully productive. Additionally, a study done by ATD, found that companies that offer thorough training had more than twice the amount of income per employee over firms that offered less training. A culture of upskilling and reskilling is thus a key asset that permits the adoption of new technical solutions and innovative business practices for companies that wish to prepare for the future.

As a great example, Global Food Corporation was confronted with issues such as using skills as the foundational core of their personnel processes and as a unit of measurement that would enable them to effectively acquire, manage, and develop their employees in the future. The company has successfully developed an enterprise-wide capability framework and a functional working competency framework. Through the implementation of a reskilling and upskilling strategy, the company has assessed over 500 employees on Enduring Human Capabilities (EHCs) as well as business-specific skills and has established an HR-wide vision and skills integration lab to define the skills journey for the future.

Addressing the skills gap with career pathing

A career pathing program is used to implement both reskilling and upskilling strategies in your company. Successful career pathing strategies are derived from a competency-based approach. This enables your company to examine and assess the precise competencies required for each role, as well as determine the skills development needed for employees transitioning to new positions.

A career path is unique to every employee, it assists employees to attain their long-term career objectives and advance their careers either laterally or through promotion. It necessitates an understanding of the knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics required, as well as the specialized abilities and additional training required to achieve those goals. Career pathing allows companies to:

–       Meet future demand: Identifying the available capabilities enables you to target the development of key skills in your existing workforce to meet future demand.

–       Identify hidden skills: Career pathing empowers your employees to assess their skills, revealing potential the business may not be aware of.

–       Create a culture of talent mobility: Today’s talent looks for employers with a commitment to their future career development. Not only does a career pathing strategy attract talent to your organization, but it also increases motivation and retention levels among your employees.  According to Deloitte, internal talent mobility can boost employee engagement by as much as 30%. Career pathing also creates internal movement, both laterally and vertically, and visibly demonstrates that your organization values its people.

As the speed of digital transformation continues unabated, an effective career pathing strategy is beneficial for both employees and HR and must be a talent imperative for your organization.

Steps to implement an upskilling program in your organization

Upskilling and reskilling are the top priority for learning and development (L&D) professionals globally, according to LinkedIn Learning’s 5th Annual Workplace Learning Report. The report added that 62% of CEOs surveyed in the US now prioritize learning in their organization. There are various strategies for how it could be implemented, EDLIGO shares great insights on the most effective actions to be taken.

1.    Build a competency map for upskilling

Competency mapping is the initial stage in building a competency meter. Skills should be mapped keeping in mind your current employees and the future growth of your organization. Skill mapping will also help quantify the skill set required for a certain job role. However, employee skill aspiration is equally important when it comes to learning new skills. It’s a pull vs push mechanism. If an employee is interested, they’ll be able to learn more and grasp better, resulting in smooth execution of the process.

2.    Measure the effectiveness of the upskilling program

The Kirkpatrick Model is a globally recognized method of evaluating the results of training and learning programs. It assesses both formal and informal training methods and rates them against four levels of criteria:

–       Reaction: The employee’s emotional response to the training. This is done as soon as the training is finished.

–       Learning: How effectively did the employee obtain the information from the training. Have an assessment at the end of one month, two months, or three months to check if the employee still possesses the learning.

–       Behavior: Take 360-degree feedback from the employee’s team to know if the training made any change in the behavior of the employee on a day-to-day basis. Has the employee become more efficient or not?

–       Results: This is determined by the L&D team. They check if the projects are getting implemented more efficiently and if results have become better or not.

Compare the result with the first report of the competency meter. The growth rate will determine the success of the program. This model along with a good feedback and assessment tool in place will help you figure out the exact ROI.

The Kirkpatrick Model has a number of advantages that make it an attractive choice for trainers and other business leaders:

–       Provides clear evaluative steps to follow

–       Works with traditional and digital learning programs

–       Gives HR and business leaders valuable insight into their overall training programs and their impact on business outcomes

3.    Offer an opportunity marketplace to upskilled employees

Once the first phase of your upskilling program is over and employees have gained new skills or built on existing ones, organizations must give the newly upskilled employees the opportunity to apply for internal positions that require these skills. This doesn’t only demonstrate the organization’s commitment to upskilling but further builds employee engagement and organizational resilience to the changes that are inevitably hitting businesses globally this decade.

To discover more about how to upskill and reskill your talent for the future, EDLIGO team has interviewed HR Leaders from different countries about their experiences and opinions.

Here are some great insights:

Gustavo Bulgach 

People Analytics Specialist at Telecom Argentina

1.    How did upskilling and reskilling evolve over time?

 When organizations understood the need to train their employees in order to provide them with new competencies, upskilling became fundamental. Training employees became a mandatory requirement for any organization that needed to evolve. Nowadays, taking into account the constant change that organizations and people go through, upskilling does not meet the talent needs we require, and that is why reskilling plays a fundamental role. When recruiters cannot find the necessary profiles in the market, the reskilling of active collaborators covers that need and manages to foster a culture of internal development.

2.    Why are upskilling and reskilling so critical now?

Some profiles are currently in high demand in the market, so organizations are constantly competing to incorporate business-critical profiles. An upskilling and reskilling plan that allows us to develop our employees, generates profiles prepared for the challenges that the organization needs, with the benefit of having performance information.

3.    How are companies making the best use of their upskilling and reskilling investments?

We must use the available data for two purposes. The first is to understand what competencies the organization will need in the coming years, and the second is to know which employees have interest and good performance to reconfigure their knowledge to occupy a strategic position in the organization.

Adam McKinnon

People Data and Analytics Lead at Reece Group

1.    Why are upskilling and reskilling so critical now?

Three reasons why upskilling and reskilling are critical:

–        Only through upskilling and reskilling can employees navigate the increasing rate of innovation (i.e., automation, new jobs) and digital transformation occurring in the professional world.

–        A culture of learning helps to engage and retain talent. Upskilling and reskilling can create a tangible sense of growth among employees, leaving them feeling both satisfied and stimulated and removing the need for employees to look for growth opportunities outside of their current organization.

–        Upskilling and reskilling can enhance employee productivity and in turn customer service.

2.    How are companies making the best use of their upskilling and reskilling investments?

The key characteristic of companies doing upskilling and reskilling well is their use of “Skills Data”. Specifically, using AI to infer skills about staff, the skills required for a role, and the skills acquired when performing different learning and development activities. Through this data, companies can use skills data to inform recruitment and retention activities, project staffing, learning and development, career mapping, strategic (i.e., long-term) and operational (short-term) workforce planning, M&A, onboarding, and offboarding initiatives. Skills data has the potential to greatly benefit both the employee and organization when actively used.

Alexandre Piotrowski

Leader in People Analytics & Insight at Brambles

1.    How did upskilling and reskilling evolve over time?

Upskilling has always been around, but it is the rate we’ve had to upskill that has dramatically changed because of the faster evolution of technology. The pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and has heightened the awareness of the need to upskill. The need itself, however, is universal. Companies are now forced to pivot and do quick and noticeable upskilling to cope with the ever-changing environment. Employees are more aware of globalization and the impact it will have on their current job, leading to increased willingness to pick up new skills to stay (or become) attractive.

2.    Why are upskilling and reskilling so critical now?

Global megatrends greatly impact people’s jobs, and this is only going to accelerate. There is a vital need to upskill and reskill to be attractive and differentiate oneself from the mass. Having a strategy in place to upskill and reskill the workforce allows organizations to adapt to change more dynamically.

Similarly, workers who are adaptable will be able to better navigate the job market. The fact that a number of studies show that more than 40% of the core skills required to perform existing jobs are expected to change give a sense of what is ahead of us.

3.    How are companies making the best use of their upskilling and reskilling investments?

One of the reasons that Companies are investing billions of dollars on upskilling and reskilling is because they can’t find and attract workers with the required skills. Workers meanwhile want to move to better jobs and take the opportunity to grow their profile.

Companies invest to retain their top talents and develop the skills they need by looking at their existing workforce. This gives them a competitive advantage, creates development opportunities, and reduces the need to systematically go external.

 Paloma Lledó Sempere 

Human Data & People Analytics Lead | Data Science & Business Analytics at Indra

1.    How did upskilling and reskilling evolve over time?

Until a few years ago, no one was talking about upskilling or reskilling. Basically, this is because the availability of technologies and variety of projects were much lower. However, thanks to this evolution of technologies, there are others, such as Cobol, that have become obsolete. Therefore, we must take advantage of the talent we have within companies and transform it to meet the new needs of the market. On the other hand, the covid crisis has made reskilling an urgent issue in the last two years due to the lack of profiles that promote digitization in all areas.

2.    Why are upskilling and reskilling so critical now?

Upskilling and reskilling are critical today because in two years the needs of people and companies for products and services have changed radically. The beginning of the pandemic and everything that has been happening since then changed our lives. Confinement, teleworking, avoiding personal contact, and saving time and costs in any way are clear examples of change. Hence, for all these changes to take place, specialized people are needed who can adapt companies to this new world as quickly as possible.

3.    How are companies making the best use of their upskilling and reskilling investments?

Unfortunately, most companies continue to look outside for talent. Most strategies are based on stealing talent and making those most in-demand profiles more expensive without realizing that they very possibly have profiles that can be adapted in a short time to other technologies that are different or similar to the ones they are using. Nevertheless, it is much more effective and economical to invest in training internal talent than to spend on recruitment and tedious selection processes. There are large companies focused on investing in improving the skills of their employees and relying on them for these new projects. In addition, with this strategy, it is possible to create a stronger bond between the company and employees. So that employees will be much more loyal and will stay longer in the company.

In a time, that’s shrouded in uncertainty, upskilling and reskilling show your intention to keep your employees with the organization if possible, making them feel more committed to you as an employer. Moreover, in a fast-changing environment with new technologies and skills arising every year, a targeted and timely upskilling and reskilling strategy can help your organization prepare for the future and become able to meet new demands.

EDLIGO is a comprehensive Talent Analytics solution for data-driven talent management, that addresses these challenges.

• EDLIGO enables you to identify training needs or areas for improvement for every employee in your company. You can establish a clear, objective, and data-driven map of your people and skills, digitize your competency assessment, create a platform for employees to understand better their competencies, and stimulate a growth mindset
•  Leveraging EDLIGO Talent Analytics, companies can build essential skills for an organization’s future success through a targeted and timely spend on learning and development.
• EDLIGO can help you maximize ROI from Learning and Development strategy, reskill and upskill your employees for a competitive edge using recommendations on how skills gaps can be closed in the most efficient way and reinforce continuous learning and a growth mindset.
• EDLIGO enables organizations to offer a superior employee experience through structured and targeted career devolvement and mobility opportunities (Opportunity Marketplace). Empower your employees through the opportunity marketplace. You can align employees’ career aspirations with business goals, stimulate personal growth, promote talent diversity for improving business outcomes, and boost employee growth and satisfaction with AI-powered talent analytics.

Contact the EDLIGO team or request a demo if you’d like to learn more about how Talent Analytics, reskilling, and upskilling might help your organization achieve higher outcomes using data and AI. 

Sustainability is a growing topic, especially for Human Resources (HR). In the past, sustainability meant to cover mainly environmental issues. Now the concept of sustainability is being expanded. Now it’s about much more: Not just doing a little greenwashing, pardon, green reporting. All possible environmental, social, governmental aspects, people, employees to the landscape, environmental compatibility, CO2, legal, etc.

In Germany, we do already have an international applicable German Sustainability Code (DNK). This was presented by the Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) in 2011! Therefore, reporting is no longer simply about having done something. HR Reporting is to happen in a standardized, orderly manner, comprehensible and verifiable, repeatable, and readable.

Years ago, ISO 30414 on Human Capital Reporting (HCR) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was introduced for HR reporting. And that’s where it already got down to business. HR professionals need to know their numbers! Because: Transparency about human capital is important for access to lending, leasing, and other financial instruments. ISO 30414 has existed since 2018 and has also been published internationally in various languages. The standardized approach to HCR has clear advantages for all stakeholders in the organization in which ISO is used.

CEOs, CFOs, and CHROs will know that legislators have also issued guidelines at the EU level and have detailed and prescribed them at the federal level with “non-financial sustainability reporting” (NFSR) for SMEs and especially large companies. The German Commercial Code (HGB) already knows the “duty for non-financial declaration” in §289b HGB: “A corporation has to add a non-financial statement to its management report“.

The topic is so important internationally, that the International Financial Reporting Standard Foundation (IFRS) is preparing to create a new organization, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), to deal with the topic of the NSFR. In addition, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the International Federation of Accountants have drawn up guidelines on sustainability.

With these developments, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) has been formed. Previously, only Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was known and worked with. ESG goes a step further, is more complex than CSR, and looks at the entire organization with its effects on all stakeholders and environmental factors and influences.

The Haufe, Springer, and Schäfer-Pöschel publishing houses also have HR specialist literature about sustainability in HR. You can no longer overlook this complex of topics; you cannot avoid it and you shouldn’t either.

Human Resources has taken on a key position because of the new guidelines, laws, and regulations and must therefore steer this area skillfully. HR must demonstrably deliver sustainable results with its functions and processes. The quality of this is checked by internal and external stakeholders. Investors in the financial world today want to be sustainable. An indispensable criterion is therefore the sustainability of HR work.

In the HCR, ISO 30414 explains the guidelines and the core areas that HR should report in a standardized way.

• HR cost
• Employee Availability
• Leadership
• Company Culture
• Wellbeing, Health, and Safety

Obviously, the reports can only be done with a large set of data. Big data is necessary here. This data must first be collected and then processed cleverly. Of course, this must be GDPR-compliant. The data platform should also offer intelligent evaluation. Good artificial intelligence (AI) is looking for solutions – with the data. It’s no longer just about being able to read reports from People Analytics. The step after the analysis with recommendations is coming. The human view the AI-generated recommendations and decides. The person, the manager, makes informed decisions. Based on data and not based on – under certain circumstances – dangerous half-knowledge or gut feel.

While the finance department can certainly present the costs in different variations today, HR key figures require new procedures for efficient data collection and evaluation, and presentation.

These reported representations must be transparent, understandable, and repeatable. Especially in the field of talent management, many companies are reaching their limits today.

Proof that a project was filled purely based on skills or competencies, proof that promotions, succession planning, or high potential identifications were not carried out based on a nose factor or gut feeling is currently not possible in most companies. As a result, a company quickly becomes legally vulnerable (AGG) and deals with itself instead of with the actual business.

Diversity, fairness, and inclusion are expected of all stakeholders, especially in times of New Work and hybrid working methods. The employees want to work in an organization that, in the post-Covid period, builds up systems that evaluate skills and competencies fairly.

For these reasons, a data-driven support platform has become indispensable. A must and at the same time a blessing for CEO, CFO, employees, HR, and investors. Because sustainability that is reportable, comprehensible, and verifiable creates trust among all stakeholders and is, therefore, an essential factor in value creation.

HR, therefore, has a great responsibility to present the sustainability of the company in a realistic, i.e., correct, comparable to industry standard, the motivating manner for the internal and external world.

EDLIGO’s Talent Analytics with artificial intelligence helps HR and organizations to make a very good and essential contribution to sustainability. The processes triggered by Talent Analytics enable comprehensible, repeatable, and comparable evaluations.

Because with EDLIGO, successors, bench strength, potential, those to be promoted, further training suggestions, career plans, project staffing, skill gaps, skill needs, critical skills, retraining and further training needs, diversity gaps, best practices, commitment, internal mobility staffing and much more are quickly and unprejudiced identified and shown.

The article is written by Reimund Nienaber, HR Consulting Director at EDLIGO and a thought leader. Throughout his international career, spanning over 4 continents and more than 20 countries Reimund built highly performing HR and technical teams. With 20 years of innovating in human resources and 15 years in technical and managerial roles, he helped organizations achieve top performance.

Based on the PwC report, the U.S. alone is anticipated to lose $8.5 trillion by 2030 because of the talent shortage and skills gaps.

According to Gartner, 2021, only 38% of technology organizations conduct an inventory of employees’ skills and competencies every year.

Lack of a clear understanding of the workforce’s current capabilities can result in skills gaps that slow down the execution of the organization’s digital strategy. Spreadsheets are frequently used by organizations to develop their skill matrices, but they aren’t always the ideal option. Spreadsheets quickly grow unnecessarily complicated and have a high mistake rate, not to mention the difficulties they have with version control. Keeping track of employees’ skill sets presents significant challenges. Leaders can utilize competency mapping and advanced tools that aid HR professionals in competency mapping to support strategic objectives and track employee skills development and professional growth.

Competency mapping

Competency mapping is a method based on the examination of employee competencies in an organization. Competency mapping aims to increase a company’s efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness. It starts with a set of high-level core competency requirements that all represent strategic company goals, such as innovation, creativity, technical expertise, quality, and a customer-oriented focus. These objectives become criteria for employee success through the competency mapping process. These measurements are used by managers to highlight areas that need the training to improve employee performance and productivity as well as the overall competitiveness and efficiency of the company.

There are various roles for which competency mapping can be useful. Managers, HR experts, team leads, and employees, of course, frequently use the information acquired throughout the process of mapping competencies.

A variety of methods, from spreadsheets to competency mapping software, such as EDLIGO, can be used to store and show competency mapping data.

Principal motives for using competency mapping

According to LinkedIn, 64% of L&D professionals said that reskilling the workforce to fill skills gaps is currently a top priority. Competency mapping is complex but effective in bringing employees into line with company objectives and creating a very productive workforce. It has grown in popularity, and many companies are realizing the necessity of developing a competency framework to increase employee productivity, skills, and readiness for the future. The necessity of competency mapping is illustrated by the following points:

·       Building organizational culture

While job-specific competencies define the actions that guarantee each employee’s success, core competencies can be utilized to identify the fundamental actions that support corporate success. It is easier to express, enforce, and convey the behaviors that give the company its primary competitive advantage when core competencies are identified for the organization.

·       Empowering employees

Competencies support a more collaborative approach to performance management and career development because they give an objective basis for evaluating performance. Additionally, competencies use a similar vocabulary to describe every job profile in the company, which motivates employees to take ownership of their careers, guide their personal growth, and explore their potential not just in their current function but also in future lateral or vertical roles.

·       Increasing long-term viability

Competencies provide a higher level of protection from internal and external criticism by helping companies prevent errors in their HR activities. These procedures involve hiring, evaluating candidates, managing performance, and promoting.

·       Ensuring consistency

All talent-management life cycle activities, such as hiring, development, and succession planning, are built around competencies. HR practitioners can improve consistency, coordination, and integration of all HR activities by using a uniform language to communicate requirements at the macro (organizational) and micro (job) levels.

Benefits of competency mapping

The advantage of competency mapping is that it generates guidelines for employee development that are especially suited to the organizational requirements. A competency map can be used to assess the abilities, knowledge, and skills required for the job position.

Benefits for the employee

Competency mapping has grown in indispensability since it first emerged. This is due to the numerous advantages it provides to the employees.

• A long-term strategy

Companies that analyze talents often have sophisticated planning abilities. They frequently employ competency mapping in conjunction with a well-defined growth strategy to reach their goals. The employees who can anticipate the future steps in their careers benefit from this on a smaller scale. People are more involved in their work when they are aware of the long-term strategy, mission, and vision of the organization.

• Control of expectations

Establishing the natural growth of an employee’s talent lays out clear expectations for them. It also illustrates how their career choices will be impacted by their actions. For instance, when it comes to employee evaluation, the evaluation of progress is based on predetermined, universally applicable norms. As a result, the evaluation process is less stressful.

• Opportunities for effective education

Employers can address skill gaps by implementing employee development programs that encourage the acquisition of new skills. Employees who are given the option to develop their abilities at work, whether through training, certification, or training funding, will benefit from this.

When it comes to attracting talent, education and certification options are strong challengers, especially in competitive industries. Education opportunities also have a positive impact on retention. According to LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in assisting them in their learning.

With EDLIGO, each employee can get a personalized recommendation of courses from the company’s LMS or other platforms such as Udemy or Coursera that the company is utilizing. The employee can also view suggested courses to fill in any competency gaps for the desired position.

Benefits for the employer

Organizational processes have been revolutionized by competency mapping, which has also demonstrated encouraging results in several HR interventions and practices. Employers can profit greatly from competency mapping.

• Creating highly effective teams

Understanding people’s competencies is critical when it comes to forming productive teams. Once their skill sets have been determined, people can be assigned to the right teams to improve their performance. Teams composed of individuals with complementary skills are often more productive in workplaces.

Managers with large teams have a hard time identifying skills gaps within their teams. EDLIGO dramatically improves this process by saving managers time on the selection of employees for new tasks, developing new skills, and selecting the right employees for new projects.

• Making knowledgeable hiring and training decisions

An organization’s current skills inventory can help plan hiring and training processes so companies can accomplish business objectives. Organizations don’t always need to hire or train someone to fill skill gaps. Simply ask the person who possesses this expertise if they’d be interested in taking on a different function by looking for them inside.

Employees frequently worry that if they admit to having extra skills, their workload will increase. These worries might be reduced by informing employees of the objectives of competency mapping. Once this is done, companies can make use of newly acquired skills to choose wisely when it comes to recruiting and training.

• Increasing the compatibility between an employee and a job

By examining the skills required to do a certain job, competency mapping increases the chances of finding the best candidate for a given position. Knowing the difference between desirable and necessary talents has a favorable effect on the size of the talented employees. The risk of making a bad hiring decision is decreased by being aware of the skills needed for this specific position.

EDLIGO platform assists with identifying the competencies that have the most influence on each position’s performance. Companies can decide what kind of profiles to search for when hiring for these positions by taking these competencies into account.

• Linking learning to business goals

It is easier for organizations to match their training objectives with the general goals of the company when they map the talents of their employees. By doing this, they ensure that their staff members are content and motivated, and they also help them develop the abilities the business needs to advance.

EDLIGO provides an advanced analytics solution that helps drive focused actions for corporates all over the world. Talent Analytics will help organizations get a clear, objective, and data-driven baseline of their people.

Companies cannot assist employees in realizing their full potential without mapping their skills and development. It’s easy to boost human resources efforts by using competency mapping.

Fortunately, EDLIGO Talent Analytics and Learning Analytics software aims to assist HR professionals in competency mapping. The EDLIGO platform can instantly improve the way to deal with skill-related data and gain new insights into employee development.

To learn more about our solution, contact our EDLIGO Talent Analytics and Learning Analytics team.

According to a Gartner study published in 2021, only 38% of technology organizations conduct an annual assessment of their employees’ skills and competencies. Many people undervalue their own abilities. A skills inventory provides a snapshot of a company’s capabilities.

Companies should have the necessary expertise to achieve their goals. Companies that recognize skill shortages should set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals to assist organizations in achieving business success through their people.

What are the Advantages of Using Skills Inventory?

A skills inventory is an internal resource in which a company stores information about existing employees’ capabilities, experience (past and present), and goals as a tool for accomplishing the organization’s goals and objectives. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be as basic or complex as the corporation sees fit. It should ideally be a dynamic resource that is maintained and updated regularly. It is frequently kept in the form of a matrix and is updated based on employee development as well as skill improvement. This has numerous advantages, including:

Enhancement of Skills

Creating a skills inventory of team members can highlight each person’s area of expertise. Skill inventories make it easy to select the best resources for a given task. Assigning qualified people to projects and tasks that are relevant to their areas of expertise balances the workload and improves the quality of services and results.

Planning Career and Succession

A skills inventory can be used for career planning by an individual or team to assess their present skill portfolio and identify opportunities for growth and development. This could also be valuable for recruitment and advancement. It can also facilitate knowledge sharing and transfer to aid in succession planning as employees move on to new possibilities.

Training and Development

A skills inventory allows companies to identify employee skill shortages and then give the necessary training. This is extremely valuable to corporations since it allows them to forecast and budget for any training initiatives. A skills inventory can guide an organization’s training; consider educating employees on the abilities the company requires by enrolling in a skills training program. Employees could also be trained for diverse jobs, functions, and responsibilities. Training for diverse jobs is an efficient technique to enhance the organization since it allows the team to expand efforts to meet demand in multiple areas. Using the inventory as well as employee interest, training can help the workforce by allowing them to learn from their colleagues while also expanding their own skill set.

How to Create a Skills Inventory?

Many people underestimate their own skill set. A skills inventory provides a perspective of an organization’s capabilities. Here is a plan for creating and utilizing skills inventory.

Identify the Skills to Include

The first step is to identify which skills to capture based on the organization’s strategy. They could be structured in technical, leadership, and soft skills. For example, listening skills are soft skills; negotiation is a leadership skill, and data analysis is a technical skill.

Evaluate the Current Skill Level

The next step is to assess these skills. Here are several methods for determining an employee’s skill level:

Testing: Employees are required to take a test to assess their knowledge and skills. This is reliable for evaluating an employee’s knowledge, but it cannot be applied to all skills.

Self-Assessment: This is a good technique that allows employees to rate their skills and expertise. It addresses the skills inventory collaboratively, incorporating input from people and the organization. Employees can also specify the skills they wish to improve. For employees who are aiming for career growth, the EDLIGO platform offers the possibility to view the competencies required for a target position. Having a career path in mind, employees can evaluate themselves and see what skills they should develop for a certain position. Employees can also get recommendations on courses they need to take to learn the skills for the selected position.

360-Degree Feedback: This is an efficient method for obtaining a clear overview of an employee’s skills and knowledge. Coworkers, managers, and any indirect reports providing feedback on an employee’s skill levels give a good indication of how they are performing. With EDLIGO Managers can perform an evaluation of each employee’s competency level based on indicators. Further, they can see the key experts of the team, look for future leaders and give training and feedback to employees.

AI and Machine Learning: AI has demonstrated exceptional pattern recognition capabilities in a variety of applications. For example, AI systems have demonstrated the ability to track non-obvious patterns in data to determine how long an individual is likely to survive at a company. Machine learning algorithms and data can predict employees with a high attrition rate, allowing the company to take the required actions to retain, engage, and motivate them.

Establish a Skill Matrix

A skills matrix can be displayed in a variety of formats. EDLIGO AI-powered Talent Analytics solution is excellent for displaying a company’s capabilities matrix. Talent Analytics offers insights summarized in charts and dashboards, allowing for faster decision-making. Companies may easily design a skills matrix by evaluating talents and competencies on a scale.

Make a Plan to Address Skill Gaps

AI can analyze employee performance data and match it to an organization’s predetermined skill gaps. Custom assessments and employee learning histories can be used to establish an individual skill baseline. This combination can be used to map out a personalized development plan for each employee. As more employees use the learning platform, it becomes better at anticipating their needs and interests.

The use of AI will provide insights based on the massive amount of data it has collected and analyzed, making it easier to create personalized learning programs. With access to these insights and data, companies will be able to gain a better understanding of the employee’s behaviors and predict needs by recommending and positioning content based on prior behavior. Personalized adaptive learning is a powerful way to engage today’s workforce; the challenge for L&D is to make sense of the data and leverage those insights to drive business value.

Companies should collaborate with senior leadership to develop a strategy to address the skills inventory’s revealed weaknesses while also capitalizing on the positives. They can drive actionable outcomes from the skills assessment’s findings regarding the company’s current capabilities. Organizations can discover that they have essential individuals who can coach and develop employees in specific skills. They may also discover that investing in an external expert, software, or other training solutions is worthwhile.

How Can a Skills Inventory Be Used for Strategic HR Planning?

Employee Retention

A company that develops a skills inventory on a proactive basis can ensure employee retention. The outcomes of the skills inventory should result in more opportunities for skills development and career advancement. Advancement of opportunities is one of the most important reasons for employees to stay in the company, and skill inventories can help organizations decide what types of development opportunities to provide.

Internal Mobility

A skills inventory provides an overview of an organization’s capabilities. This encourages internal mobility by allowing employees to collaborate across departments and projects. It also allows organizations to save money as the reliance on third-party vendors is reduced since employees have the necessary capabilities. It also aids in the identification of skill adjacencies, or the learning of employees’ talents in areas closely related to their existing role. For example, if a social media manager specializes in promoting content on Twitter, they will most likely soon learn how to promote content on Facebook.

EDLIGO enables organizations to offer a superior employee experience through structured and targeted career devolvement and mobility opportunities (Opportunity Marketplace). Companies can align employees’ career aspirations with business goals, stimulate personal growth, promote talent diversity for improving business outcomes, and boost employee growth and satisfaction with AI-powered Talent Analytics.

Talent Acquisition

Tracking internal employees’ skills will allow companies to hire qualified candidates to fill any skills gaps in the organization. Hiring managers can make data-driven decisions regarding who to hire during the hiring process. Companies can also acquire talent that will be valuable in the future.

Strategic Workforce Management

A company can strategically position and model itself to fulfill current and future organizational goals. For example, if a corporation determines that data analytics is a high-demand skill in their market, they can ascertain whether their current workforce possesses such skills. If not, they can teach employees to gain these abilities and recruit talent for important areas. They can also determine whether contingent employees might be useful for any immediate needs.

Learning and Development

A skills inventory can guide an organization’s training and development; consider educating employees for the capabilities the company requires by enrolling in a skills training program. Employees could also be trained for diverse jobs, functions, and responsibilities. Using the inventory as well as employees’ interest, training employees to be multiskilling can help team members by allowing them to learn from their colleagues while also expanding their own skill set.

Leveraging EDLIGO Talent Analytics, companies can build essential skills for an organization’s future success through targeted and timely spending on learning and development.

When the skills inventory is constantly updated, it can be a useful tool for planning learning and development, recruitment, and workforce optimization initiatives. Adopting a process for keeping inventory up to date and making it accessible to the appropriate people can help you make the most of it.

When organizations visualize their employees’ competencies and skills, it is easier for them to match their training objectives with the overall goals of the company. This ensures that their employees are happy and motivated, and it also helps them develop the skills that the company requires to grow.

With EDLIGO Talent Analytics organizations can analyze workforce data, manage people skills and contribute to the design and implementation of HR and L&D programs.  EDLIGO assists organizations in digitizing their competency assessments, developing a platform for employees to better understand their competencies as well as the skills they need to develop for advancing their careers.

Furthermore, with Learning & Development Analytics, organizations can deliver an effective learning and development plan that is aligned with business goals and future needs focusing on growth and performance.  EDLIGO helps build essential skills for an organization’s future success, maximize ROI from Learning and Development strategy, reskill, and upskill employees for a competitive edge, and provide recommendations on how skills gaps can be closed most efficiently.

HR leaders have been put to the test like never before in recent years. With the abrupt shift to remote work, mass resignations, economic volatility, and geopolitical upheaval, they were tested on all fronts. 2023 will be more than ever the year of human resources! 

As an HR Leader, do you know how to turn 2023 HR trends into opportunities?

Employee well-being, AI-powered data analytics, diversity and inclusion, remote and hybrid work strategies, and employee and skill development have been top HR priorities for organizations as they work to adapt to massive disruption and change. Many of these trends will continue and evolve in the coming year as companies focus on communication, skill development, and relationship management.

The importance of human resources will increase dramatically in 2023. We see the major HR trends emerging in 2023:

• The Increasing Importance of HR

Traditionally, most CEOs concentrated their efforts on investors, strategies, boards of directors, and other similar matters. The responsibility that was under the control of the HR department has frequently been overlooked. Previously incidental concerns like talent, culture, employee expectations, and company-employee relations are now at the forefront. In the past, people were hired to execute the strategy, but today they are a fundamental cornerstone of the strategy.

HR can lead the organization on how to define work, professional relationships, and organizational and team design through agile experimentation.

So, how can CHROs leverage this opportunity to inspire and facilitate change within their organizations?

–       Get involved:

HR managers should pay attention to the workforce’s explicit and sometimes implicit needs. This necessitates the executive team to actively listen to a variety of voices within the organization and constantly recalibrate priorities as individuals implement the talent strategy. And then be prepared to modify (again) as circumstances and needs evolve and change. Above all, be willing to experiment and be vulnerable.

–       Make the connection:

HR must communicate their vision of company culture and invite diverse and opposing viewpoints into the conversation across race, gender, sexual orientation, and personal goals and ambitions. People want tangible proof that the organization they work for cares about their personal as well as professional needs from career development to mental health.

–       Shape the culture:

Engagement and connection will ultimately shape a good culture, which will drive the company’s strategy and development. Nothing compares to culture. More than ever, corporate cultures must prioritize the future workforce and the future of work.

• AI-Powered Data Analytics and the Rise of Algorithmic HR

According to IDC, by 2024, 80% of the world’s largest 2,000 companies will use algorithmic managers for hiring, firing, and training employees.

In many organizations, human resources already play a strategic role. In the future, data analytics and reports will assist HR in becoming more informed and objective. AI-enabled analytics platforms, for example, can assist in identifying employee leave trends, employees at risk of leaving the company, and much more. The timely availability of data will undoubtedly aid HR and management in making strategic decisions and mitigating potential risks.

According to IDC, 40% of international companies’ HR functions have incorporated AI applications to help grow the candidate pool, enable faster hiring, and improve engagement and retention. HR professionals can make informed decisions about employees by collecting data on key metrics and using algorithmic managers powered by AI technology. Algorithmic managers can be an indispensable tool for processing large amounts of data, and they can be useful as a supplement to the complex decision-making that falls on HR professionals’ shoulders.

It is critical to avoid incorporating any existing biases in pre-existing HR data when programming and operating algorithmic managers. As a result, the new or rewritten algorithm can promote the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Diversity and Inclusion in Modern Organizations

According to a Harvard Business Review study, diverse companies achieved a 19% higher revenue from innovation.

In the future, the emphasis will be on creating a diverse and inclusive workplace culture. Many organizations around the world have already adopted the concept of diversity and inclusion (D&I), and others are working on creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where no one is left behind. An inclusive workplace culture is one in which employees of all backgrounds and characteristics are welcomed and valued. Companies are now using HR technologies to create a diverse and inclusive workplace by eliminating bias, improving connectivity, and training employees. Overall, the goal is to provide a safe, secure, and inclusive workplace for all employees from various backgrounds and geographical locations.

According to Forbes, ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform, while companies that are gender diverse are 15% more likely to outperform.

To create an inclusive culture, it is critical to incorporate transparency and fairness into all employee-related processes, such as goal setting, performance appraisals, feedback, compensation management, and others. It is also critical to keep your workforce motivated, engaged, and empowered. 

• Remote and Hybrid Work Strategies

Throughout the pandemic, work has changed. According to McKinsey, the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in organizations by three to four years. Companies have adapted accordingly. For example, according to LinkedIn data, remote jobs which account for approximately 20% of all jobs on LinkedIn, received more than 50% of all job applications. This demonstrates how resistance to some degree of flexible working will put organizations at a competitive disadvantage. Not all companies have recognized this workforce change, and they continue to cling to outdated strategies that once made sense. For instance, according to PWC, 95% of executives believe that employees must be present in the office to preserve company culture.

Employees prefer clear communication and up-to-date policies. By 2023, HR professionals will need to establish clear principles for how, where, and when work is performed. HR managers will facilitate internal discussions about this topic and encourage their organizations to make decisions, even if they are temporary, as organizations experiment with different workplace strategies. Professionals will also educate themselves and managers on how to overcome proximity bias, which is an unconscious tendency to favor in-office employees over remote workers. They will work on developing objective performance metrics, as well as promotion and salary increase criteria.

Clear working policies will influence office planning and utilization. This will result in better-designed workspaces, more flexible spaces to combat potential loneliness at home, and workspace allowances to upgrade home facilities.

• Employee Wellbeing

According to a Gartner survey of HR leaders, 47% consider employee experience to be their top priority for 2023.

Since 2020, employee expectations have shifted, and HR is witnessing the impact on the quality and quantity of employee attraction and retention across all industries. Every major event, from a candidate’s first impression to hiring and onboarding, their career path and development, and their decision to leave the company, is critical.

Employee wellness is now a top priority for companies. To promote a healthy work environment for their employees, an increasing number of organizations are implementing technology and wellness programs.

Employee happiness and health have a direct impact on team productivity and overall company performance. As a result, it is critical to improving workplace conditions to enhance employee well-being and performance.

As a current trend in HR technology, the emphasis on employee well-being is expected to grow stronger. Companies will implement strategies to assist employees in avoiding burnout and work stress, which will result in higher levels of satisfaction and employee retention. In some ways, in the coming years, we will see more personalized health and wellness systems powered by employee data.

• Employee and Skills Development

According to Gartner’s research, 58% of the workforce will need new skill sets to do their jobs successfully.

Employees are understandably looking for new opportunities for advancement elsewhere.

Improving employee skills is emerging as a major human resource trend. Upskilling and reskilling are critical not only for employee development but also for business growth. Organizations increase productivity and maximize investment by improving employee skill sets. Companies are encouraged to promote true innovation, reduce employment costs, and meet the needs of their customers. Employers have discovered that to meet future company requirements, they must clearly define the future skill set required for their employees. This will be one of the next global human resource trends to emerge, and it will be long-lasting.

As global organizations seek a competitive advantage through employee development, HR professionals are under increasing pressure to provide evidence of the success of their training initiatives. This will help people develop by providing the skills and behaviors needed to support the company’s strategy and growth goals, as well as increase revenue. It also assists in concentrating talent development investments in labor and operational support areas that have the greatest impact on profitability, as well as attracting and retaining top talent through enhanced personal and professional development opportunities.

• Compliance with ISO 26000

According to Holmes Report, 83% of professional investors say they are more likely to invest in companies known for their social responsibility.

For businesses and organizations committed to operating in a socially responsible way, there’s ISO 26000. It offers direction to those who understand that upholding social norms and the environment is essential to success. The implementation of ISO 26000 is increasingly seen to evaluate an organization’s commitment to sustainability and its overall performance, in addition to being the “right thing” to do.

The foundations of socially responsible behavior are outlined in ISO 26000’s core values. Companies will make sure to incorporate those values into their DNA and into each decision they make as part of their approach to responsibility.

Since there is much more public pressure on companies to act more socially responsibly and uphold social standards, social responsibility has grown to be a significant concern. Organizations all over the world must take the necessary steps to improve their social performance and change the world. They can start doing that by focusing on their people and providing them with equal opportunities, transparency at the workplace, and opportunities to grow together with the organization.

Human capital is an organization’s most asset and biggest competitive advantage. As a result, the most successful organizations are those that put HR at the core of their strategies and operations. The goal of ISO 26000 in human resource management is to assist HR departments in raising their levels of performance and, ultimately, the performance of their organizations. In the area of human resources, ISO 26000 has included labor practices as one of its core subjects, establishing requirements and actions that companies must take to demonstrate their socially responsible behavior.

EDLIGO Talent Analytics software assists improvement of an organization’s HR sustainability strategy and helps to achieve their ESG goals. Talent Analytics can support HR with a constant flow of data to predict and measure the impact of key strategic decisions and evaluate the organization’s future readiness.

For HR professionals to have a positive business impact in 2023 and beyond, we identified trends that every human resource department should be aware of. As the employee experience takes center stage in 2023, managers will focus on strengthening their bonds with their employees to support growth and development. The workplace has changed significantly in recent years and will continue to evolve. Companies will rely heavily on human resources, as well as the talent and experience of their teams, to meet the challenges ahead. To build a progressive workplace for the future, it is critical to implement the best HR practices and stay current on HR technology trends for 2023.

In an uncertain world, EDLIGO Talent Analytics assists organizations in establishing a clear, objective, and data-driven baseline for their employees. It offers an advanced analytics solution that helps corporations all over the world in driving targeted actions. Leaders can benefit from using the EDLIGO Talent Analytics solution to help shape business decisions, create internal mobility opportunities, personalize employees’ career paths, and enhance teamwork and interpersonal relationships.

If you would like to know more about how AI and Talent Analytics can help your organization to succeed, please contact the EDLIGO team.