How to Develop and Verify the Skills Your Workforce Needs [Video]
I have a vision of the workplace where HR knows as much about the skills of the workforce as finance does about the dollars and cents on the balance sheet.
That’s a big vision, but I know it’s also possible to accomplish. I recently spoke about how HR leaders can help to understand the skills they have within the business.
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Think about the practical applications for this:
- You don’t have to step over a perfectly qualified employee to hire a contractor, consultant, or new employee
- During lean times, you can make better decisions about which talent to keep based on what sort of skills they have
- You can quickly staff projects and solve problems by assembling teams with the right mix of skills
There are so many applications, but the reality is a small fraction of companies actually have this information in any meaningful format.
My Experience with Skills Insights
I remember when I worked as an HR executive for a government contractor, we had to bid on projects on a regular basis. I had the resumes for every employee at my fingertips and could look at what their skills were and how they fit into the contract requirements, but it was a very manual and painful process.
In spite of that, being able to see those skills at an individual level still allowed us to tailor our approach and win some very big contracts.
Business impact. Value. Those were real, tangible results from understanding the skills of our people, and that was with a manual approach. Technology enables this approach to scale, but we have to make it a priority first.
In the video, we’ll look at how skills and business value tie together, how employers are currently tracking and evaluating skills, the key ways your people gather those skills, and action items on how to approach this opportunity.
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Ben Eubanks is the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory. He is an author, speaker, and researcher with a passion for telling stories and making complex topics easy to understand.
His latest book Talent Scarcity answers the question every business leader has asked in recent years: “Where are all the people, and how do we get them back to work?” It shares practical and strategic recruiting and retention ideas and case studies for every employer.
His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource on AI applications for hiring, development, and employee experience.
Ben has more than 10 years of experience both as an HR/recruiting executive as well as a researcher on workplace topics. His work is practical, relevant, and valued by practitioners from F100 firms to SMB organizations across the globe.
He has spoken to tens of thousands of HR professionals across the globe and enjoys sharing about technology, talent practices, and more. His speaking credits include the SHRM Annual Conference, Seminarium International, PeopleMatters Dubai and India, and over 100 other notable events.