Inside Gloat Insider Sessions: the key takeaways every HR leader needs

Although 90% of organizations are interested in embracing skills-based operating models, very few businesses are currently deploying employees to open opportunities based solely on their skills. According to research from The Josh Bersin Company, “Companies struggle with all areas of the skills-based organization,” as indicated by the fact that only 6% of organizations have a system for real-time skills insights.

As the pressure to architect winning transformation strategies mounts, many leaders are searching for step-by-step guidance and practical advice so they can turn their organization’s skills-based visions into realities. Since these change journeys are uncharted territory for most executives, we decided to launch Gloat Insider Sessions, a special series dedicated to exploring the ins and outs of successful skills transformations.

From a behind-the-scenes preview of The Skills-Powered Organization to a masterclass in strategic workforce planning, Gloat Insider Sessions tackled the skills transformation agenda from all sides. Now that our series has come to a close, we’re recapping the key takeaways and most important insights so that every leader will have the insights they need to bring their skills strategies to life. 

5 key takeaways from Gloat Insider Sessions that will help you upgrade your transformation

Over the course of four eye-opening conversations, Tanuj Kapilashrami, Ravin Jesuthasan, Mark Jackson, Gareth Flynn, Sandra Loughlin, Noam Mordechay, and Brian Hershey took to the Gloat Insider Sessions stage to share their best practices for architecting successful skills transformations. Here are some of their top takeaways:

#1. Build a business case for your skills transformation to get everyone on board

Rather than viewing your transformation solely as an HR initiative, executives should go the extra mile to demonstrate how these change journeys will yield better outcomes for the business, as Flynn explains. “For me, skills is not an HR thing. It’s a business thing, so we have to hone in on the business problems we would like to solve and figure out how skills might be part of that solution set. I think we’ve got to unpack those problems, we’ve got to validate them, we’ve got to quantify them, we’ve got to prioritize them, and we’ve got to really then try to understand what will skills do? What will the impact of skills be on those problems?”.

As someone with ample firsthand experience demonstrating the business value that skills-based transformations deliver, Kapilashrami shares some of the impressive success metrics her team uses to gain support for their initiative. “We found it was $49,000 USD cheaper to internally deploy somebody into a sunrise job as compared to hiring someone externally. Circa $50,000 USD per person is not an immaterial number when you’re talking about a business model that’s pivoting and the requirement for these sunrise jobs is going to be in the thousands. So it helped us put a commercial case around it,” she explains.

#2. Look beyond the confines of jobs to unlock capacity and capabilities you didn’t know existed

Now that our working world is moving faster than ever, leaders can’t rely on the same old job-dominant ways of working that were built for slower and more predictable times. Instead, executives must pivot to make skills the primary unit of work, an idea that Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami explore in their new book, The Skills-Powered Organization. 

When we sat down with these authors, Jesuthasan was quick to emphasize the importance of deconstructing work into smaller, skills-based tasks. “Our ability to respond to changing global demands is at a huge premium. And what we found is that the job really hinders that ability to respond,” he notes. “What we need are a much smaller set of building blocks, jobs deconstructed into tasks and activities and the elemental skills, both enabling and transferable as well as technical skills becoming those fundamental building blocks for connecting talent to work and for organizing work.” 

Kapilashrami explains how cutting-edge technology enabled Standard Chartered Bank to begin breaking away from strict job hierarchies by deploying people to projects based on their skills. “What the talent marketplace did was that while we were talking about recruiting and managers making build versus buy choices, it introduced a third component. You could build, buy, or borrow and that was really critical because you could borrow skills to fulfill a piece of work without being constrained by traditional hierarchy, job departments, or job code,” she noted. 

#3. Let the rise of AI catalyze your organization’s skills strategy

While skills-powered ways of working were a hot topic even before ChatGPT broke onto the scene, the rise of AI has raised the stakes. Now that skill needs are rapidly shifting and human-machine collaborations are on our horizons, leaders must rethink their skill-building and talent management strategies to ensure their workforces are prepared to use these systems to their full advantage.

Jackson describes how AI is shifting training and upskilling conversations at Nationwide, noting, “What we’ve now spotted is significant growth in skills or a want to gain experience in artificial intelligence and how to get involved with that process. So then we can create even early career programs dedicated to skilling up in artificial intelligence and data science that are different from what we’ve done historically.”

Loughlin applauds this AI-centric skill-building strategy and believes more organizations should embrace a similar approach. “It never fails to amaze me how divorced the AI enablement conversation is from the skills organization,” she explains. “To me they are intrinsically linked. So if you guys don’t have a burning platform, pick this one. Because it’s the one that no one quite understands, they know they don’t understand it, but they know they’re going to get it wrong. And skills is one of those absolutely critical things. Not just the skills people have, but what are the tasks in the organization that need to get done. When you can understand that, you actually start to have your blueprint for where AI is going to land.”

#4. Recognize that next-generation technology is the backbone for skills-powered organizations

Many organizations are looking to upskill and reskill to prepare for AI—but few leaders understand the pivotal role AI plays in turning these skill-building strategies into realities at scale. According to Loughlin, “Skills data doesn’t work without technology and data architecture underneath it. Frankly, without AI, none of this will work.” Jesuthasan expresses a similar sentiment, describing the powerful role AI-powered talent matching systems can play in enabling organizations to embrace skills-powered ways of working. “This is where I think AI and particularly some of the AI that you guys have with the Gloat platform becomes incredibly important in enabling the seamless matching of skills to work,” he notes.

During his much-anticipated demo of Gloat’s AI-powered skills intelligence system, Hershey broke down exactly how these platforms enable leaders to get the in-depth insights they’ll need to begin deploying talent to opportunities based on their skills. “So when we go to count up how many employees in your company know data analysis, we’re going to help you get a much truer number than just the employees that put that exact term into their profiles,” he explains. “And that’s the magic of the AI. That’s how we’re able to match people to opportunities and learning courses and mentors. Even though they might describe their skills in a slightly different way, the AI is going to be there in the background to help drive intelligence into how we think about matching and things like that.”

#5. Don’t forget that change management is also an essential piece of the puzzle 

While Flynn agrees with Loughlin that technology is a crucial part of the transformation equation, he emphasizes that it’s far from the only thing leaders must consider when planning their change strategies. “I think for me, thinking at a systematic level, not a programmatic implementation level—this isn’t a tech implementation—I think is a really healthy lens to have. We’ve been coining an expression with customers, if you’re spending one dollar on technology, think about spending five dollars on change.” 

Jackson advises leaders who are planning to introduce skills intelligence systems to continue to share the why behind these decisions and emphasize what employees will get out of it. “If you just put a skills tool into your HCM or HRIS or whatever it might be, it will feel like a tick box exercise for workers,” he cautions. “But what you’re trying to do is just remind them why they’re doing it in the first place and what they’re getting out of it. And that for us is the real benefit of having a talent marketplace like Gloat because immediately based on you logging your skills and what you want to develop, you get a list of different opportunities for you.”

Want more expert-backed skills transformation insights? Check out Gloat Insider Sessions On-Demand to explore the ins and outs of successful skills transformations with all of our expert speakers.