Skills-Based Talent Allocation

𝗗𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵? It's a paradigm shift which many organisations still resist. And yet proficiency and expertise is no longer equalling time spent in a role. There is an insufficient possibility to truly gauge the skills and competencies developed and sufficiently honed. Without a system to gauge and validate skills effectively, organisations risk overlooking top talent. If we consider the latest Udemy Learning & Skills Trends Report 2025, skills-based organisations (SBO) are at an advantage of developing and retaining talents who can be employed cross-functionally and adapt to the evolution of business models. For Procurement organisations this means to foster Learning models with two priorities: ▪️𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 through robust up-skilling and re-skilling programs which do align with future procurement demands, sourcing innovation needs and sustainability. This can include guided learning paths supported by digital platforms, job rotations, tailored mentoring to acquire specific skills and competencies. ▪️𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 as a way to ensure application and retainment through clear, data-driven assessments (badges, certifications). Proving skills through structured tests such as a P2P certificates, negotiation use cases and real world application assessments is critical to maintaining an up to date skills library and development plan. 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗕𝗢 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁. It will be depending on a move away from organising jobs around roles and titles to an acknowledgement that allocation of work is best following available skills. How do you think can Procurement master this shift to a skills-based organisation? Is this happening in pockets already?

I’ll never forget my first year in recruiting. I had no background in production or distribution, yet I was responsible for hiring talent in those fields. My “training” consisted of watching an old VHS tape in the back of the staffing office—great for interview tips, but not exactly a deep dive into the actual skills needed for the job. So, I learned the hard way. I talked to candidates, toured workplaces, and observed the roles firsthand. But the real aha moment came when I sat down with a production manager to review candidates. Halfway through, he stopped me and said: "Jessica, you’ll never find someone with this exact experience in San Jose. It doesn’t exist. What I need is someone who has a craft hobby or likes to wrench on their car—someone who enjoys working with their hands and problem-solving. I can teach them the rest." That conversation changed the way I think about hiring—forever. It made me realize that hiring based purely on past job titles or industry experience is a huge limitation. Why Skills-Based Hiring Matters More Than Ever Traditional hiring—relying on degrees, years of experience, and job titles—creates unnecessary bottlenecks. It’s a model that is quickly becoming outdated because: 🔹 Skills evolve faster than job descriptions 🔹 Non-traditional paths produce top-tier talent 🔹 Rigid credential requirements exclude high-potential candidates 🔹 Overlooking skills-based talent reduces diversity and innovation According to a 2023 McKinsey report, 87% of organizations either have skill gaps today or expect them in the near future. If companies don’t shift toward a skills-first mindset, they risk falling behind. How to Implement Skills-Based Hiring ✅ Look Beyond the Résumé – Like that production manager, recognize that a candidate’s hobbies, past projects, and work history might indicate strong, transferable skills. Ask: What projects have they worked on outside of work? How have they adapted to new tools or technology? ✅ Use Competency Testing and Behavioral Evaluations Competency testing and behavioral interviews can help assess a candidate’s skills more effectively than a résumé alone. Practical assessments: Real-world tests where candidates complete a task relevant to the role. Behavioral interview questions: Instead of asking about general work history, ask: "Give me an example of a time you had to solve a complex problem with limited resources." "How did you stay engaged and ensure quality results?" ✅ Evaluate Longevity in Projects and Roles Rather than focusing solely on job titles, assess: Have they shown commitment and follow-through in past work or personal projects? Do they take on complex challenges and see them through? Have they demonstrated adaptability in different work environments? How has skills-based hiring impacted your team or organization? Have you uncovered great talent by looking beyond traditional requirements? Share your experiences in the comments! 👇

We are in a hype cycle that would have us believe that SBH is as easy as ditching resumes in favor of more objective measures. But in reality success with #skillsbasedhiring needs a holistic mindset that requires total alignment of all people practices, including compensation. Thx to my long time friend Kevin Wheeler founder of the #futureoftalentinstitute for asking me to share my take with him for his Future of Talent Newsletter (URL is in the comments below- read the whole article and subscribe to Kevin's Substack). Here's my quick take on the changes needed to support SBH through the lens of Comp as a core people practice. Skills based organizations- Success with SBH mandates a holistic view that connects it with all people practices.  Comp for both hard and soft skills is one such area & its current disconnection from SBH indicates the hard work in front of us. Include soft skills- Oft left out of SBH & comp, but are even more important because: AI cannot replace soft skills, tech is moving people into team based roles that require soft skills, and soft skills are harder to learn or change than hard ones Redesign jobs- The concept of what constitutes a job must become more fluid.   Job titles will be broken down into more skill based building blocks and hiring and compensation must align themselves accordingly.   Verify at scale- Skills are meaningless unless we have reliable, accurate methods to continually evaluate and verify them. We must evolve the assessment paradigm to shore up the current inferentially based assumptions with credible ways to connect hard and soft skills attainment to $s.  Make it portable- In order to document skills attainment, we must create a standard for personal, portable data that can be parsed and interpreted by the technology systems supporting skills based education to impact comp.  Align data and analytics- Predictive analytics that close the loop and have a feed of outcomes data such as applied learning and job performance creates a common language of performance focused on skill attainment and demonstration, helping create fact on which comp models can be built. What can we do now right now? The structural changes needed to find true success are deep and wide, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. While AI has a critical role, don’t be fooled into thinking that it will provide all the answers here.  AI is not a product or a solution in itself.  It is merely a component in systems that support humans and their organizations in achieving strategic objectives. Success will require collaboration across all stakeholders who stand to benefit from a foundational shift to skills based practices. For example The United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s T-3 initiative has tangible programs that support their mission to create an open, interoperable data and technology infrastructure that supports the recognition and valuation of all forms of learning and skills, including soft skills.

Resumes are becoming obsolete. Capability portfolios are the future. My friend Rob Sheffield recently published a fascinating piece on how AI is reshaping recruitment. His core insight? The shift from acquiring employees to accessing capabilities. This isn't just a subtle evolution—it's a complete shift. The evidence: → Skills-based hiring has surged from 40% to 60% in just four years. Many leading employers have completely dropped degree requirements. → 54% of graduates aren't working in their field of study. Traditional career signals like degrees and linear resumes are increasingly irrelevant. → Project-based work is replacing permanent roles. We see this with the rise of fractional talent marketplaces. → AI is revolutionizing talent matching, connecting capabilities directly to problems across global talent pools, bypassing traditional filters altogether. These shifts rewrite the fundamental rules of work. Old Model: → Build a resume → Land a job → Climb a predetermined ladder New Model: → Develop capabilities → Match capabilities to problems → Create impact and value Companies no longer want full-time employees—they want to access your capabilities exactly when needed. This distinction changes everything: → Linear career paths are being replaced by flexible capability portfolios. Your value now comes from your skills, not your titles or tenure. → Fixed teams are transforming into fluid talent ecosystems, assembled around specific challenges. → Traditional hiring is evolving into dynamic capability orchestration. The goal shifts from filling positions to solving problems. Rob calls this "dynamic stability"—building systems designed for constant adaptation rather than preserving the status quo. Who will thrive in this new era? → Professionals with portable, in-demand capabilities → Companies skilled in rapid capability access → Recruiters who become strategic talent orchestrators Uniquely human capabilities needed to succeed: → Navigating ambiguity → Building relationships → Making contextual connections → Orchestrating complex systems This isn't just changing how we find work—it's fundamentally redefining what work means. I highly recommend checking out Rob’s insightful full article (link in comments!). Which aspect of your career feels most threatened by these changes—and how are you adapting?

Great managers match people to the right roles. I recently read a fascinating new paper by Virginia Minni that puts data behind this idea. Using data from 200,000+ employees and 30,000 managers across 100 countries, her study shows that high-performing managers act like internal talent matchmakers. They spot skills others miss, move people laterally (not just up), and help employees find work that actually fits who they are good at being. The results are meaningful: • Employees who get one strong manager are 40% more likely to move into better-fitting roles • Their pay grows 13% more over time • Their productivity rises — and the gains last for years, even after the manager is gone. What surprised me most is that losing a great manager doesn’t undo the gains. Once someone is well-matched to their work, the benefits stick. From my perspective, this research challenges a lot of what we assume about management: - It’s not just about incentives or monitoring. - It’s not about “raising the bar” uniformly. - It’s about seeing people clearly and helping them land where they can thrive. In other words, managers make the “invisible hand” visible. If you’ve ever had a manager who helped you discover a role you didn’t even know you were good at, this paper explains why that moment was so important in your career. And if you’re a leader: allocation is a really powerful lever you might not be using. Motivation, training, or feedback are important but allocation is impactful too. Getting the right people into the right work. #leading #leadership #management #learning #allocation #roles #skills #matching #growth #development

We're in a moment in time where we're all talking about the skills-first hiring revolution and it's the transformative shift we need to level the playing field. But what does shift look like in practice? A skills-powered organisation treats capability as infrastructure. It maps critical skills against future commercial priorities and builds development pathways accordingly, ensuring capability drives opportunity, mobility, and impact rather than reacting to talent gaps once they appear. Moreover, AI is accelerating this evolution. As repeatable tasks become absorbed, the premium shifts to judgement, adaptability, and commercial thinking. That’s difficult to infer from credentials alone, it needs to be assessed in context At HiBob, we’ve already made headway in evolving the conversation from "where did you study?" to "what can you deliver?" and the results in our APJ team speak for themselves. Here's how we went about two recent hires if you'd like a peek behind the curtain 👇 🎯 In customer success: We’ve moved away from screening for specific degrees. Instead, we use scenario-based exercises to assess renewal strategy and client lifecycle management. Can they reframe value with a senior stakeholder under pressure? At the end of the day, that’s what drives retention. 🎯 In GTM: We prioritised demonstrated outbound capability. We assessed how they build pipeline, structure discovery, and manage complex objections in the current market. This approach helps us: ✅ Tap into a talent pool of high performers who’ve bypassed traditional paths but have the exact skills we need to scale ✅ Shift the dialogue to proven capability rather than just potential ✅ Reduce the risk of a 'bad fit', and get new hires hitting their stride so they can make an impact fast Thought I'd also take this moment to humble brag about our local talent and show off the lovely humans that never fail to impress me with what they bring to the table on a daily basis. Have you started transforming your recruitment process to prioritise skills-based hiring? If not, what's keeping you where you are? 🤔 #skillsfirst #recruitment #HR #HiBob

Skill-Based Talent Examples—This new report by World Economic Forum provides real examples of skill-based practices. Numerous resources have been shared on how organizations are shifting more toward skill-based talent practices (SBTP). These resources offer valuable insights, but they often don't include real-world examples of how specific organizations are translating these ideas into action. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝟰𝟴-𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁. 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝟭𝟯 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗕𝗧𝗣, 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝟭) 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘅𝗶𝘀—revamped its internal mobility policies to align jobs with future skill demands. 𝟮) 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽— streamlined ~25,000 jobs into 1,100 distinct profiles with requisite skills and proficiency levels. Starting on page 16, a summary of the practices is provided. The subsequent pages share in-depth insights, including the impact of the practices on organizational outcomes. ***Link is in comment If you found value in this post, please reshare it with others who can benefit from this resource. #hr #humanresources #skills

The pharmaceutical and life sciences industry faces a looming talent crisis, with a projected 35% deficit by 2030. As the sector continues to grow rapidly, traditional recruitment methods are proving insufficient. My latest article in Pharmaceutical Executive uncovers three innovative strategies to bridge the talent gap: 1. Embrace skills-based hiring. Prioritize skills and competencies over degrees to foster a diverse and innovative workforce. 2. Hire from outside the industry. Seek candidates with transferable skills from other sectors to fill non-clinical roles and bring fresh perspectives. 3. Utilize apprenticeships. Develop structured training programs to build a tailored talent pipeline and secure long-term growth. For a deeper dive into these strategies and how they can transform your talent acquisition approach, read my latest article: https://lnkd.in/g32NMRVe #Pharma #LifeSciences #SkillsBasedHiring

Talent Leaders: The shift from traditional recruitment methods to skills-based hiring is here. I was on a call with a talent leader today who shared some recruiters are encountering resistance from hiring leaders obsessing over years of experience and degree (with no flexibility) for tech and professional talent. I'm not surprised by this; I understand there are nuances; however while some companies struggle with this, others are adapting and winning talent. A few facts: ▪️ 78% of employers now prioritize skills over degrees (SHRM, Aug. 2025). ▪️ Only 36% of HR leaders say their orgs are effective at making the shift (Gartner, 2025). ▪️ A strong employer brand/EVP is critical — candidates want to know how their skills will be valued, grown, and rewarded. What leaders could consider: ▪️ Audit your job descriptions: Are they truly skills-focused? ▪️ Train hiring managers: Equip them with interview guides and evaluation criteria focused on skills, not resumes. ▪️ Invest in tools that assess competencies, not just credentials. ▪️ Partner with learning platforms to support upskilling and internal mobility. Are others facing this? What's a practical step your organization has taken - or plans to take - to embrace this change? #TalentAcquisition #SkillsBasedHiring #FutureOfWork #HRTrends #RecruitingInnovation #DontSuckatRecruiting #Illuminatetalent

Strategic workforce planning is broken. AI is changing work faster than companies can keep up, and finance-led SWP isn't cutting it. People Analytics is the BEST team to fix it. McKinsey outlines how SWP is supposed to help companies anticipate workforce needs but most orgs treat it like a budgeting exercise led by finance.... with each team planning their own SWP in silos. The data is a MESS. Every team does SWP differently, finance is left to piece it together. The result is bad decisions, misaligned talent strategies, and hiring mistakes that could have been avoided. ----------------- McKinsey’s research highlights that companies that treat workforce planning like financial planning outperform competitors. Gen AI is projected to automate up to 30% of worked hours by 2030, workforce planning can’t just be about headcount anymore..... it NEEDS to be capability-driven. The article outlines five key SWP best practices: 1️⃣ Prioritize Talent Like a Financial Asset --> Talent is a strategic investment, not just an operational cost. 2️⃣ Balance Capacity & Capabilities --> The right people + the right skills = business success. 3️⃣ Plan for Multiple Scenarios --> AI is unpredictable; companies need adaptable workforce models. 4️⃣ Innovate in Filling Talent Gaps --> Hiring isn’t the answer to every problem; reskilling and internal mobility are crucial. 5️⃣ Embed SWP into Core Business Strategy --> SWP must be continuous and cross-functional, not just an HR exercise. The problem? Most organizations still treat SWP as a financial budgeting exercise rather than an AI-driven, skills-based strategy. ...this is where people analytics comes in. ----------------- Why People Analytics needs to lead SWP 1/ Problem: AI is breaking traditional SWP. Traditional = focus on headcount... missing the critical shift towards skills and capabilities needed to leverage AI. Solution: PA teams KNOW data. PA teams are plugged into skills mapping, forecasting, internal mobility, and incorporate AI-driven labor market insights. 2/ Problem: SWP is often siloed and reactive. Data is fragmented, leading to inaccurate forecasts and missed opportunities. Solution: PA teams can centralize data and drive a proactive, data-driven SWP strategy. 3/ Problem: Data is misunderstood and used incorrectly. Solution: PA teams know talent, know people, and are uniquely positioned to translate SWP results to business outcomes. ----------------- PA team path to ownership: ✅ Build AI-driven workforce forecasting models - start predicting skills gaps. ✅ Create a single source of truth for all data. ✅ Inform internal mobility so companies can build capabilities via internal transfers. ----------------- McKinsey is outlining the new world of SWP but we're ill-prepped to handle it. #peopleanalytics teams are the golden ticket.