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In this Organizational Dynamics article, authors David Collings and John McMackin outline how a skills-first HR approach—where organizations prioritize skills over education or experience—can drive strategic agility and business sustainability. The authors argue that traditional job-based HR models are too rigid for today’s volatile environment, and that skills-first HR helps organizations match talent more dynamically to business needs while improving internal mobility. Drawing on research with 24 multinational firms, they identify four building blocks for implementation: 1) establishing a shared skills taxonomy, 2) conducting a skills audit, 3) applying demand modeling, and 4) reducing structural barriers that limit internal mobility. The last is especially critical, as organizations may overlook barriers that can undermine even the best internal mobility strategies, processes, and technology. For example, many organizations still rely on complex job descriptions that become outdated quickly, creating rigid “job demarcation” and making it harder to redeploy people where their skills are most needed. One solution highlighted in the article is Mastercard’s “Guilds” model—11 guilds for 33,000 employees—where employees are grouped into broad, skill-based communities supported by learning academies, enabling them to move fluidly across opportunities while maintaining a sense of belonging and structure. To help practitioners identify additional barriers that may limit internal mobility, I’m resharing my one-page editable worksheet, which helps identify the presence of nine common barriers to internal mobility, allowing for targeted actions to be taken in response.
