The Skills-based Organization: A New Operating Model for Work and the Workforce | Deloitte Insights

Much has been written about how organizations continue to shift from role-based to skills-based talent practices. But as noted in this new Deloitte article, although business and HR leaders have a strong desire to shift from job-based to skills-based talent practices, fewer than one in five organizations have been able to adopt skills-based approaches to a significant extent.  However, those who’ve made the shift reported achieving better business results than those with jobs-based practices (figure 2). This in-depth article provides several ideas for organizations to leverage as they find ways to operationalize skills-based talent practices. One point made is that organizations are moving towards skills-based work models in one of three ways: 1) Most often, they start with a particular talent practice (e.g., workforce planning) and transform it to be based more on skills and less on jobs, and then continue to either similarly transform another practice or determine that they have to create a skills “hub” before realizing the transformation. 2) Others start by creating a centralized “skills hub” before expanding out to skills-based talent practices. To do this, they often start by inventorying or creating a language for skills or developing a skills-based talent philosophy. 3) Start with the work, either with an internal talent marketplace that lets some work live as projects and tasks outside of the job, or as broadened jobs. While jobs won’t go away entirely for most organizations, these and other skills-based tactics provide alternative options for organizing work and supporting it through skill-based talent practices.