Building a skills first talent ecosystem - How to just get started!

Building a skills first ecosystem in organisations is top of mind for many CEOs, Talent and HR leaders. But how to just get started? This is the question I hear so often when talking to other talent leaders.?

There are many helpful articles and resources we can refer to - below are a few examples:

• Gartner: How to Start Building a Skills-Based Organization
• 5 ways a ‘skills-first’ approach unlocks access to future jobs
• 4 Practical Ways to Get Skills-First Hiring Right
• The 2023 Most In-Demand Skills List

And there are many more…. These resources help me to get different perspectives on the topic and I understand in theory how to define, understand and approach a skills first talent approach.?

And I have learned over the course of my professional career that any change differs based on the organisational context and culture. This is why I find it most effective to hear from other talent leaders about the practical things they have tried and what they have learned from both successes and failures. Applied learning!?

If you are like me, you might find this article interesting: How IBM Centered its Talent Strategy on Skills.

I am not aware of THE blueprint that outlines a step by step guide to building a skills first talent ecosystem (this might be the holy grail we are all looking for), but I am happy to share some of my learnings over the last 20 years of my professional career both at Google and LinkedIn. When we as talent leaders share our learnings we might be able to co-create meaning together and help each other to just get started.

Here are my learnings so far:

1. Take a systemic approach

The risk I see in building a skills first talent ecosystem is to view it as a project owned by a single department in HR. In my experience it is a big organisational change initiative that requires taking a systems lens and partnership across multiple departments.

I personally use a model based on Transactional Analysis to help me reflect on what shapes and influences organisational systems and culture. Most of the time it is the structures in an organisation that shape the dynamics / behaviours and culture is forming at the intersection of both. This means that when trying to change the mindsets or behaviours in organisations we also need to consider changing the structures. For example: If a key blocker for internal mobility is the behaviour of managers who are keeping top talent in their teams, it might be necessary to look at relevant reward systems as well as integrating internal mobility as an expectation into the role expectations of managers (e.g. rewarding managers for exporting talent into other parts of the business).

I am including a visual on the interplay of structures, dynamics and culture developed by Rosemary Napper (TAWorks) which has become my frame of reference with which I view and approach organisational change.

Dynamics demonstrates behaviours (e.g. relationships, conflict, recognition, language, expression of emotion, power etc.). Structures shape the behaviours, thoughts and feelings (e.g. mission and vision, OKRs, org charts, pay and rewards, performance management etc.). Culture develops from the interplay of them both.?

2. Organisational-system-readiness and the ‘pull’ (share ownership throughout the organization):

Like with any organisational change, it is important to pay attention to the organisational readiness for this change. Is there buy-in at the top? Does the CEO and the executive team talk about it? Is the change aligned with the business strategy? Here are a few practical suggestions from my experience (I am limiting it to a few for the scope of this article):

• Identify the ‘hook’ for your CEO/ C-suite and start there (even if small).
• Get executive sponsorship (CEO or C-suite member) with regular comms and reinforcement.
• Create a common understanding and language through leader and manager roundtables on the topic (‘skills first’ or ‘internal mobility’ or other) and how it supports their day to day.
• Add internal mobility expectations into performance evaluation and talent management.
• Add skills evaluation into the performance management process.

3. Mindset shift(s) required??

In my experience the shift to a skills first talent ecosystem requires some significant mindset shifts. If we don’t pay attention to that and actively manage it, the old beliefs will act like an elastic band that pulls us back and becomes a blocker for change. Below are a few examples of mindsets that I see as relevant:

• Internal mobility as the key for organizational agility and skill development:?
• ‘Your next best employee is most likely your current employee’
• Highlight internal mobility case studies at all levels in the organisation
• Reward managers for exporting talent into other parts of the business
• Focusing on skills alone is not enough, we need to consider horizontal (skills) and vertical (mindsets) development (see my article here).
• Hiring for learning agility and growth mindset is equally, if not more important, than hiring for technical or core skills.
• Consider transferable skills as a key enabler for internal mobility.
• Skills can become a unifying language (or currency) across the wider HR function.
• Co-created partnership instead of individual contribution: Partnership between Talent Acquisition, Talent Management and Talent Development is needed in order to create a skills first ecosystem.

4. Start small to ‘just get going’ and highlight business impact?

Moving to a skills first talent ecosystem is a big organisational change and it can be overwhelming. I resonate with the perspective that LinkeIn’s CPO Teuila Hanson is sharing in the May edition of LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends:

Introducing a skills-first talent strategy can feel big. But this new insight confirms that every step helps. So while you may be focusing on organization-wide initiatives, don’t be afraid to highlight the business impact that upskilling even a small group of employees can have.

Here are a few practical examples of what I have seen working well in my time both at Google and LinkedIn:

• Creating a skills infrastructure: Focus on a company wide job architecture approach for job and function specific skills; in addition to that consider success profiles for key audience areas in the organisation (e.g. executives, managers and individual contributors). Involve executives, managers and ICs in the creation for joint accountability.
• Cross-functional skills-based talent reviews: Conducting talent reviews across departments either regionally or globally can be a very effective way to encourage internal mobility as well as widening your internal talent pool for succession planning by looking at skills rather than role experience.
• Rotation or ‘bungee programs’: I am a big believer in rotation or bungee programs to help build skills and enable internal movement. I have benefitted from this approach personally when I took a 12 months rotation covering the maternity leave of a senior L&D leader (my career to that date had been mainly in sales and operations management). This rotation led to me being offered a permanent position in the L&D department and it has influenced the direction my career has taken up to today.
• Shadowing programs: At LinkedIn we have implemented a shadowing program that enables employees at all levels to apply to shadow another employee in a different department (at a similar level). This not only enables cross-departmental relationships, it also offers skill building as well as fosters internal mobility.
• An internal first hiring process: During my time at Google we were encouraged as hiring managers to hire from within the company as a first step. If I wanted to hire externally for a role it required a business case with clear justification for the reasons that the required skill(s) could not be found internally. This is another great example of how structure shapes behaviour. We were encouraged to prioritise internal hiring.?

What have your learnings been in creating a skills first talent ecosystem? Let’s start a dialogue by using the comment function. I am looking forward to co-creating learning with you!?

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