You Don’t Need to Abandon Jobs to Become a Skills-Based Organization

A lot of the talk about becoming a skills-based organization (SBO) has focused on phasing out the idea of a ‘job’ as we know it. According to many experts, workers of the future will be assigned to work solely based on their skills rather than exist in permanent job roles. You may have even seen dire proclamations about ‘the death of jobs’. But as Mark Twain once said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

Insisting that skills-based practices require killing off the idea of traditional jobs can create a lot of apprehension about embracing skills. It’s one of the more common concerns we hear from clients who are trying to develop their skills strategy. There is a reluctance to lean into skills if it means throwing out current organizational structures and talent processes.

The reality is that moving away from jobs is not something most organizations are likely to do in the near term and it does not need to hold you back from adopting other skills-based practices.

Where did this idea come from?

Much of the thought leadership about jobless work has been produced by consulting organizations, where the majority of work has been done in a project-driven and jobless way for a long time. It might be natural for them to assume that if they can do it, so can everyone else. What works for them, however, doesn’t necessarily fit all industries or all types of work. Even within the organizations that are most advanced in this jobless approach, there are still wide swaths of the talent base that operate within a traditional job structure.?

There are also lots of valid criticisms of the status quo. Jobs, as currently constructed, are not well-suited for modern work. They are often specific in title but vague in defining the actual work being done and the skills needed to do the work. Jobs can also limit talent mobility and career progression because the focus is on the title and not the abilities.

But just because they need to be fixed doesn’t mean they are about to disappear.

Why aren’t jobs going to disappear?

”What do you do for a living?” Employees find identity in their role and the teams in which they operate. Becoming a floating gig worker with no real clarity on what you’ll be working on or who you’ll be working with is not an ideal environment for many employees. Long-term professional relationships and achievements are an important part of job satisfaction.

Institutional Knowledge A key driver of success, especially in leadership positions, is knowledge of internal operating processes and stakeholders. If people are constantly shifting and no roles are static, the ability to effectively marshal internal networks can deteriorate.?

Specialized Skills and Long-Term Thinking Some jobs require highly specialized skills and experience, and others require focus on long-term objectives that take years to achieve.

Career pathing Employees still understand the concept of career progression in terms of role and hierarchy. Taking on new types of work and skills is interesting, but mainly as it leads to new roles and higher-paying positions.

What should happen to jobs at your organization?

Flatten and simplify. Reduce the complexity and fluff in the titles and make naming consistent across business units. Titles like “Sr. Sales Operations Data Analyst, Northeast Region” should become simply ‘Data Analyst’. This opens up lots of opportunities for internal mobility and more agile workforce planning.

Job descriptions should become more important than job titles. This is the most important stepping stone towards skills becoming the primary currency of work. Use the terms and concepts employees currently use and then add the skills layer on top. Emphasize what the job does (work outputs produced) and how (skills essential to the work). This will help employees begin to connect the dots between their job title and the actual skills they leverage within the context of that job. From there, they will better understand their personal profile of skills and how that could translate into other roles within the organization.

Rethink what ‘full time job’ means. Employees need time to build new skills and opportunities to actually apply what they learn. If someone’s core job monopolizes 100% of their time, they have no bandwidth to build new skills or contribute to a project outside of their core duties. Employees need room in their day to day to join short-term projects, shadow other roles, etc. This flexibility also allows organizations to more easily redeploy workers towards different tasks as unforeseen needs arise.??

Some jobs should go away. There are certain types of work and certain parts of the organization that could benefit from a ‘jobless’ model where talent is matched directly to work in a fluid way that circumvents traditional job roles. But this is not one-size-fits-all and it is highly unlikely that this approach will work everywhere for all people. Talent leaders should challenge the idea of the job as the default way to understand work, but sometimes a traditional job title is still the best answer.

Keep It Simple

There are many places to start in becoming an SBO. Some places are easier to tackle than others. Focus your efforts on the places where a skills based approach is most achievable and where value will be created quickest. Deconstructing jobs is an advanced level skills-based approach and probably not where most organizations should start. We are seeing organizations create value quickly and build momentum by focusing on skills-based learning and enabling internal mobility through better skill data. These initiatives help reframe skills for employees and generate a foundation of skills intelligence that can eventually be used to move away from traditional jobs. The transformation won’t happen overnight, so start with the low-hanging fruit at your organization and build from there.?

Embracing Skills-Based Practices Doesn’t Require Abandoning Jobs

You don’t need to completely reimagine your org design and work operating model. Work with what you have in the language that organizations and employees currently use: jobs. Evolving your organizational culture to be more skills focused is challenging enough. It becomes even harder if you throw out the common anchor point by which the various silos of your people ecosystem understand people and work. As you use existing opportunities to generate skill data and evolve your skills-based culture, opportunities will emerge to experiment with jobless work. But most organizations will not become fully jobless any time soon. Focus on the skills-based elements that are most achievable and most valuable now, and hold off on any eulogies the idea of a ‘job’.

To learn more about how we can help you navigate the world of skills, check out Degreed's Professional Services.