Companies face incredible challenges with labour shortages and skills gaps as they struggle to get work done. The traditional ways of filling open positions where HR professionals would post the job description and undergo the lengthy recruitment process to find qualified candidates are no longer effective. So, HR professionals and business leaders focus on a skills-based talent strategy to stay competitive in the tight talent marketplace.

Why Is a Skills-Based Approach to Talent Critical for Workforce Planning?

Taking a skills-based view of talent opens many doors for business. It grants organisations the understanding of how to tap into talent outside the organisation and their current talent within their HR department. Many companies previously did not realise the abundance of resources already under their roof and lost opportunities to support employees’ needed skills that could have helped with the talent struggle.

Additionally, a skills-based approach for talent for internal workforce planning helps employees. They want the opportunity to develop their skills and expand their career paths. Having an organisation that embraces the skills-based view provides an extra benefit. 

As Ina Gantcheva of Deloitte described in our Digital HR Leaders podcast it: 

There is a win-win between the business leaders or managers who are looking for help with their work and the employees who are looking for opportunities for growth, expanding their skills-set, and additional allocation of their capacity.

Also, changing the mindset to a skills-based view regarding job descriptions and new employee attraction can widen the net of potential candidates for the role with people who may not have the certifications or the experience but have the vital skills to be successful in the position.

Why Are So Many Companies Building Talent Marketplaces?

One means of embracing a skills-based talent strategy is implementing a talent marketplace within the organisation. Companies are building talent marketplaces to focus on talent development. It is a place where employees can list their unique talents and skills and seek improvement opportunities. And for companies, the talent marketplaces are a way to offer those opportunities by posting projects, new roles or mentorships, ultimately improving progression as a result. 

An example Ina Gantcheva gave was:

A manager was sharing their experience that they needed a specific skill set and when they eventually put the project on the talent marketplace, they were astounded by the talent in the organisation to do that.

It also empowers its employees, offering opportunities for them to own up to their career development. By taking advantage of programs to upskill, reskill or take on a new and exciting project, employees can take charge of the career path they would like to follow.

What Are the Business Benefits of a Talent Marketplace?

The overall benefit to a talent marketplace is improved productivity. The talent marketplace contributes to the organisation’s understanding of productivity in a new and more profound way. By building and utilising the benefits of a talent marketplace, the company can unleash the full potential of their employees, all while improving the employee experience. This allows a business to highlight important hr skills, such as communication skills, digital literacy and soft skills.

Talent Retention

It is the norm now that many employees will stay at a company for two, three or five years, mastering their role and then beginning to search for the next challenges. With a talent marketplace, those employees that could potentially leave for the next opportunity for growth can find it with their current company. As a result, a talent marketplace can easily situate itself into the employee retention strategies of the organisation. Think about the employee saying:

“I just found my dream job and didn’t have to leave my company or teammate to do it!”

This not only improves employee engagement but saves the company time and money with recruitment, creating a company culture of learning and career progression.

Beat Organisational Silos

With so many companies employing people from all over the globe and implementing hybrid work, talent marketplaces make collaboration and networking far easier for everyone. They can partner with people from across the globe and find assistance. So, if a manager at one location has a short-term project they need help with, they are not alone with only the resources in their location. 

Supports Diversity and Inclusion

Due to the ease of accessing talent within the organisation through the talent marketplace, opportunities to solicit the diverse talent within the organisation for jobs support company efforts to include different perspectives and outlooks to strategies and decision making. Since more individuals can offer insight and be included in the company culture, belonging and value are directly invested in the team.

Leverage for Speed

Not all organisations understand what skills their current employee possess. With a talent marketplace, employers have that information in a data-driven and organised fashion so that when work needs to be done, and a specific skill is required, that skill can be utilised quickly without the cost of recruitment and training. The philosophy behind this is - to do more with fewer people. This can help save time and cost, especially within the organisation's human resources department.

Re-Deployment in a Tighter Labour Force

Since the pandemic, many jobs have been lost because of Covid-19. The talent marketplace offers an alternative for employers. Employees can be realigned through the talent marketplace by employers having access to employee knowledge skills so they can be re-deployed instead of being let go from the organisation. Moreover it promotes an increased workforce agility through the talent marketplace.

Does this mean that talent marketplaces will eliminate jobs? There is a likelihood that it could, as employers find that using a skills-based view when making workforce planning decisions can drive real impact on the business objectives. 

How to Create a Skills-Based Talent Strategy

In the beginning, it may first appear simple and slowly become cumbersome as time goes by. But keeping in mind that what you are doing is transformational and a journey and much more than putting a few policies on the books or launching a simple app makes the process more attainable. Understanding and accepting the process will help prevent discouragement in your efforts. Once the mindset is established, it becomes easier to follow the next steps.

The Purpose of Your Skills-Based Talent Strategy

This step aims to discuss why you are creating a skilled-based talent strategy and what is hoped to be accomplished. From here, the immediate priorities can be examined, and the longer-term priorities tied to the business can be explored.

Planning Your Strategy

From here, a roadmap can be developed. Deciding how the talent marketplace is going to function is put in place. The questions will all be answered, such as whether an AI will be enabled for machine learning, whether experiences will be customised for the user, and how the rollout should be communicated.

Talent Marketplace Platforms

At this stage, it becomes a question whether to buy, build or borrow a platform that employees want to engage with. Any product developed should have dimensions serving what people want, such as deploying their skills, utilisation of their current skills or getting more fulfilment. The platform should also take into account the type of people who would use it, such as:

• The new hire - who wants to learn everything they can

• The manager - who has a project that needs to be done

• The sceptic - who may have been disappointed in the past

You also want to consider the barriers that might stand in their way of using it as much as what would motivate them to do so - and then make every attempt to remove those challenges.

The Program

From here, launching a program pilot with MVP (minimum viable products) is wise - as they are tied to the business needs. Communicate with the employees who first utilise the program and ask for feedback. From the insight they provide, continue to implore and set out on a larger scale. The real key point to address here is if people use it.

How Human Resources Can Help 

For a skills-based talent strategy to be a companywide success, Human Resources must be at the forefront to guide and monitor the effort. They should stay with the program from start to finish to communicate and motivate all stakeholders to get on board. For the guaranteed best result of a skill-based talent strategy, an HR professional needs to say curious and continually learn skills that make them more data-driven, business-focused, and experience-led.

Build your People Analytics Capability!

Our myHRfuture Academy courses allow you to become certified in an array of different areas within HR and People analytics. Our Building a Skills Based Approach to Workforce Planning course will help you to understand how to build a skills-based approach to workforce planning across your organisation, by providing an in-depth look at each dimension of the Insight222® Nine Dimensions for Workforce Planning™. In this course we explore which strategic business goals are best suited to a skills-based approach, which data and technology solutions are required, and how to ensure that workforce planning delivers value for the business. Sign up now!