Moving into the Fast Lane: Becoming an AI-fueled, Skills-based Organization

It’s never been more apparent: Skills are hot, so is AI, and putting the two together to create a skills-forward organization is paramount to staying ahead.

But changing long-standing philosophies about job roles, job descriptions, and talent management practices is a significant challenge, while integrating AI can seem like an overwhelming prospect in and of itself.

Deloitte Consulting’s Kristin Starodub, Principal, Phenom Executive Relationship Sponsor, champions the use of AI to enable a skills-based approach for clients with whom she works. She shared her insights on shifting the organizational mindset toward a skills-based approach, using AI to enhance and speed this transformation, and how to get started.

We’ve got the highlights covered below, or you can view the session right here.

Ready, Set, Go: Shift the Mindset

Starodub has spent over 25 years in the HR technology space. She describes AI and skills as two of the most important trends in the industry today – and also fully recognizes that integrating both might seem out of reach, requiring not only operational changes, but philosophical and cultural shifts as well.

“We have consistently anchored around jobs and job descriptions as being the way that we define our workers,” Starodub said.

In contrast, a skills-based model allows people to take control of their own career paths to reach their full potential and, in turn, helps organizations flourish as well.

“Envision a world with me where we're no longer limited by narrowly defined jobs and job descriptions and roles, but [where] we celebrate the individual and we celebrate the tapestry of capabilities that each one of us uniquely brings,” Starodub said. “[A skills-based model] empowers people to become masters of their own organization and their own growth journeys.”

Why Skills-based Organizations Are Positioned to Win

In her role at Deloitte Consulting, Starodub serves as the executive sponsor for Deloitte’s relationship with Phenom, helping clients leverage Phenom’s AI capabilities to create a skills-forward talent strategy.

The benefits this transformation can unlock are a talent acquisition leader’s dream:

High employee engagement. A skills-forward organization links employees’ interests and aspirations to company purpose, mission, and values. “Employees who engage through a skills-based opportunity where they feel they are able to bring their best self to work [have] over 60% higher engagement scores,” Starodub said. Higher engagement translates to better business outcomes, including increased revenue, she added. “So there are actual quantifiable measures that you can employ through these discussions in your organization on why these journeys are so important.”

Dynamic workforce deployment. By aligning individual skills and experiences to meet specific challenges, organizations gain agility and the ability to build talent internally that has institutional knowledge — decreasing the cost of hire and time to gain productivity. Prioritizing skills over rigid job titles and roles helps the organization quickly deploy people to project teams to adapt to changes or unexpected needs.

Talent mobility and retention. A skills-based structure prevents losing employees who seek opportunities outside their job descriptions. Consider how many times an employee giving an exit interview cites as their reason for leaving that they’ve found an external opportunity to do something that your organization in fact needs, Starodub pointed out. The only thing stopping you from keeping that employee? Lack of knowledge of their experience, related skills, and aspirations. “You didn't have that power because it's not in their current job description and it wasn't on their profile, and you just didn't have access to that information.”

HR as a catalyst for growth and innovation. Focusing on skills integration positions HR and talent acquisition teams to catalyze a growth mindset throughout the organization — critical as the pace of business keeps accelerating. “In this environment, everyone is empowered to really embrace a dynamic, lifelong journey of skills acquisition and mastery of those new capabilities, rather than just a static career path where they view themselves as moving up rungs of a very rigid ladder,” Starodub noted.

Case study: The ROI on This Fortune 500 Company’s Skills-Forward, Employee-First Business Model

Full Speed Ahead: AI Is the Accelerant

“There will be unparalleled advantages for organizations that are able to harvest this opportunity faster than their competitors,” Starodub said.

Along with a willingness to innovate, realizing all the benefits of a skills-based organization also requires vast amounts of data and knowledge regarding existing skills, employee aspirations and experiences, and emerging workforce needs.

“To spark this revolution, we need an accelerant,” Starodub said. “That’s where AI comes in.” Critically, because AI-driven tools can analyze large volumes of data, they bring speed to activities like identifying skills gaps, predicting skills needs, and recommending learning opportunities that will help employees advance their careers.

Here’s a closer look at how skills-forward organizations are leveraging AI:

Enhancing engagement and Employee Experience (EX). AI helps connect the dots to provide the kind of rewarding workplace experience that HR professionals know is critical to employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention. An AI-supported talent marketplace can surface employees’ career goals, relevant experiences, and skills that may not show up in a traditional resume. It can generate personalized learning opportunities so the employee can acquire new skills and take control over their career path.

“AI really begins to allow us to intelligently source and assess people through a skills-driven lens, objectively matching them to this vast array of opportunities that are going to ignite their growth and really give them passion in coming to work every day,” Starodub said.

Agile staffing. For critical business objectives like bringing a new product or service to market or opening a new location to succeed, you need the right people, fast. With an AI-supported talent marketplace, organizations can quickly assemble dynamic project teams to meet that demand. “AI [has the ability] to suggest the vast number of team members you may already have in your organization to go out and bring them together in a very fast and innovative way. AI will bring the speed to that process,” Starodub said.

Predicting future skills needs. Before organizations think about how to meet the demand for emerging skills, they need to be able to uncover what those skills actually are. “With AI, we'll be able to more precisely model those future needs as those skills emerge, and as we see those coming to bear through the initiatives and the opportunities, rather than waiting for them to show up within a job construct or a job description,” Starodub pointed out.

It's OK to Start Small with AI

A key truth to keep in mind? Don’t be intimidated by thinking that you need to immediately undertake a large-scale transformation. It’s ok to start small using AI to drive an organizational shift toward skills. Find a segment of the organization where it makes sense to test the approach, and iterate from there.

“In many cases, you can do an AI-enabled skills assessment on a part of your organization in a matter of days to a week, and then that starts you off on this journey of figuring out how to bring that to a greater part of your opportunities. [The] ability to really swiftly reconfigure talent at scale as your priorities shift, as the world shifts around you, and as worker expectations shift, is going to be the competitive advantage,” Starodub said.

Where’s the Starting Line?

The future of skills-based, AI-enabled organizations is here now. It’s time to be a pioneer, urged Starodub. “Be among the catalysts,” she said. “The skills-based future is going to belong to — and reward — those who are bold.”

Driving trust is critical on this journey. To get started, work with leadership to establish your organization’s skills philosophy, she advised, and keep them informed along the way. That philosophy, when supported by trust, a robust skills framework, data governance, and an integrated technology backbone, creates the foundation from which to build on skills across talent dimensions.

This is a movement that will set your organization apart as a talent beacon and a workplace that celebrates human potential and individuality, Starodub said. “We're focused on developing human beings rather than human resources. And that's going to be critical in the world ahead.”

Preview your organization’s roles, skills & progressions — Get a Skills Snapshot here

Get in touch: Kristin Starodub, Principal, Phenom Executive Relationship Sponsor, Deloitte Consulting LLP kstarodub@deloitte.com

Jenn Thomas