The End of Job Descriptions: Talent Management’s Big Shift to Skills

To dig deeper (pun intended) into Cornerstone's vision on Talent Management and how the people at Cornerstone meet ambitions of HR leaders across the globe, we sat down with David Lyons, who manages solution consulting for Cornerstone in Europe. He’s the go-to person for building, growing, and moving talent using skill intelligence, AI, and integrated platforms. 

This article is the result of a deep conversation with David and our joint efforts with clients to make these shifts a reality. In it, we explore what it means to move from jobs and tasks to skills, how AI is changing the game, and why Cornerstone’s platform (including SkyHive, Galaxy, and Workforce Intelligence) is, in our view, setting the new standard for what Talent Management needs to become.

The paradigm shift to skills-based talent management

Static roles and rigid job descriptions are becoming obsolete. The reality is that your skills are only half as effective in four years as they are today. And this number is shrinking further. 

To combat this, you need to embrace the following two concepts: 

• Internal talent marketplaces
• Continuous learning of employees and managers

Internal talent marketplaces

You can easily transfer a person across the organization to a different role, but only if their skills match the role’s needs. This way, you’re sustainably “recycling” great people in your organization by finding a place for them where they can be productive and help your company and progress their career. It’s a win-win situation. 

This requires a different thinking process. One in which you’ll have to imagine shifting people horizontally (same level of responsibilities, different team), vertically (higher responsibility level in the same department), or even diagonally (higher responsibility level in a different department). 

If Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, could move Bob Woodell across the organization multiple times, you can also move your employees.

Continuous learning

Skills don’t last long. But people do.

Invest in microlearning for your people so that they’re constantly learning how to stay relevant in the business. This is also a win-win situation for you as well because: 

• Skills are transferable. What they learn in one role can be helpful in other roles.
• They stay up-to-date. Remember Pascal? No? Neither do your programmers because they stayed updated and switched to Python.
• Your business grows. People implement the new skills they learn and they do so in your workplace. The result? Increased productivity. And who doesn’t like that?

Skills matter more than ever

Just take a look at the following benefits of a skills-based approach in your organization: 

• Agility in a fast-changing environment. The strongest tree isn’t the rigid oak; it’s the flexible birch. Rigidity loses to fluidity in today’s business world. 
• Better workforce planning and adaptability. If you have a workforce that has a ton of skills, you can easily shift them around to plug any talent holes. The more skills your workforce has, the more roles you can cover. This way, you won’t have to overhire in your business (and later fire people). It’s more efficient, effective, and productive than the alternative (overhire, then fire as soon as the crisis/project is done).
• Enhanced employee engagement through ownership of their development. The development as an initiative comes from the company (you), but the final responsibility for it is with the employee. This way, it’s not just a new thing management wants from employees; it’s an active investment in developing new skills for employees. Again, this creates a win-win scenario because employees learn new skills, engage more at work because the company cares for their professional and personal development, and the company gets a more productive employee in a variety of roles and positions. 

With a skills-first approach, you create a more resilient organization. The one that can grow and persevere where others (competitors) are struggling. It’s how you win the race. 

From job-based to skills-based talent management

Even though skills-based talent management is way better than job-based talent management, that doesn’t mean that the transition will be easy, smooth, or overnight. You still have the regular culprits that you need to deal with: 

• Organizational resistance. Cultural inertia and structural inertia are the first problems to deal with. People need to know that the change is real and that the structure will change according to the new way of doing things. Remove the obstacles, make it as easy as possible to transform. 
• Legacy systems. How can you use traditional HR tools and processes to achieve adoption instead of slowing it down? Unified platforms are the answer. If you can combine learning, performance, and career development in a single platform, the adoption rate will be higher than if you had that in separate platforms. Less friction, more adoption.
• Mindset challenge. Leaders and employees need to see beyond the task that’s in front of them. This way, the transformation won’t be just another (failed) attempt, but a genuine transition into a better organization.

How AI and workforce intelligence fit the script 

AI graphs map out and measure real-time skills across the organization. This is your baseline.  AI can also identify emerging skills and predict future workforce needs (SkyHive as an aggregator).

Then, you use all of this data and workforce intelligence to improve your employees. That’s done through AI applications from CSOD: content tagging, personalized playlists, and immersive learning paths.

However, AI isn’t a silver bullet; the critical factor in our approach and Cornerstone On Demand’s is human-in-the-loop. AI is a supporting tool, but it doesn’t replace humans. 

Ethical AI in the learning space

CSOD fully embraces AI in its products while upholding ethical, transparent use. Cornerstone Galaxy uncovers hidden skills of people at the workplace, offering a unified talent management approach that leaves both employees and employers satisfied. The gold is struck at the convergence of employee desires and employer needs, and Cornerstone Galaxy enables just that. 

It’s way easier to find common ground when you have 35 skills to choose from instead of 7. And the best thing about this type of learning is that it’s accessible, ethical, and data-informed for everyone.

On-demand learning is the future

Businesses dropped just-in-case models 30 years ago, but somehow that didn’t translate to learning. Companies still approach learning as “cram as much as possible in as little time as possible,” and that simply doesn’t work. 

Stick to what you absolutely need for the employees to operate successfully. Remove everything else.

For example, you want to learn how to cook Pasta Milanese. What exactly do you need for this? A Pasta Milanese recipe. This is just-in-time “cooking.” 
What don’t you need to make the dish? The history of pasta, why tomatoes are good for your health, and how anchovies always beat sardines in a pasta dish. This is just-in-case “cooking.”
If you want to learn Python programming language, do you really need to learn about Pascal? (no). 

CSOD’s approach enables learning at the moment of need (just-in-time approach). On-demand access across devices and modalities is the new way forward; microlearnings, VR, ease of access (mobile access). All of this can be (and is) implemented across different industries and organizational levels. 

It’s not only the future; it’s happening as we speak

Even though it might seem like the future, it’s already happening. DPD, DHL, and Gainwell are all case studies that prove how these transformations can become a reality. You can also transition from a job-based to skill-based talent management and enjoy the fruits of that labor: 

• Reduced recruitment costs.
• Increased internal mobility and retention.
• Millions saved with stronger employee engagement.

Conclusion

Skills-based talent management isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s essential in today’s business world. It’s the new way forward. HR leaders need to embrace this shift to remain competitive and resilient because rigidity is the old way. 

Cornerstone On Demand (CSOD) and worldofwork™ are the enablers of this transition. We, using our AI tools, guide your organizations through this journey and help you fully embrace this transformation. 

So stop using shovels. Start using drills.