HR PLANNING

CRITIQUE PAPER:

SKILLS-BASED STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING

Skills-based Strategic Workforce Planning will usually be surfaced in topics related to talent

management replacing its predecessor function-based Strategic Workforce Planning. Most

simply put, skills-based Strategic Workforce Planning is understanding one’s workforce as the

sum of its parts rather than its parts. What I mean by this is understanding each individual as a

composition of skills rather than viewing them as their one overall function.

Strategic Workforce Planning should be informative. Using skill data allows for the

identification of needs and where to look for the solution. A skill allows organizations to define

and measure relationships between skills. This helps create a common language to bridge the gap

between jobs and people. A skills-based Strategic Workforce Planning strategy can influence

organization’s ability to adapt in different ways.

If skills-based SWP has so many advantages, this being that HR tech is harder to implement than

ever. The main reason behind this is a lack of access to employee skill data. Obtaining accurate

skill data, however, is an expensive process, and maintaining a recent skill inventory is even

more difficult. Adoption of this across the organisation is also a crucial barrier. To deliver its full

story, employees need to have ownership over their skill profiles and their implications. The

assumption that employees will happily skill jump, upskill and may eventually end up doing a

completely different job to their job description from previous years ago is one that can’t be

easily made.
The way I see it, the current pandemic that we are currently facing such as by disrupting

economic activity and fast-tracking digitization, new opportunities for online learning,

redeployment and reemployment are being created and with companies being forced to be more

flexible and approach talent management creatively, the foundations are being moved towards

skills-based SWP.

It is essential for employers to effectively be clear as to the skills desired for a particular role as

well as provide information on how to obtain the skills. To prepare for a skill-based workforce, it

is seen that employers must prioritize and truly understand the required skills needed for specific

jobs at a company in a different industry and learn how to validate an employees' knowledge of

those skills.

Skills-based hiring as a new strategy is serving employers well as they take advantage of

increasing talent availability created by layoffs and job losses in response to the COVID-19

pandemic. As workers in hard-hit industries such as food, hospitality, and leisure lose their jobs,

understanding the talents these individuals possess and the skills required of them in a new role

benefit both the employer and employee.

Skills-based hiring is a new strategy more and more companies are using. I think, it requires a

mindset shift one that encourages an employer to evaluate an individual’s skills and abilities,

instead of background, and rethink job description requirements. If implemented, skills-based

hiring will help fill jobs quickly, retain talent, diversify an organization’s talent pipeline and help

provide a greater awareness of skill attainment and critical upskilling needs.