CEOs around the world rank labor shortages, attracting and retaining talent, and the need to upskill and reskill their workforces among their top concerns. Skills shortages are likely to be worsened by disruptive advances in AI; 94% of CEOs say their businesses will require new skills and training to maximize AI’s potential to increase labor and firm productivity.
In the latest EU survey used by the European Commission and other EU institutions, the Euro barometer on skills shortages, 72% of large companies report difficulties in finding employees with the right skills as their most serious issue. Skills shortages have other detrimental effects - including increased workload for existing staff (55%), lowered productivity (25%) and more difficulty in maintaining the quality of products or services (24%).
Business leaders urgently need new ways to anticipate how skills for critical roles will change and how to embed continuous skilling into operational and talent processes. As work and jobs continue to transform, reskilling or upskilling needs to be timely, relevant, future focused, and achieved at pace and scale.
The research is based on interviews with senior human capital leaders in 18 multinational companies based in Europe (see methodology). These discussions, which form part of an ongoing exploration of skills-based organizations, suggest CEOs and their teams can achieve skilling at speed and scale by the following means:
- Formulate an enterprise-wide skilling strategy. Focus effort and investment into the critical skills that underpin business-wide capabilities (such as innovation or technology). These include capabilities critical for current performance and those that will likely future-proof the business.
- Equip and mobilize senior leaders to drive the skills strategy. Senior leaders play a vital role by partnering with HR to validate and update critical skills for their part of the business, agreeing where skilling can have most business impact; and helping embed reskilling and upskilling into talent processes and organizational culture.
This five-part series, Skilling at Speed and Scale: Five Guideposts to Success, provides C-Suite teams with practical learning and case examples of how to take a more strategic and dynamic approach to skilling.
- Guidepost 1: Connecting skills to strategy: C-Suite leaders can elevate skilling to an enterprise-wide strategy that supports business priorities and builds future-critical business capabilities.
- Guidepost 2: Connecting skills to jobs: Operational leaders and HR leaders can identify critical skills and urgent skills gaps and identify where skills building can have most impact.
- Guidepost 3: Connecting skills to technology: harnessing AI-powered technologies for dynamic skills management.
- Guidepost 4: Connecting skills to talent processes: CHROs and their teams can work with leaders to implement a skills-based approach wherever it enhances talent attraction, performance and retention.
- Guidepost 5: Connecting skills to people: practical actions to help everyone to think differently about skills and adopt new practices so that upskilling and reskilling become a normal part of work.
Methodology
This study utilized a qualitative longitudinal research approach from May 2022 - May 2024. The data sources included semi-structured interviews with human capital leaders from 18 multinational companies based in Europe conducted in March 2022 and April 2024. These interviews focused on exploring the experiences, challenges, and best practices of HC leaders who implemented skills-based models in their organizations. To ensure rigor, data was collected from HCC briefings and HCC council meetings over a two-year period.
Acknowledgements
A grateful thanks to the following organizations that have shared their learning and advice for our ongoing research into strategic skilling: Axa XL, Bayer, Ericsson, HSBC, Iveco, JTI, Lloyds Banking Group, L'Oréal, Merck, NatWest Group, Novartis, Proximus, RBI, SAP, Schneider Electric, Standard Charter, Syensqo and UCB.
C-Suite Outlook 2024
European Commission, SMEs and skills shortages (Flash Eurobarometer No. 537), November 2023.
CEOs around the world rank labor shortages, attracting and retaining talent, and the need to upskill and reskill their workforces among their top concerns. Skills shortages are likely to be worsened by disruptive advances in AI; 94% of CEOs say their businesses will require new skills and training to maximize AI’s potential to increase labor and firm productivity.
In the latest EU survey used by the European Commission and other EU institutions, the Euro barometer on skills shortages, 72% of large companies report difficulties in finding employees with the right skills as their most serious issue. Skills shortages have other detrimental effects - including increased workload for existing staff (55%), lowered productivity (25%) and more difficulty in maintaining the quality of products or services (24%).
Business leaders urgently need new ways to anticipate how skills for critical roles will change and how to embed continuous skilling into operational and talent processes. As work and jobs continue to transform, reskilling or upskilling needs to be timely, relevant, future focused, and achieved at pace and scale.
The research is based on interviews with senior human capital leaders in 18 multinational companies based in Europe (see methodology). These discussions, which form part of an ongoing exploration of skills-based organizations, suggest CEOs and their teams can achieve skilling at speed and scale by the following means:
- Formulate an enterprise-wide skilling strategy. Focus effort and investment into the critical skills that underpin business-wide capabilities (such as innovation or technology). These include capabilities critical for current performance and those that will likely future-proof the business.
- Equip and mobilize senior leaders to drive the skills strategy. Senior leaders play a vital role by partnering with HR to validate and update critical skills for their part of the business, agreeing where skilling can have most business impact; and helping embed reskilling and upskilling into talent processes and organizational culture.
This five-part series, Skilling at Speed and Scale: Five Guideposts to Success, provides C-Suite teams with practical learning and case examples of how to take a more strategic and dynamic approach to skilling.
- Guidepost 1: Connecting skills to strategy: C-Suite leaders can elevate skilling to an enterprise-wide strategy that supports business priorities and builds future-critical business capabilities.
- Guidepost 2: Connecting skills to jobs: Operational leaders and HR leaders can identify critical skills and urgent skills gaps and identify where skills building can have most impact.
- Guidepost 3: Connecting skills to technology: harnessing AI-powered technologies for dynamic skills management.
- Guidepost 4: Connecting skills to talent processes: CHROs and their teams can work with leaders to implement a skills-based approach wherever it enhances talent attraction, performance and retention.
- Guidepost 5: Connecting skills to people: practical actions to help everyone to think differently about skills and adopt new practices so that upskilling and reskilling become a normal part of work.
Methodology
This study utilized a qualitative longitudinal research approach from May 2022 - May 2024. The data sources included semi-structured interviews with human capital leaders from 18 multinational companies based in Europe conducted in March 2022 and April 2024. These interviews focused on exploring the experiences, challenges, and best practices of HC leaders who implemented skills-based models in their organizations. To ensure rigor, data was collected from HCC briefings and HCC council meetings over a two-year period.
Acknowledgements
A grateful thanks to the following organizations that have shared their learning and advice for our ongoing research into strategic skilling: Axa XL, Bayer, Ericsson, HSBC, Iveco, JTI, Lloyds Banking Group, L'Oréal, Merck, NatWest Group, Novartis, Proximus, RBI, SAP, Schneider Electric, Standard Charter, Syensqo and UCB.
C-Suite Outlook 2024
European Commission, SMEs and skills shortages (Flash Eurobarometer No. 537), November 2023.
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