There’s a lot of talk about the accelerating pace of change at skills . To illustrate this, we can cite the latest OECD publication. It announces a rapid obsolescence of “hard skills”: from an average lifespan of 30 years in 1987, they would now average 2 years today.
In order to remain competitive, organizations are massively focused on acquiring these new skills. Nevertheless, Neobrain warns us not to forget the skills that are central to performance: Pareto’s law is also valid for skills management. Having this homogeneous overview is no longer a side issue, but a priority. How does the use of skills management software facilitate this vision?
Why use skills management sotware?
Comprehensive, dynamic mapping
The first benefit of a solution is to draw up a list of the know-how that benefits the company. In fact, it facilitates the construction of a cartography of skills, an indispensable tool for your teams, but regularly cited as a real challenge to maintain. From this point of view, several operating modes are possible:
- Start from the skills job references already formalized, and bring them down to employee level.
- Advantage: uniformity of the semantics used
- Disadvantage: overlooks invisible assets
- Ask employees themselves to declare their qualifications to feed the platform’s back office.
- Benefit: it reflects the vision of employees
- Disadvantage: it requires an initial commitment and can contribute to very different titles.
Adapting skills to changing business needs
HR management software skills helps companies to stay competitive. An organization needs to be resilient and adapt to the realities of its market. In the event of a position becoming obsolete, it must be able to think of a way to redeploy resources. Determining a living directory of qualifications also enables the company to identify the positions that best correspond to a profile, and thus to proceed with internal mobility if necessary. The aim is to better meet the career development needs of employees and optimize the organization of the company.
Measuring employee performance
Employee performance appraisal is evolving to take account of the multi-project dimension and the shift from single-management to a multiplicity of interlocutors for talent. As performance targets are set in the very short term, skill is becoming a more permanent variable to encourage and explain performance levels. This crucial responsibility of the HR department offers the opportunity to understand not only an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, but also the gaps and needs of skills, as well as their impact on the organization. In order to assess these aspects appropriately, the use of a software package Strategic Workforce Planning is recommended.
Adopt a hybrid HR approach to building your platform
Today, some software publishers offer the time-saving option of uploading HR data from the users themselves. It’s a good idea, but it’s illusory to think that each of us knows our skills data exhaustively. That’s why we need a hybrid method.
Choosing the most suitable data collection method
We recommend a hybrid mapping method that combines the bottom-up approach with the standard top-down pathway.
Based on their experience, employees add their skills to their profiles in the skills management software. At the same time, HR project teams, together with business experts and Business Unit managers, build up the essential know-how and cross-functional and emerging skills required for each job.
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How do you manage the maintenance of your solution?
Establishing an index of knowledge and know-how is a task generally entrusted to a company’s HR director. However, it is more appropriate to set up a governance team whose role is to perpetuate the upstream work and ensure the proper use of the skills mapping. You can do this with the help of an HRIS. This is a set of tools designed to facilitate the management of a company’s human resources.
AI optimizes skills management
The power of skills management software is further enhanced by artificial intelligence. Generative artificial intelligence adjusts to your objectives and constantly learns to serve you better. External data from various business sectors feeds your strategy, helping you to cope with the risks of obsolescence or loss of skills. Our software integrates your internal rules to ensure that your culture is respected, while saving you valuable time.
Implement a skills administration solution in record time with AI Skills Management.
In conclusion, the use of skills management software is essential in a dynamic professional environment. By mapping skills, adapting them to market needs and measuring employee performance, these tools, supported by artificial intelligence, offer a complete solution. Adopting a hybrid approach and setting up dedicated governance, supported by an HRIS, makes it possible to optimize the use of such software, ensuring the company’s competitiveness and resilience in the face of constant change.