Since the industrial era, the organization of work has been based on the concept of jobs with a fixed set of responsibilities, job descriptions and pay scales.
Is this model that assigns identical training and performance evaluations to each individual still appropriate? Does our job really define what we do on a daily basis? This is a question that is increasingly being asked by human resources.
Wouldn't thefuture of work lie in thinking of the job as a set of skills, in allocating resources according to the aptitudes and skills of each individual and no longer on the basis of formatted roles? Many voices support the logic of organization by skills, with advantages and reservations that we detail in this article.
Define career development based on the skills
Career development criteria in figures
Two figures from Deloitte's recent survey fuel the need for evolutionary change:
- 63% of executives report that work in their organization is currently done in teams or on projects outside of employees' primary job descriptions.
- 81% report that work is increasingly being done across functional boundaries.
So how can we continue to think of employee progression in a vertical way? The number of years in a position, the degree or the level of confidence of the individual should no longer be the only reasons to recruit a talent or to get a promotion. Especially since the level of skills in key positions is widely questioned. This is what Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic underlines in a provocative article on the excessive proportion of men who must nowadays show humility in their management role.
The transition to more objective developments
How can we objectively evaluate the abilities of each person?
3 dimensions facilitate the transition, the starting point is the level of skills.
- Provide regular feedback, a subject developed in the article "continuous feedback vs. annual interview".
- Design a relevant skills mapping tool, articulated in the "Making a mapping that mobilizes" page.
- Involve all stakeholders in updating the criteria based on skills. We are talking in particular about managers, who are the subject of a section entitled "How to involve managers in mobility".
This will obviously require a holistic change in mindset and in the wider corporate culture. Significant and often difficult changes, which will inevitably lead to resistance to change, in the way managers manage contribution at work, and in the way HR supports employees on a daily basis.
Matching skills with the organization's opportunities
How to make internal opportunities visible?
Currently, leaders and managers do not have a complete picture of their employees' skills , while employees lack visibility into the opportunities within their organization. Two figures highlight this dissonance:
- Only 18% of executives strongly agree that employees use their assets to their fullest potential.
- 85% of HR respondents say that organizations should create more agile ways of organizing work to gain speed and adapt more quickly to market changes.
The Talent Marketplace is the digital embodiment of the organization around skills. For example, by matching people to projects and mentorships anywhere in the organization, this space made up of all the internal opportunities, break down silos and get employees collaborating and learning from each other.
The complete functioning of this new management solution around skills is accessible in our complete guide"Internal Talent Marketplace".
The concrete functioning of opportunity matchings
Within this talent management system, each employee can now apply for an internal position that matches their career development intentions. Following the skills required for this role, they immediately identify the skills for which they need support. Then, the Talent Marketplace, supported by a powerful AI, proposes the training that will allow him to reach his goal.
Conversely, a team that needs specific skills for a project will be able to recruit the right person directly from within the company. This supports both individuals and projects, boosting the company's overall productivity.
Thanks to this system, instead of waiting to validate everything, the employee will also be able to start a part of the role to which he or she aspires and increment the tasks over time by connecting with a mentor, for example. This exchange of good practices between managers also reduces resistance to what could be considered the loss of an employee.
Rethink and develop an engaging concept of objectives
Performance objectives and development objectives
Performance is defined as the level of achievement, at a given moment, of the expected results in relation to the efforts made and the resources consumed. This performance is the result of several preconditions, including skills, so it is more sustainable to focus on the development of skills, their progress rather than on performance. This approach encourages everyone to get involved and to adapt to changes in the environment. This gives authentic backing to the culture of continuous learning, since the company allows employees the time necessary for these changes.
Training is no longer a burden in parallel to the work to be done, but a goal in its own right for the employee.
An overhaul of the animation of objectives
Finally, this rethinking of the way objectives are set leads to better retention and contributes to the company's employer brand.
64% of employees interviewed by Deloitte say they are more attracted to an organization that offers a system that prioritizes developmental goals over performance goals. This indicates that people want to work where they feel the organization is contributing to their growth, to the realization of their potential for collective performance. Instead of making everyone the same type of contributor by standardizing them into hard production-focused goals, development-based goals at skills let the uniqueness of individuals shine through in their relationship with their business and their ecosystem.
It is now up to HR teams to work with all stakeholders to highlight the many benefits of this change:
- Personalizing career plans: our article"5 tips for individualizing careers" is an inspiration.
- Increased agility in adapting to numerous changes: read our White Paper on HR agility.
- The user experience that gives the employee the ability to become a player in his or her career development.
- Renewed confidence in the organization's ability to provide the right mobility
