Companies implementing ‘skills first’ approach see better retention and revenue growth: Survey
AI are being raised today. In this context, a report by EY and iMocha explains how skills are being prioritised across companies.
The report, Skills First Transformation (SFT): A New Approach to Unlocking Potential, did a detailed survey of HR leaders across India, the US, EMEA and APAC covering companies (560 responses) in ITeS, tech, BSFI and telecom. About 40% of the companies had between 1,000 and 10,000 employees; 38% had more than 10,000 employees; and 22% had less than 1,000 employees. There was also a separate employee survey across the same sectors and geographies (343 responses), in order to assess the employee viewpoint around these questions.
Why does this matter now?
According to the report, future jobs are expected to be more centred around deep skills with information across functions applied for various contexts to make informed decisions.
The report tabulates the companies into three groups: transformation leaders (early adopters), transformation aspirants (starting to implement) and business as usual (companies yet to explore SFT).
The early adopters have been leveraging skill assessments, skills taxonomy and skills inventory to help employees. These companies have redoubled efforts to find “power-user” talent and “deep skills”. The other companies are still getting started on this journey.
What does this mean in terms of HR leaders’ goals
SFT-focused companies are prioritising objectives such as building skills for the future as compared to core HR objectives such as reducing attrition.
They are also focusing on practical tasks such as skills assessment, taxonomy, inventory to enable robust SFT. The level of prioritisation and focus varies both by geography and by shifts being experienced in
