Why It's Necessary to Accurately Measure Employee Skills and How to Do It

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Organizations are moving to skills-based practices to broaden the talent pool and address shifts in work design fueled by the digital transformation. This more nimble and equitable practice raises the question, “How do we validate the skills a person has to make hiring, promotion, development, and compensation decisions and produce the targeted outcomes desired of the jobs at play?”

In this brief, we offer five questions that highlight different facets relevant in the validation of skills that may be helpful in identifying areas of organizational policy and practice that can be rethought or refined.

  1. Has the organization acknowledged its shift to skills-based practices?
  2. Has the organization established a culture that supports skills-based practice implementation in hiring and promotion?
  3. Have human resource management processes been updated to reflect a broadening of the way that applicants and candidates for promotion are assessed?
  4. Have hiring managers been trained on how to validate skills?
  5. Have training and development opportunities been aligned with this initiative?