Start your skills-based journey on the right path.
Why companies want to become skills-based:
- 57% more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively
- 52% more likely to innovate
- 47% more likely to provide an inclusive environment
- 98% more likely to retain high performers
- ~90% of executives say they are now actively experimenting with skills-based approaches
57% more likely to anticipate change and respond effectively
52% more likely to innovate
47% more likely to provide an inclusive environment
98% more likely to retain high performers
~90% of executives say they are now actively experimenting with skills-based approaches
-Source: Deloitte
Most organizations are inclined to start with a skills taxonomy:
- 45% of companies have a skills taxonomy
- 47% of HR leaders have identified skills needed for specific jobs, only 28% have mapped skills to employees
- 8% of organizations are using AI to infer skills, while 22% have no formalized process for capturing skills
45% of companies have a skills taxonomy
47% of HR leaders have identified skills needed for specific jobs, only 28% have mapped skills to employees
8% of organizations are using AI to infer skills, while 22% have no formalized process for capturing skills
-Source: Mercer
Challenges of deploying and managing a skills taxonomy:
Building requires:
- Resources with expertise
- Time to build, test, deploy
- Ongoing maintenance to ensure relevance
Resources with expertise
Time to build, test, deploy
Ongoing maintenance to ensure relevance
Buying requires:
- Budget
- Assessing skills libraries
- Adding your company's unique skills to the model
Budget
Assessing skills libraries
Adding your company’s unique skills to the model
Skills collection and verification hurdles:
- How will you collect and map employees' skills? What if only 10% of your workforce completes their skills profile?
- How will you ensure self-assessment surveys, performance reviews, and peer feedback aren't biased?
- How much additional budget and time will you need for skills-based tests or professional assessments?
How will you collect and map employees’ skills? What if only 10% of your workforce completes their skills profile?
How will you ensure self-assessment surveys, performance reviews, and peer feedback aren’t biased?
How much additional budget and time will you need for skills-based tests or professional assessments?
One skills taxonomy vendor “typically collects 50-200 skills per employee” which means a manager with 10 employees “will have 500-2000 skills to validate.”
Ongoing maintenance requires:
- Monitoring performance and skill development
- Getting feedback from employees, functional leaders, and L&D
- Tracking learning and training completion rates
- Measuring the impact of applying new skills
Monitoring performance and skill development
Getting feedback from employees, functional leaders, and L&D
Tracking learning and training completion rates
Measuring the impact of applying new skills
” The amount of effort it takes to build and maintain taxonomy updates is wasteful because as soon as the model is built, the skills and technologies have already changed. SeekOut’s AI tracks all our employees’ skills and allows them to update in real time.”
–Cari Bohley, VP of Talent Management, Peraton
Read the full case study of Peraton
When will a taxonomy deliver on its full value?
It can take:
- 6-12 months to assess, design, calibrate, and publish a skills taxonomy model
- 3-5 years to map and create learning content to fulfill the model
- 3-6 years to realize the full value
6-12 months to assess, design, calibrate, and publish a skills taxonomy model
3-5 years to map and create learning content to fulfill the model
3-6 years to realize the full value
-Source: Chief Learning Officer
With AI, there’s a better way. Adopt an AI-assisted dynamic skills system to get a holistic view of your workforce’s capabilities and growth potential.
- Go beyond keyword matching and understand skills in context
- Save weeks or months of work integrating talent data, mapping skills to jobs, and enriching skills information
- Use skills to inform strategic initiatives like market analysis, recruiting, internal development, workforce planning, and competitive positioning
Go beyond keyword matching and understand skills in context
Save weeks or months of work integrating talent data, mapping skills to jobs, and enriching skills information
Use skills to inform strategic initiatives like market analysis, recruiting, internal development, workforce planning, and competitive positioning
Where do you start?
Global analyst and thought leader Josh Bersin instead recommends “falling in love with the problem, not the solution.”
- Identify a specific business challenge to solve with a skills-centric approach
- Get buy-in and support for this smaller project to prove ROI and build momentum
- Learn which skills data, systems, architectures, people, and processes are most helpful
- Then scale efforts to the broader organization
Identify a specific business challenge to solve with a skills-centric approach
Get buy-in and support for this smaller project to prove ROI and build momentum
Learn which skills data, systems, architectures, people, and processes are most helpful
Then scale efforts to the broader organization
Ask yourself: “If we decide the solution is a skills taxonomy, what’s the problem we’re trying to solve?”
Related reading: Key takeaways from a SeekOut skills workshop with Josh Bersin
Companies are most likely to address skills gaps through:
33% Hiring new employees. Skills-based hiring promises a deeper and more diverse talent pool, but requires shifting away from screening based on traditional academic credentials and experience.
29% Developing skills. Leading companies have evolved their training, reskilling, and upskilling to focus on job mastery, career pathing, and talent redeployment.
19% Mobilizing existing talent. Talent marketplaces can enable gig work and attract internal talent to new roles.
-Source: Forrester
Identify your talent problem and choose your path
Address a talent shortage or hard-to-fill roles with skills-based hiring.
- Employees without a 4-year degree tend to stay 34% longer than employees with a degree
- Job posts that highlight "responsibilities" instead of "requirements" get 14% more applications per view
Employees without a 4-year degree tend to stay 34% longer than employees with a degree
Job posts that highlight “responsibilities” instead of “requirements” get 14% more applications per view
-Source: LinkedIn
Overcome a skills gap with internal talent through redeployment or upskilling.
-Source: BCG
Empower employees with personalized career development.
High-performing, dynamic companies:
- See 31x higher employee retention and engagement scores
- Are 20x more inclusive in hiring
- Have 20x higher score in workforce productivity
See 31x higher employee retention and engagement scores
Are 20x more inclusive in hiring
Have 20x higher score in workforce productivity
-Source: Josh Bersin
How SeekOut’s dynamic skills system helps
Skills-based hiring
- Paste a job description. SeekOut's AI builds a targeted search.
- Adjust criteria as needed. Get a list of qualified candidates.
- Generative AI drafts personalized, relevant outreach messages.
Paste a job description. SeekOut’s AI builds a targeted search.
Adjust criteria as needed. Get a list of qualified candidates.
Generative AI drafts personalized, relevant outreach messages.
Redeployment or upskilling
- Integrate SeekOut to unify internal and external talent data.
- Pre-populate employee profiles with AI-no data entry needed.
- Analyze skills to inform development, reskilling, and redeployment.
Integrate SeekOut to unify internal and external talent data.
Pre-populate employee profiles with AI-no data entry needed.
Analyze skills to inform development, reskilling, and redeployment.
Personalized career development
- Integrate SeekOut to unify internal and external talent data.
- Pre-populate employee profiles with AI-no data entry needed.
- Enable employees to explore personalized growth opportunities.
Integrate SeekOut to unify internal and external talent data.
Pre-populate employee profiles with AI-no data entry needed.
Enable employees to explore personalized growth opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is skills-based hiring?
Skills-based hiring evaluates candidates on demonstrated skills and competencies rather than traditional proxies like degrees, job titles, or employer brand. This approach expands talent pools, reduces bias, and improves quality of hire by focusing on what candidates can actually do.
How does AI enable skills-based hiring?
AI can infer skills from multiple signals — work history, projects, certifications, GitHub contributions, publications — building comprehensive skills profiles that go far beyond what's listed on a resume. SeekOut's AI maps skills to role requirements for precise matching.
What are the benefits of removing degree requirements?
Removing degree requirements can expand your candidate pool by 3-5x, improve diversity, and surface highly capable candidates from non-traditional backgrounds. Many top performers in technical and business roles are skilled through alternative paths.
