Organizations and HR leaders continue to focus on all aspects of employee skills—mapping and building skills, tracking them, identifying necessary future skills and much more—and with good reason. HR leaders surveyed in June ranked skills gaps as the biggest risk for their organizations’ future, according to Gartner data.
At the same time, only 8% of organizations have good information on their workforce’s current skills and the skills that most affect business success, the research firm reported last month. Gartner analysts suggested a possible path ahead during its ReimagineHR Conference this week in Orlando.
Among several key takeaways released Monday was the suggestion to close skills gaps by building “collective intelligence,” which it defined as “harnessing the collective ‘brain’ of the organization to make the entire workforce more ready for what’s next.”
A single experience for skills
On the same day in Lisbon, SAP SuccessFactors announced system enhancements and embedded AI across its HCM suite that President and Chief Product Officer Dan Beck says can help organizations do just that, moving ahead what he called SuccessFactors’ “sublime mission” to make “every employee a success story.”
That’s the theme of the 2024 SuccessConnect event, emphasizing the role of technology and AI, among other tools, in boosting efficiencies and enhancing employee experience. These “represent a major leap toward a future where every organization has a single source of truth for its people data and skills intelligence, enabling data-driven decisions across the entire business,” Beck said in a news release that accompanied the announcements.
Around skills, he introduced the Career and Talent Development solution, which combines SuccessFactors’ talent products into a “single guided experience” that will allow for data-driven career planning and workforce management.
This provides an answer for customers who have been floundering with the skills question and asking for help, Beck said. Since “you can’t hire yourself out of the skills gap,” SAP SuccessFactors offers this solution to help fill the skills gap and drive strategic growth, he said. It will be available to customers next month.
The tool is powered by the system’s talent intelligence hub, which sits as a foundation of the SuccessFactors platform. Structurally, this aligns with what Gartner and other analysts now suggest is the only way forward with skills. This solution crosses all platforms and brings together data from many systems.
New integrations with SuccessFactors coming
“The objective behind the talent intelligence hub is to feed skills and infuse skills throughout the entire talent journey associated with your profile directly from recruiting,” Beck said.
For employees, that might mean individual suggestions for building a personalized career path, including AI-generated recommendations for skills development to close gaps and help the employee reach his or her career goal.
“It’s kind of like having a personal trainer,” said customer innovative specialist Ed Piggott while giving a short demo during the keynote. It might suggest projects, learning courses, even mentors, along with providing insights into why those skills are important and building detailed plans for mastering the skills.
For HR leaders, the talent intelligence hub’s new integrations with third-party solutions will bring in data to help create a single view of skills for the organization. The first partners to integrate will include Lightcast, Beamery, Degreed, Korn Ferry and Phenom, among others.
These announcements were just a few made on Monday at the annual customer conference. Others included upcoming broader applications for AI co-pilot Joule, including in performance management, payroll and more.
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