Session Focus: Creating a skills-based future by integrating talent Practices

Creating an empowering environment that engages employees as active participants is critical for building an authentic skills-driven workforce. This Learning Circle session, Creating a More Skills-based Future, emphasized three key takeaways:

1) Provide employee autonomy in driving skills growth, not just top-down assigned training. "Managing skills from the bottom up, giving employees the ability to stretch their own skill profiles," stated panelist Karl Weston.

2) Enable meaningful skills development through practice, feedback, and experiential opportunities beyond just accessing content. "People need opportunities to practice, get feedback, experience, repetition," noted Brian Richardson.

3) Integrate personalized coaching. "The minute we engaged career coaches, we saw higher engagement and retention rates," shared Geovanny Andino.

While skills architecture, taxonomies and measurement are vital, the panelists highlighted the importance of a human-centric, empowering culture. Balancing technical components with empowerment, enablement and coaching is key.

Building a skills-driven workforce requires more than just implementing technology. It demands holistic environments that inspire employees to own their growth while providing support structures. An empowering culture, not an impersonal competency system, is the goal.