Skills Taxonomies and Intelligence Platforms are the “next big thing.” Josh Bersin

Steven Forth is co-founder and managing partner at Ibbaka. See his skill profile here.

One of the year’s major events for HR folks has just gotten started. The HR Technology Conference and Expo is a gathering of many of the key players in the HR and Talent Management space. Along with the conference come thought pieces by industry leaders. One of the most interesting is Ten New Truths About the HR Technology Market by pundit Josh Bersin.

Josh is a very experienced and well connected commentator and it is worth following his views. In this post we are focussed on just one of his ten truths, but we encourage you to go over and read the full article. Our interest is in the area of skills and competencies.

3/ Skills Taxonomies and Intelligence Platforms are the “next big thing.”

Before we dive into what Josh has to say about skill intelligence platforms, or what Ibbaka refers to as skill management, let’s look at where he thinks it fits into the overall application ecology.

Josh Bersin’s take on the emerging HR Technology Architecture.

Skill management is the ‘talent intelligence layer’ and its underlying data model is the ‘skill graph.’ Ibbaka introduced the concept of the skill graph in this 2017 post. The skill graph connects skills to other skills, to people, roles, projects and all of the other nodes that inform a person’s expertise and contribute to their potential. The skill graph is the underlying data that helps connect people together into effective teams.

An understanding of skills is taking on strategic dimensions. The capabilities of an organization signal its strategy. At the same time, these capabilities can constrain its options. The skills of its people are one of the most important determinants of strategy and adoption of skill management systems will make a big contribution to strategy execution.

Josh’s key point is that skill data and the need to leverage skill data is widely distributed. Skills have become the connective tissue that align learning and performance with organizational goals. Systems connected to skills range from learning management systems (LMS) and learning experience platforms (LXP), applicant tracking systems (ATS) and talent management and core HR systems. Recently, operating systems such as project management and resource management systems have come to make use of skill data in designing teams and defining roles. This is being extended to customer success platforms and innovation management platforms.

Josh Bersin on why a central skill reposotry is necessary.

Some skill data, skill taxonomies and competency models will live outside the organisation. More and more companies are looking to leverage the data being gathered by external organizations (Josh mentions EMSI/Burning Glass) and there are many other examples. Ibbaka is supporting this through its collaboration Go.Frameworks.io where competency frameworks are being shared to support alignment with microcredential and badging systems.

A system of record for skills - data and functional services

Given the distributed nature of skills and the need to use skill data across multiple applications a system of record is required. Aggregating skill data in one place also contributes to a richer skill graph and more data for artificial intelligences to learn from.

The system of record will need to provide more than just data to other applications. It can also offer functional APIs that support search or recommendation. Ibbaka supports search for people, projects, roles and of course skills. When one finds the skill one is looking for, one wants to know

• who has the skill,

• at what level,

• what projects it has been used on,

• what other skills it has been used with.

The vision is to be able to propose the skills needed for success in a specific role or on a specific project and then to predict the chance of success given the combination of skills and experience of the people on the team.

Skill management and systems of record are the next big thing because they help individuals, teams and organizations to achieve their goals.

Ibbaka posts on competency models and competency frameworks

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach