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.

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.

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

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How to infer skills from unstructured content - emerging best practices

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How to Quickly Assess Capabilities Using Skills Frameworks - Ibbaka Demo