The 2024/2025 Skills Snapshot Survey report  

Benchmarking skills-powered success

In the era of skills-powered organisations, a company’s success hinges on the speed at which it develops and deploys skills to work. By shifting to a skills-powered approach, businesses can drive innovation and productivity while cultivating a culture of continuous learning, adaptability and agility.

As part of the skills-powered journey, employers are progressing with leveraging skills in their talent and rewards strategies. This improves employee retention, enhances workforce agility and allows greater flexibility in responding to evolving market demands.

The 2024/2025 Skills Snapshot Survey report delves into the strategic importance of building a skills-powered organisation, including how this paradigm shift unlocks unprecedented potential to position businesses for sustainable growth.

Key points we address in the research

  • Building a skills foundation
  • How organisations map skills to employees
  • Steps forward: Linking skills with rewards
  • Overcoming obstacles
  • Becoming a skills-powered organisation

Rising maturity in incorporating skills into talent practices

Across the board, we’ve seen greater integration of skills into talent management practices and improved effectiveness compared to last year. Learning, workforce planning and rewards show the most significant growth in practice maturity.
Bar chart comparing responses for high or very high levels of maturity in various organisational areas for the years 2023 and 2024. The chart displays six categories: Learning, Performance Management, Career Development, Talent Acquisition, Workforce Planning, Rewards, and Projects and Gigs. Each category shows two bars: one for 2023 (in green) and one for 2024 (in blue). The percentages for 2024 are as follows: Learning 30%, Performance Management 28%, Career Development 28%, Talent Acquisition 27%, Workforce Planning 21%, Rewards 19%, and Projects and Gigs 19%. The percentages for 2023 are: Learning 23%, Performance Management 22%, Career Development 20%, Talent Acquisition 24%, Workforce Planning 14%, Rewards 13%, and Projects and Gigs 15%. Overall, the chart indicates an increase in maturity levels across most categories from 2023 to 2024.
Although many organisations are making incremental progress compared to previous years, many others aren’t sure how to get started on their skills journey. We’ve outlined the four essential steps below:
  • Define the vision
  • Engage stakeholders
  • Build the roadmap
  • Activate an initial pilot

Ready to get started?

Begin your skills-powered journey to thrive in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Download the report
This content has been prepared by Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd (MCAPL) ABN 55 153 168 140. It is intended to inform clients of MCAPL’s views on particular issues. It should not be relied upon or used as a substitute for professional advice specific to a client’s individual circumstances. MCAPL believes the information derived from external sources to be reliable and accurate at the time of writing, but no warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information, and no responsibility is accepted by MCAPL or any of its related entities for any loss or damage arising from reliance on the information. 
 
MCAPL is a subsidiary of Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd 32 005 315 917 (Mercer Australia). Mercer Australia and/or its associated companies are referred to as ‘Mercer’. ‘MERCER’ is an Australian-registered trade mark of Mercer Australia.
 
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