The new shape of work: Drive organisational growth with skills

Upskill and reskill to address the talent shortage
Before the pandemic, two in five HR leaders acknowledged that they didn’t know what skills they had in their workforce. In the post-pandemic world, many such employers are working to collect the necessary data. Meanwhile, leading companies are expanding their talent and learning ecosystems and exploring ways to move employees around their organisations based on their talents and skills.
Around 93% of HR leaders are prioritising the design of talent processes (such as hiring, learning and succession) around skills. However, in many cases, the process of closing the skills gap is still in the learning phase. Unfortunately, many outdated attitudes towards skills and talent processes are still prevalent, while some employees exhibit apathy toward reskilling.
The imperative for employers is to build a vibrant and resilient talent ecosystem that can meet their companies’ skill needs. This can be done using strategic workforce planning, pay-for-skills practices, talent marketplaces and creative work design.
Adopting a skills-based approach to the reinvention of a business to embrace flexibility enables companies to address questions such as:
-
How do we know what skills we have today, and how can we use those skills to our advantage?
-
How can we develop the skills we need for the future while delivering today?
-
How can we formulate our pay for skills philosophy and accurately value skills?
-
How do we prioritise our learning and development spend?
-
How can we speed up and improve our HR processes to adapt to a more flexible world of work?
93% of HR leaders are prioritising designing talent processes around skills (hiring, learning, succession)
Skills diagnostics survey
Assess the maturity of the skill structures and reskilling processes within your organisation.
Understanding the skills you need
Our skills library maps thousands of unique skills to our job library. Use this knowledge to efficiently incorporate skills into your workforce strategies.
Skills advisory solutions
Mercer Skills Edge is a full-service offering advancing skills-based workforce, talent, and pay practices within client organisations.
Related solutions
-
Attract & retain talent
Strategic workforce planning
Mercer’s strategic workforce planning solutions provide a rational business basis to prioritise, develop and fund the people practices needed to support business… -
Talent & transformation
Organisation design
Mercer’s organisation design consulting can help you transition from a traditional multilayered organisation to a simple, agile and distributed structure. -
Employee experience design
Mercer’s employee experience design uses design-thinking principles to define and shape solutions to meet your people’s needs more effectively and to bring out the…
Related insights
-
Future of work
Global Talent Trends 2024-2025
In an era where people risk equates to business risk, striking the balance between tech acceleration and a winning work experience will be critical. -
Mitigating climate health risks through innovation at Davos 2025
Mitigating climate health risks through innovation at Davos 2025. The World Economic Forum fosters collective leadership and local strategies for solutions. -
Benefit strategies
Top health trends for 2025
Top healthcare research trends shaping the future of employer-sponsored benefits may sound familiar, but a lot is changing. Find out the top 3 trends and actions…