The new shape of work: Drive organisational growth with skills 

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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 Unfortunately, many outdated attitudes towards skills and talent processes are still prevalent, while some employees exhibit apathy toward reskilling.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?

  • Plan

    • Strategic vision
    • Use case validation
    • Skills roadmap

  • Build

    • Job, skill architecture
    • Skills alignment
    • Data and tech

  • Design

    • Workforce planning
    • reskill/upskill
    • Internal talent marketplace
    • Talent acquisition
    • Pay for skills
    • Performance management
    • Succession planning
    • Career agility / pathing

  • Activate

    • Rollout plan
    • Tech deployment
    • Sustainability plan
93% of HR leaders are prioritising designing talent processes around skills (hiring, learning, succession)
Global Talent Trends
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Skills diagnostics survey

Assess the maturity of the skill structures and reskilling processes within your organisation.

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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.

Learn more about our skills library

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Skills advisory solutions 

Mercer Skills Edge is a full-service offering advancing skills-based workforce, talent, and pay practices within client organisations.

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