9
capabilities are not built through episodic training, but through continuous education,
experience, exposure, and the right environment.
4
Companies have the opportunity
to build more integrated development strategies that include formal and informal
training, expertise sharing, apprenticeship, management support of learning, and
ongoing performance support and coaching.
> “ Traditional learning and development
programs, which typically sprinkle
training across the organization, are
simply not dynamic enough.”
Succession planning: Beyond the C-suite
Given the competitive challenges of finding talent in the marketplace, coupled with
the long lead times needed to build deep skills, succession management should
expand well beyond the C-suite.
Traditionally, succession planning has concentrated on identifying high-potential
leaders and developing them for senior roles in the organization. Rather than
just focusing on these managerial positions, this process should be expanded to
include other key roles as well—including key technical specialists, people in critical
customer-facing roles, and expert operations and project managers. Oil companies,
utilities, and manufacturers, for example, now regularly develop succession plans
across a range of technical professions.
Creating a global skills supply chain
Given the scarcity of skills and the high level of demand, the annual training and
development planning cycle is being replaced with a “supply chain” approach to
developing workforce capabilities. This involves a systematic, continuous process
rather than a “once and done” annual event.
Under a supply chain approach, companies examine their capabilities at all levels
and project gaps into the coming years. Once these gaps are visible, companies can
focus on which skills they will need and where they might need them.
As figure 2 shows, executives in our global survey generally believe their companies
are doing an adequate job of identifying skills gaps and understanding where
skilled workers are located. However, they are struggling to access those skills,
particularly when it comes to moving talent to the work and redesigning work to
access skills in new places.
To overcome this challenge, organizations can search internally and externally
for capabilities by exploring new approaches for accessing talent, building
continuous learning programs, and turning leaders into “capability development
champions” with a responsibility for producing deeper levels of talent on their
own teams.
HR
Josh Bersin, Jen Stempel, and Bernard van der Vyver, “The quest for workforce capability:
Create a global skills supply chain,” Deloitte University Press, March 7, 2014,
% of total number of responses
Figure 2. Companies struggle to close skill gaps
27%
60%
14%
Understanding current skills
and capability gaps
929
42%
49%
9%
Understanding future
skill requirements
927
29%
56%
14%
Understanding where skilled
workers are located
926
48%
43%
9%
Moving people to work
(global mobility)
765
62%
33%
5%
Redesigning work to access
skills in different places
891
HR executives’ assessment of performance management capability levels Weak Adequate Excellent
Graphic: Deliotte University Press |
1. Richard Dobbs, Anu Madgavkar, Dominic Barton, Eric Labaye, James Manyija, Charles Roxburgh, Susan Lund, and Siddarth Madhav, The world at work: Jobs, pay and skills for 3.5 billion people, June 2012,
ack to article
2. David Mallon, Janet Clarey and Mark Vickers, The high-impact learning organization maturity model
®
, Bersin & Associates, August 2012
r
.Back to article
3. Deloitte client conversations with a variety of oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing executives
4. Ibid.
