Trends in Skill Assessments for Employees

I'm sharing this for the first time... Every year, I analyze hundreds of assessments from HR Jetpack students preparing for their SHRM exam. These assessments reveal where HR professionals struggle the most—and where they excel. By identifying these knowledge gaps, we can adjust our programs to better equip HR professionals with the skills they need to succeed. Here’s what I found: - Global HR Competencies Present a Major Growth Opportunity - Compliance, Ethics, and Core HR Functions Are Strengths - Talent & Organizational Development Are Top Priorities 23 HR Topic Groups — Ranked from Least Proficient (top) to Most Proficient (bottom): 🚨 Managing a Global Workforce – LEAST PROFICIENT 🚨 Employee Engagement & Retention 🚨 Structure of the HR Function 🚨 Global Mindset 🚨 HR Strategy ⚠️ Communication ⚠️ Corporate Social Responsibility ⚠️ U.S. Employment Law & Regulations ⚠️ Consultation ⚠️ Learning & Development 👍 Leadership & Navigation 👍 Total Rewards 👍 Relationship Management 👍 Employee & Labor Relations 👍 Workforce Management ✅ Technology Management ✅ Risk Management ✅ Analytical Aptitude ✅ Ethical Practice ✅ Business Acumen 🔥 Talent Acquisition 🔥 Organizational Effectiveness & Development 🔥 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – MOST PROFICIENT 👉 HR pros, does this match your experience? Let’s discuss in the comments! #HR #HRTraining #ProfessionalDevelopment #HRJetpack

AI is set to transform corporate learning in 2025. One way to think about it is mapping across the learning cycle: 👇 🧠 Needs Analysis This space (Eightfold, TechWolf, SeekOut) has commercialized first but is still early. In 2025, needs analysis will move beyond job descriptions and LinkedIn profiles to passive observation of work, meetings, and interactions — creating richer, real-time pictures of skills gaps. 📚 Recommendation LMS/LXPs (Docebo, 360Learning, Continu, WorkRamp, Sana et al) will get smarter at matching learning to individual needs. However, these platforms will have to continue to evolve to compete with generic enterprise AI’s ability to recommend content. 👩🏫 Learning Intervention Bespoke content creation will get faster and easier (Synthesia, HeyGen,  Elai.io), helping lean L&D teams get more done. The biggest breakthroughs? AI-powered interactive learning, fueled by advances like OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode. Hone has some bold things coming — watch this space. 🎯 Application & Practice AI enables scenario simulations for accelerated practice and real-time feedback. The tech has been promising but not fully realistic — 2025 will see leaps forward in higher fidelity experiences (Mursion, Talespin by Cornerstone, Praxis Labs). ✍️ Assessment & Certification AI can now assess previously “unmeasurable” skills (like soft skills) with far more depth than multiple-choice tests. Passive (watch-you-work) and active (demonstrate-this-skill) assessments will give more accurate, real-time visibility into skill development. What about AI coaches? Many are trying to build them. They could compress a lot of the above cycle into one coherent experience. However, I see significant gaps in today’s approaches — more on that in another post. Buckle up — 2025 is going to be a wild ride for AI in corporate learning. Thoughts? What else are you seeing? Let me know in the comments.

Everybody is talking about the skills-based organization, but how do you create it, use skills in everything from hiring to people development, from workforce planning to pay, and from talent mobility to strategic insights? We know that companies struggle, with only 1 in 5 effectively using skills for recruiting decisions, 12% for career development, and 8% for pay decisions. One of the problems companies face: skills validation so we can trust the insights and be confident in skills-based decisions. I had the opportunity to discuss with Jim Hemgen, Director of Talent Development of Booz Allen Hamilton on our latest The Josh Bersin Company WhatWorks podcast about this topic. In a highly competitive labor market, Jim and his team faced issues in employee career development and retention. About 60% of employees searching for internal opportunities may leave if they do not find suitable roles. This prompted Booz Allen to develop a skills-based ecosystem to enable internal career moves, reduce attrition, and at the same time build skills for the future across hundreds of domains including AI. Jim explains the key areas his work focused on: - Skills validation and badging: Booz Allen introduced a skills validation and badging system to assess and recognize employee skills through proficiency levels such as foundational, practitioner, and expert. Built on Workera, validated skills enhance the trust and credibility of the talent marketplace. - AI readiness: Initiatives to make employees AI-ready are part of the strategy. Booz Allen focuses on preparing its workforce to integrate AI in their roles, which is critical for organizational success - supporting their journey to become superworkers. - Continuous improvement and collaboration: To foster a continuous improvement approach, Jim and his team engage with industry peers and tech partners to refine their strategies and ensure alignment with future needs. - Engaging managers and employees: To encourage learning and focus on the most important new skills, business ownership, storytelling, and rewards contribute to the company’s success in ongoing skills development. The result is a highly trusted, validated skills system that the company can use for strategic workforce planning and that supports employees in their career journey. Today more than one third of Booz Allen staff have completed validated credentials for their career. Listen in to learn more about Jim's journey and how they solved key business problems with a skills-based approach. Let us know what you think. How are you advancing on your company's skills journey and where do you see AI skill building fit in? #skillsbasedorganization #skillsvalidation #AIdevelopment #superworkers Josh Bersin Stella Ioannidou Veronica Dinis https://lnkd.in/g4XsuBJX

While the cost of graduate education continues to rise, the wage premium — the added earnings employers are willing to pay for a master’s or PhD over a bachelor’s degree — is declining. Why is that? I spent some time last week talking about this with colleagues, and shared data and research on what this means for current graduate students. One reason we’re seeing a decline in the wage premium? Employers are shifting from credential to skills-based hiring. → In survey after survey, employers say they value evidence that a candidate has applied skills and knowledge in a real-world setting. In a 2019 survey from NACE of employers and hiring managers, 75% reported using GPA to screen candidates. By 2023, that number had dropped below 50%. → In the same survey, NACE found that 65% of companies now use skills-based hiring. → In a survey of employers conducted in 2023, 81% said that skills matter more than credentials when hiring and promoting employees. → And 94% of hiring managers said skills-based hires outperform those selected based on degrees or years of experience. This shift in how employers evaluate talent informs the decisions we make as we adapt curriculum and support students in Beyond Prof / Beyond Grad School. Our mission is to help graduate students succeed in a changing job market — and that means focusing on the 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐔𝐄 and 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐓 of their skills. The framework of HOW students will do this looks different for master’s students and PhDs... they are very different populations with different professional development needs. But the takeaway is the same. Skills open doors, and we need to help students articulate the added value and impact of their graduate education with confidence.