Building a Skills Taxonomy

Saturday, July 1, 2023, 12:00 AM
(UTC+02:00) Berlin, Bern
Alessandro Linari

In this session, Alessandro will present the methodology he and his team have used to approach this mammoth task, some valuable lessons learned so far, and the roadmap ahead. Essential viewing for anyone considering or already working on a similar project.

Having a standardised taxonomy to describe the skills and roles in your workforce allows for much more effective workforce planning and sourcing, and can advise strategic decisions across the business. But for a transforming organisation with operations across multiple business units, creating something accurate, adaptable and scalable is no easy task.

At Vodafone UK, they have explored what it takes to build a universal skills taxonomy that can accurately describe every role in the workforce.

People Analytics, Talent Management, L&D, workforce planning

  • For accurate workforce planning, sourcing and internal mobility, it’s important to have a clear picture of the skills your organisation has and needs
  • In a large and complex workforce, this is no easy task – how can the engine behind the numerous operations and deliveries that your company produces be distilled into a specific and discrete hierarchy of skills?
  • Who needs to be consulted in this process, how do you verify the answers you get, and how can you be sure your taxonomy reflects the reality of your global business operations?

This session will explore:

  • Why business need a skills taxonomy
  • The main technical challenges of building a taxonomy
  • Insight into the complexity of building a skills taxonomy for an organisation
  • Examples of insights that can be extracted from skills data once it is integrated with other HR systems
  • How we approach this task, our methodology, our successes and lessons learned so far.

Learning outcomes:

  • What we have learned so far on our journey
  • Things to be aware of when planning your own skills taxonomy
  • Advice on the stakeholders you need to involve
  • Pitfalls to avoid
  • Setting realistic goals and milestones, and what to bear in mind to ensure the long-term longevity of your project.

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