Six ways your HR software can add strategy to upskilling and promoting employees.
When LinkedIn Research asked HR professionals if their “executives are concerned that employees do not have the right skills to execute our business strategy,” 49% said yes. Companies need clear reskilling and learning pathways to match the company’s plans and keep staff, and those pathways must align with the company’s goals.
These concerns can unlock more resources for learning systems. But that doesn’t close the gap left by mismatching what the business needs. Learning systems end up under-used or teaching the wrong skills. What looked good at the start ends up producing underwhelming and delayed outcomes.
As the famous corporate learning book, The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, states, “We are not in the business of providing classes, learning tools, or even learning itself. We are in the business of facilitating improved business results.”
Most workforce planning for skills and promotion fails this test. Learning doesn’t align with business goals because of poor planning resulting from fractured information, creating a gap instead.
HR’s power to direct development
But organisations that use the right tools to measure and track employee progress can close that gap. What most don’t realise is that their HR software should be able to support them in workforce development, says Sandra Crous, Managing Director of Deel Local Payroll.
“What skills does the business need, and who is ready and appropriate for that training? What about promotions? Who are the best candidates, and what new skills might they need? It can take months to collect all the information needed to make the right calls. But the right HR platform will make that collection simple and continuous, so that you always have a clear idea of how to manage your employees.”
It’s important not to confuse workforce planning with learning systems. AI-powered and dynamic learning suites belong at a later stage of employee development. Before that, you must chart the course forward, and this is where cloud-native HR platforms are the primary contributors.
These cloud-based systems collect data from sources such as payroll and HR records, collating them into dashboards and reports specifically for areas such as skills management, promotion prediction, and succession planning. The leading platforms bundle these features as standard modules in their base service or as add-ons in higher-tier versions.
“Most employee appraisal systems are chaotic, with emails and documents from different managers, org charts on one system, evaluation reports on another. An HR platform enables different people to submit information throughout the year, creating a continuous picture of where your workforce is,” says Crous.
Six modern workforce management features
Does your HR software meet this standard? Some of the key features and modules to look for are:
● Performance Management: gather data to assess, develop, and manage workforces without a separate appraisal system.
● Training and Skills Management: log each employee’s training history and maintain a record of workforce skills/competencies tied to their profile.
● Succession and Talent Management: managers rate an employee’s potential for promotion, the likely timing of that promotion, and even reasons why they might leave.
● Appraisal Input: managers and employees can capture and document performance conversations, attachments, and motivations directly through appraisal portals.
● Organisation Management: employee information automatically builds and maintains org charts, making it easier to identify and map the roles and skills a business needs.
● Cloud Analytics/Power BI: planners can create reports on the HR platform, or import HR data (such as skills, performance, and payroll cost) into advanced analytics tools.
Continuous and strategic workforce development
With the right HR system, they can switch from haphazard planning to continuous workforce development, says Crous.
“HR platform systems reach into different parts of the business, letting different people take part based on their responsibilities and insights. They let managers capture and maintain records that help support their teams. Employees can support each other by contributing testimonials and evidence to reviews. When everyone contributes seamlessly, workforce planning and evaluation changes from annual events to something everyone works on throughout the year. This creates the foundation for strategic workforce planning that gives employees fulfillment and helps move the business closer to its goals.”
