Building Skills for Growth

Growing workforce talent is one of agencies’ biggest concerns.

“We’re not developing our teams fast enough to address some of the needs that we have,” said Steve Dobberowsky Director of Thought Leadership and Advisory Services with Cornerstone OnDemand, a talent management software provider. “So, how do we become a skill-based organization?”

As technology jets forward, skill-building is a key determinant of career trajectory. Agencies can find ways to support employee development in ways that benefit both workers and their agencies, and Dobberowsky outlined a few methods.

Embrace Skill-Based Hiring

The Office of Personnel Management’s current focus on skill-based hiring is a significant shift from prior approaches to the issue, he said. When degrees and certifications don’t match requirements, learning potential is what makes applicants stand out.

Dobberowsky would like to see skills-based thinking woven into onboarding, so the process emphasizes professional development and helps new hires grow into leaders. That would allow for better succession planning and offer new career pathways, he said.

Manage for the Future

Managers can use knowledge of an organization’s future needs to find gaps in capabilities, Dobberowksy believes. Although competencies ensure that tasks can be performed in the present, skills make an employee prepared to pivot and grow when things change. That’s because skills are forward-looking, he said.

To support well-rounded development, he recommended rotational assignments that allow employees to undertake tasks outside their usual areas.

And whether it’s basic compliance or specialized training, it helps to consider development from three angles: What does the organization need, what does the individual need and how can we work collectively to develop? That’s what Dobberowsky calls the “you, me, we” approach. Each area has priorities, but they must work together, he said.

Establish a Learning Culture

Individual growth is growth for agencies also, and employees can leverage their professional trajectories to support their organizations. Collective problem-solving and knowledge sharing — the “we” Dobberowsky mentioned — factors in here.

“The components that we’re focusing on when we talk about skill-based development and skillbased approaches to talent management are building a culture of learning and growth,” he said.

Agencies can create environments that allow for safe experimentation, and growth improves both performance and retention, he added. A development friendly environment is one in which people naturally want to stay.

A Learning Platform

Cornerstone’s learning solutions support collaboration and skill-based communities within organizations. They embody “you, me, we” through educational pathways and employee recognition. In addition to handling robust compliance activity, the learning system hosts user-created content, helps managers access talent cultivation data, and delivers educational opportunities within employee workflows.

“It brings in that learning at the point when I actually need it,” Dobberowsky explained. And for managers, he said, “it really gives you the opportunity, as an organization, to make talent decisions with data.”

It all adds up to levels of transparency and applicability that help managers communicate the “why,” calming employee fears about change. And, it creates an environment that facilitates staff and agency growth.

This article appeared in our guide, “Agencies of the Future: How to Break Down Barriers to Growth.” For more about how governments are embracing change, download it here:

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