Organisations lose out on performance gains when they require employees to demonstrate proficiency in all skill requirements before moving them into critical roles, according to a survey by Gartner.
In fact, employees hired based on promise are 1,9-times more likely to perform effectively than those hired for proficiency.
An October 2024 Gartner survey revealed that 48% of the 190 surveyed HR leaders agreed the demand for new skills is evolving faster than existing talent structures and processes can support.
“Many organisations are transforming their capabilities so rapidly that they can’t acquire all the skills they need — the talent either doesn’t exist or is too expensive,” says Meaghan Kelly, director in the Gartner HR Practice. “This puts more pressure on organisations to build skills internally, but unfortunately, most organizations are not building skills fast enough to fill critical roles.”
One of the biggest challenges facing organisations today when building skills is the pressure put on building proficiency. The current approach of requiring employees to be proficient in all skills before transitioning into new roles is delaying performance and hindering growth.
To speed up time spent on skills development and facilitate internal mobility, HR leaders must shift from building proficiency to building on promise, which Gartner defines as “a willingness and ability to learn new skills from a minimum foundation.” Yet, in an October 2024 Gartner survey of more than 3 200 employees, only 28% reported that their organisation places importance on building on promise.
Mobilising Promise
One of the biggest challenges in mobilizing organizations to hire on promise is actually identifying employees with promise. According to the October Gartner survey, 51% of managers agreed that they request recruiters to only focus on recruiting employees with all desired skills when recruiting internally.
“Waiting to find an employee with all of the exact skills listed for a role significantly shrinks the pool of potential candidates,” says Annika Jessen, director in the Gartner HR practice. “Instead, managers should focus on defining simple, foundational role requirements to reach a wider group of candidates.”
To encourage managers to adopt this approach, recruiters should illustrate what promise looks like for in-demand skills via quantitative and qualitative data, and how to transform promise into performance.
Realising Promise
Offering support to employees hired based on promise is crucial, though there is currently an overreliance on managers for this support, despite their high levels of burnout.
To help lift the burden of support off managers, organizations can implement skills-based learning networks, which include the employee, their manager, learning and development, talent management, and a subject matter expert.
Per Gartner research, implementing a network support approach has nearly doubled the impact on skills preparedness versus the 1:1 support approach.