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Skills Transparency: What It Is & How to Achieve It
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Workforce Optimization

Skills Transparency: What It Is & How to Achieve It

8 mins read

Skills Transparency: What It Is & How to Achieve It

Updated On Jul 18, 2025

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Drawing in from Deloitte's 2023 Global Human Capital Trend,”in a boundaryless world, work isn’t defined by jobs, the workplace isn’t a specific place, and many workers aren’t traditional employees.” As organizations embrace more flexible, project-based structures, leaders face an increasing challenge: understanding the full range of skills within their teams. With roles becoming more fluid, knowing exactly who possesses which expertise at any given moment is crucial for keeping teams aligned and responsive.

When leaders have a clear view of their workforce's strengths and capabilities, they can make quicker, better-informed decisions, ensure smoother collaboration, and remain adaptable to the constantly shifting demands of the business world. Working in this regard, modern enterprises are adopting "boundaryless roles" that prioritize skills and deliverables over fixed titles, according to the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

This shift requires a more dynamic approach to talent management, where understanding and leveraging the diverse skills of the workforce becomes essential for driving innovation and staying ahead of industry trends.

What is Skills Transparency?

Skills transparency refers to a state where organizations gain complete visibility into the full spectrum of skills possessed by their workforce. It’s an evolving system that offers leaders and HR teams the ability to access up-to-date, detailed insights into the skills, expertise, and capabilities of each employee in real time. Rather than relying on static records or assumptions, this transparency provides a dynamic, fluid view that grows and adapts alongside the workforce.

Skills Transparency

In a skills-transparent organization, employees’ capabilities are continuously tracked and updated, ensuring that teams have the most accurate and comprehensive data available. This access goes beyond a simple list of qualifications; it encompasses the diverse, often hidden, skills that emerge through daily tasks, cross-functional projects, and personal development efforts.

With this holistic view, HR leaders can measure their talent capital accurately, set plans more effectively, and create a robust framework for workforce development that aligns with the organization’s future needs.

A recent Deloitte study found that organizations adopting skills-based approaches reported 63% higher talent agility, 57% better business performance, and 98% better retention rates among high performers. These outcomes underscore the power of transparency in enabling organizations to move from reactive talent deployment to proactive, strategic talent orchestration.

By embracing skills transparency, organizations unlock a powerful tool for talent management, fostering an environment where employees are empowered to develop their skills and pursue new growth avenues. This data-driven approach allows businesses to stay agile, adapt quickly to market shifts, and remain competitive in an ever-changing business landscape.

Building the Foundation of Skills Transparency

Establishing skills transparency requires a set of foundational activities that ensure an accurate and dynamic view of the workforce’s capabilities. By cataloging, comparing, validating, and regularly updating skills, organizations create a living framework that evolves with both employee development and business needs. These processes enable HR leaders to make data-driven decisions, ensuring that the workforce is aligned with current and future organizational goals.
Cataloging Skills: Skills are systematically cataloged to create a comprehensive inventory, covering both technical and soft skills, as well as emerging capabilities.
Comparing Skills: Employees' current skills are compared against industry benchmarks, external resumes, and evolving business needs. Job role requirements are then updated accordingly to ensure that skills are accurately reflected and aligned with market standards, keeping the workforce agile and adaptable.
Validating Skills: Self-reported skills are validated through assessments, manager feedback, peer evaluations, and work performance. This process ensures that the skills recorded are not only self-claimed but substantiated through real-world evidence.
Assessing Skill Gaps: Tools are used to identify and assess skill gaps within teams or across the organization. These gaps are analyzed by comparing current skill sets with business needs or strategic objectives, helping HR teams make informed decisions on talent development.
Using Skill Reports to Track Progress: Regular reports are generated to monitor skill development, ensuring that skills remain relevant and aligned with both current and future business needs.
Optimizing Skills Data: Skills data is regularly corrected and updated, ensuring that outdated or inaccurate information is addressed, and the skills inventory remains current and reliable.

Why Skills Transparency is Critical in Modern Business Environment

Why Skills Transparency is Critical in Modern Business Environment
  • Lack of Agility in Adapting to Change: As organizations face rapid technological changes and market disruptions, they need the ability to quickly pivot talent resources to meet emerging demands. Without visibility into the skills of their workforce, organizations struggle to reassign talent efficiently during such transitions.
Unilever's Skills Mapping Initiative: Enhancing Agility in a Rapidly Changing Market
Overview:
Facing rapid shifts in consumer behavior, Unilever sought to boost agility and empower employees to move seamlessly into new opportunities. To achieve this, they launched a global skills mapping initiative covering over 90,000 employees across 90+ countries.
Approach:
Using an AI-powered internal talent marketplace, Unilever encouraged employees to self-assess skills, which managers then validated. This created a dynamic, transparent skills inventory, allowing leaders to match talent to roles and projects in real-time.
Key Outcomes:
60% of vacancies filled internally, dramatically cutting recruitment costs and reducing time-to-fill.
Improved engagement and retention, as employees gained visibility into new growth opportunities.
Enhanced organizational agility, enabling faster response to market changes and fostering a culture of innovation.
  • Missed Opportunities for Cross-Functional Collaboration: Many employees possess a broader range of skills than their job titles suggest. However, without transparency into these capabilities, organizations miss opportunities to assemble cross-functional teams that could drive innovation and solve complex challenges.
  • Increased Recruitment and Training Costs: Organizations often hire externally for skills they already have internally, simply because they are unaware of the capabilities present within their own workforce. This results in higher recruitment expenses and longer onboarding times.
Schneider Electric’s Open Talent Market: Reducing Recruitment Costs through Internal Mobility
Overview:
To keep pace with rapid technological change, Schneider Electric launched the Open Talent Market (OTM), an AI-powered internal mobility and career development platform.
Approach:
Employees’ self-reported skills and career aspirations, which managers validated, created a dynamic, real-time skills inventory. OTM connected talent to new roles, projects, and mentorships globally, fostering a culture of continuous growth.
Key Outcomes:
47% of roles filled internally, significantly reducing external hiring costs.
Accelerated leadership development and stronger talent pipelines across 100+ countries.
Over 60% employee adoption within weeks, reflecting strong engagement and enthusiasm.
Impact:
Schneider Electric strengthened workforce agility, improved retention, and enhanced innovation, positioning itself to respond quickly to market opportunities.
  • Difficulty in Succession Planning and Leadership Development: Without visibility into the skills and potential of employees, it becomes difficult for organizations to identify future leaders or develop a robust succession plan. This lack of foresight can leave companies vulnerable during times of change or leadership transition.
  • Talent Underutilization and Engagement Issues: Employees may be underutilized in roles that don’t align with their skills, leading to disengagement, lower productivity, and higher turnover. Lack of skills transparency prevents HR leaders from effectively matching employees to roles that would better leverage their talents.
Siemens: Enhancing Talent Utilization with Skills Transparency
Overview:
Siemens, with a workforce of 400,000 employees across 80 countries, faced significant challenges in managing talent transparency across its global operations. The company struggled with disparate HR systems, particularly in emerging markets, and lacked the visibility to effectively manage and deploy talent.
Approach:
To address these challenges, Siemens partnered with SuccessFactors to implement a cloud-based, integrated talent management system. This system provided a unified, real-time view of employee data across the organization, enabling global visibility into skills, performance, and development needs. The solution included the deployment of key HR modules such as performance management and recruitment, enabling Siemens to streamline HR operations worldwide.
Key Outcomes:
170,000 employees using the target-setting module within 6 months.
40,000 daily logins as employees accessed the system for real-time data and decision-making.
Ability to run global reports for the first time, facilitating better talent management and decision-making.
Dramatic improvement in talent deployment, with Siemens able to compare internal candidates across regions and identify key skills more efficiently.
Impact:
The transformation not only improved the efficiency of Siemens’ HR operations but also gave the company the ability to compare internal candidates across global locations, driving more informed decision-making and talent deployment. According to Dr. Norbert Kleinjohann, Siemens CIO, “We can now run reports on a global basis, which we couldn’t do before because we never had that type of transparency. That has changed the way we operate.”
  • Difficulty in Meeting Evolving Business Needs: As business goals and market conditions shift, organizations need to quickly realign their workforce to meet these new demands. Without skills transparency, they lack the insights needed to make quick, informed decisions about reallocating talent or reskilling employees.

What are the Measures Organizations can Take to Achieve Skills Transparency

Achieving skills transparency is a strategic transformation that requires careful planning and consistent action. Below are the key steps organizations can take to operationalize this vision effectively:

1. Conduct a Comprehensive Skills Audit

Begin by systematically mapping the existing skills of your workforce. This audit should capture both formal qualifications and informal, hidden capabilities that employees have developed through experience.

Use surveys and forms to gather self-reported skills from employees and validate this data with manager assessments and performance reviews to ensure accuracy.

2. Create and Continuously Update a Living Skills Inventory

Once the skills audit is complete, establish a dynamic skills inventory that can be updated regularly. Employees should update their skills after completing new projects, certifications, or training.

3. Integrate Cross-Departmental Feedback

To achieve a more comprehensive skills overview, integrate feedback from managers across various departments. This helps avoid silos and ensures skills are recognized across functions.

4. Identify and Assess Skill Gaps

After building your skills inventory, assess where skills gaps exist by comparing current capabilities with the evolving needs of the business.

Tools like a skills matrix can help you perform gap analysis, visually identifying areas where development or external hiring may be needed.

5. Link Skills Data to Development Plans

Once gaps are identified, use this data to create personalized development plans for employees, aligning their career goals with the company’s objectives.

6. Encourage Continuous Feedback and Development Conversations

Promote regular conversations between managers and employees about career growth, skills development, and performance feedback. These discussions help ensure that employees are focused on the right skills and feel motivated to continue their growth.

Skills Transparency: The Way Ahead

As market volatility and technological disruptions continue to accelerate, organizations that prioritize skills transparency will gain a decisive competitive edge. According to Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report, 87% of executives believe that having real-time visibility into workforce skills is critical to navigating future disruptions.

Leaders equipped with comprehensive, real-time insights into workforce capabilities can respond to market shifts with greater agility, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and drive sustained innovation. 

Furthermore, skills transparency strengthens employer branding, attracting top talent eager to work in environments where growth and development are valued. A LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report revealed that 94% of employees would stay longer at a company that invests in their career development, underscoring the importance of clear, actionable growth pathways.

In a future where adaptability is the ultimate currency, skills transparency transforms talent from a static asset into a dynamic strategic advantage. For leaders, investing in this transformation is not merely an HR initiative , it is a critical pillar of long-term organizational resilience and success. By proactively adopting skills transparency, organizations position themselves to thrive in an era defined by rapid change and constant reinvention.

Conclusion

For forward-thinking leaders committed to building agile, future-ready organizations, skills transparency is an essential strategic lever. By illuminating hidden talent, aligning capabilities with business priorities, and fostering a culture of trust, leaders unlock unparalleled opportunities for innovation and growth.

At Edstellar, we enable this transformation through our advanced Skills Intelligence platform and specialized L&D consulting services. Our solutions help organizations map, validate, and dynamically manage workforce capabilities, providing the deep visibility required to make data-driven talent decisions and align skills with evolving business strategies.

With Edstellar as your partner, you can accelerate workforce agility, strengthen succession pipelines, and drive continuous development, empowering your organization to stay resilient and competitive in an ever-changing market.

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