With an MBA in business and organizational development from The George Washington University, Chandra "Chandi" Krohl has worked in human resources for over two decades at companies such as Clarabridge, McKinsey, and Accenture. Throughout her career, Chandra Krohl has played a role in various corporate talent management initiatives like leadership development, talent reviews, and staff skilling.
According to an annual survey by Gartner research, building critical skills and competencies remains the top priority for HR leaders in 2021. For the 2021 Gartner HR Trends & Priorities Report, Gartner surveyed over 800 HR leaders from 60 countries worldwide, assessing their top priorities going into 2021. Building critical skills was the number one priority, followed by developing an organizational redesign and nurturing new leadership.
The work environment is changing, requiring employees to learn new skills on an on-going basis. Data from Gartner TalentNeuron shows that the number of skills needed for jobs is growing by 10 percent annually. Further analysis shows that companies listed 33 percent more skills on job ads in 2020 than in 2017.
Organizations today cannot reskill their employees fast enough to meet the needs of the modern work environment. A reason for this could be limited sharing between HR professionals. Currently, only one-fifth of HR leaders partner with peers to identify future skills needs. Gartner recommends HR leaders to work together to identify shifting skill needs early and develop them in their staff as they come up.
Gartner also recommends more modern approaches to recruiting that prioritize skill sets rather than hiring profiles. Further, it encourages HR leaders to look outside conventional talent pools to tap into a broader market of candidates, raising their chances of finding employees with the right skillsets.
