Ernst & Young (EY), a global professional services leader, has placed skills development at the core of its growth strategy. Recognizing that 70% of employees cite learning opportunities as a key reason for joining the company, EY sought to align workforce skills with future business needs. To achieve this, EY developed a robust skills taxonomy, building on an industry framework to suit its unique organizational context. Linking its taxonomy to industry standards enabled EY to maintain relevance, reduce maintenance effort, and ensure interoperability. This strategic approach balanced the company's unique requirements with industry-wide benchmarks, creating a scalable foundation for skills-driven workforce management.

Approach and Actions

To transform its workforce into a skills-driven organization, EY adopted a comprehensive strategy to integrate skills across its learning, Human Resources (HR), and business functions. Central to this transformation was the concept of a "skills operating system," a framework that unified technology, processes, and data around a shared skills taxonomy. This system leverage tools such as a learning management system (LMS), a talent marketplace, and a learning experience platform. Together, these tools facilitate consistent skills data collection, actionable insights, and informed decision-making.

A critical step in this journey was the collection and organization of skills data. EY encouraged employees to self-assess their skills and update their profiles, creating a comprehensive skills repository. This initiative enabled employees to have meaningful career conversations and access learning recommendations tailored to their aspirations and roles.

Stakeholder engagement is critical in implementing the skills approach. EY demonstrated the value of skills-based practices to employees, highlighting how skills profiles could unlock learning opportunities, improve development conversations and enhance career growth. The organization also collaborated with business units to map roles to skills, a manual but essential process that built trust and ensured alignment between the taxonomy and business needs.

Looking forward, EY plans to leverage AI to enhance efficiency. AI tools are being explored to automate tasks like extracting skills from CVs and job descriptions and inferring skills based on work activities. These technologies will enable more granular and accurate career development and learning recommendations, as well as improved insights into workforce capabilities, while reducing the manual workload.

EY’s skills taxonomy also supports broader workforce planning by linking skills data to various talent functions, such as hiring, career development, and project scheduling. For example, understanding workforce skills enables EY to assign employees to projects that best match their expertise and address future skills gaps to meet evolving business demands. This integrated approach aligns employees’ capabilities with EY’s strategic goals, driving both individual and organizational growth.

Key Lessons Learned

EY’s journey in building a skills-driven workforce has yielded the following key insights:

• Alignment of Skills Taxonomies to Industry Standards: Aligning with established frameworks ensures interoperability, reduces maintenance efforts, and allows organizations to benefit from updates made to industry standards.
• Leverage AI for Efficiency: AI offers the potential to automate skills mapping, extract insights from CVs and job descriptions, and assess proficiency. This allows for more granular and accurate understanding of workforce capabilities.  
• Secure Stakeholder Buy-In: Clearly communicate the value of a skills-based approach to employees and senior leadership. Demonstrate how skills data enhances career development, workforce agility, and strategic decision-making. 
• Prioritize Governance and Collaboration: A successful skills strategy requires cross-functional collaboration. Ensure that technology and process decisions align with the broader vision of an interconnected skills ecosystem that enables workforce transformation.