Skills-based approach helps build a resilient public sector workforce

Public sector agencies often face challenges in attracting and retaining top tech talent, particularly in competitive and emerging fields like digital technologies and green initiatives where the demand is very high.

A research commissioned by Workday found that the top three challenges faced by business leaders and human resource (HR) professionals across the Asia-Pacific and Japan region were talent acquisition, training and development, and retention.

Workday’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Eunice Lim, said that these three challenges run across the employee lifecycle – and are underpinned by a strong foundational element of skills.

“At Workday, we are supporting our customers to overcome the skills challenge by enabling the adoption of skills-based people strategies and embedding this across the various aspects of the people lifecycle,” she said.

She added that a skills-based approach can help government agencies become more attractive employers and build a more engaged workforce.

“Shifting to a skills-based approach helps organisations hire and retain the right talent and enables them to upskill their existing talent to meet the needs of today’s digital world,” she said.

Lim added: “The resulting impact is that skills-based organisations are more agile, competitive and provide the right experiences and opportunities to build a more engaged workforce. This is vital to succeed in today’s landscape.”

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Finding needles in a digital haystack

A skills-based approach emphasises assessing, developing, and measuring workers based on their specific skills and competencies, rather than their educational qualifications.

In an increasingly digitalised economy, skills are often obtained in circles outside the scope of traditional education curriculums.

Many public sector roles also require a blend of technical expertise and soft skills like communication, empathy, and problem-solving, according to Workday.

By embedding artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights based on skills data as the foundation, government  agencies can match internal resources to the right opportunities, enable employee growth, and better implement long-term talent strategies.

Giving an example, Lim noted that Workday’s skills intelligence foundation, or Skills Cloud, helps organisations collect, manage and leverage employee skills.

Skills Cloud is not just a centralised, AI-powered repository of skills; it also helps to break up the category components of what makes up a skill and connects those components in relation to other skills. 

This enables organisations to better understand, manage, and utilise the skills of their workforce which helps them move away from traditional, job-title-focused talent management and towards a more dynamic and skills-centric approach. 

“With these insights, our customers can analyse and map skills across their organisation, identify critical gaps and drive strategic talent decisions to close these gaps and meet the needs of their business,” Lim explained.

Picturing the many pathways for talents

From recruitment to retention, the work doesn’t stop after the right candidate is chosen. Employees can now leverage technologies to take charge of their own career and chart their career pathways. 

This approach, as Lim explained, can complement top-down decision making on strategic talent needs.

Workday’s Career Hub is a one-stop-shop where employees can input their skills and career interests and the platform would then provide personalised, AI-driven recommendations, akin to that of a career coach.

Powered by AI, Career Hub provides workers with suggestions to grow their skills and capabilities and encourages them to build a plan as they explore opportunities for continued career development.

It further helps employees share skills and interests and receive relevant connections, curated learning content and recommended jobs to help them on their career journeys.

“By empowering employees to drive their own career experiences through an understanding of their skills and connecting that to the skills and talent needs of the organisation, the result is a more engaged workforce,” she said.

Lim further noted that it is common for public officers to rotate within the service, across different agencies.

“While the nature of operations of the various agencies and ministries within the government may be very different, there are transferable skills that can apply across entities and roles, and that can only be surfaced through the foundational understanding of the skills needed for these roles,” she said.

This opens opportunities for public servants to explore different career paths within their own agency and across the wider public service – and in turn a more versatile and adaptable workforce.

“By focusing on skills, public sector agencies can identify transferable abilities that may be relevant to various roles which in turn helps employees upskill and reskill for new roles,” Lim added.

The returns of a skills-based approach

As the public sector grapples with skills development and talent retention, investments to solve these challenges contribute to tangible value for the agencies, driving positive ROI, Lim said.

“Targeted learning and development programmes that focus on closing the identified skills gaps crucial for the organisation, will not only drive improved engagement, but will ultimately deliver improved outcomes,” she explained.

These outcomes include improved employee engagement by facilitating career opportunities, as well as reduced turnover for key talent within the organisation.

Furthermore, a skills-based approach allows the public agencies to pinpoint specific skills gaps that need to be addressed for future leadership roles, she added.

“By identifying the specific skills required for leadership roles, development programmes can be tailored to address those needs. This ensures that high potential officers earmarked for leadership roles  receive the precise training and experience necessary for success.”

In a rapidly changing environment, a skills-based approach allows the public sector to adapt quickly and broaden the pool of potential public sector leaders.

“By focusing on skills, agencies may be able to identify leadership potential in a wider pool of individuals with the requisite competencies and ensure that they have the talent needed to meet evolving challenges,” Lim concluded.

Chetan Jotwani, Head of Value Realisation, APJ, Workday, will be moderating a panel titled "Embracing a Skill-Based Approach to Talent Recruitment and Development" at the Festival of Innovation (FOI) 2025, happening from 25 March 2025, 11am - 11.45am. You can find out more and register for the event here >>>