Oracle helps organizations build a more agile workforce with skills insights

Oracle helps organizations build a more agile workforce with skills insights solution to help organizations better understand, manage, and grow the skills of their workforce. Oracle Dynamic Skills, part of Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), gives HR and business leaders the insights needed to ensure they have the right talent both now and in the future by providing a comprehensive view of the skills within their workforce. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the new capabilities provide business leaders with an always up-to-date view of their employees’ skills to help attract, develop, and grow the right talent.

The skills employees have and need today are constantly changing. Technology creates the need for new skills almost daily. Employees are expected to develop skills regularly, and because many people describe similar skills with different words or phrases, the pool of potential skills for an organization is essentially endless. Without a system to collect and track this continuously evolving data, it’s difficult for businesses to have an accurate understanding of all the skills within their organization. And without a holistic view of their employees’ skills, business and HR leaders struggle to find the right talent to support their business strategy.

“The shelf life of skills is shrinking and the fight for talent is becoming more competitive every day,” said Yvette Cameron, senior vice president of global product strategy, Oracle Cloud HCM.

He also explained,  “Businesses need better insights into the skills of their workforce if they want to compete in today’s rapidly changing climate. With Oracle Cloud HCM, our customers can gain a better understanding of the skills across their workforce, where to focus development efforts, and what new opportunities can be created for the employee and the organization.”

Oracle Dynamic Skills maintains an always-accurate record of skills data within the organization, including job titles, employee capabilities, experience, and strength of skills. A complete view of this data helps HR leaders foster career development, more effectively plan, make better hires, and develop a highly skilled workforce. Delivered with Oracle Cloud HCM, Oracle Dynamic Skills includes:

• Skills Nexus: A continually updated database of record that provides organizations with a comprehensive view of employee skills across their workforce. This helps HR and business leaders better understand the skills of their workforce, where gaps exist, and which skills need to be developed or acquired. Skills Nexus takes publicly available data on skills, qualifications, and occupations from around the world, combines it with similar information from within the organization, and uses AI to make it easy for organizations to assign skills to roles. This provides customers with data on skills that is customized to their business. Skills Nexus also updates itself based on changing employee skills [e.g. new skills added to employee profiles or existing skills updated during performance reviews] and new skills acquired through recruiting. This gives Oracle Cloud HCM customers an always-accurate view of their organization’s skills so that HR leaders and managers can make more informed decisions about project resourcing, training, and hiring.

• Skills Advisor: A powerful recommendation engine that uses AI to recommend what skills employees should learn, what skills organizations should hire for in specific roles, and which candidates have the right skills for open positions. This helps HR leaders develop their workforce by finding the right talent to support their business needs. Skills Advisor also helps employees by using insights from Skills Nexus to deliver recommendations throughout HR processes. For example, in Oracle Recruiting, it can connect candidates with open roles related to both declared and inferred skills. And in Oracle Learning, a learning experience system within Oracle Cloud HCM, it can recommend courses to learn new skills based on individual career goals. Skills Advisor also uses natural language processing to understand different descriptions of similar skills. This helps candidates and employees find the right opportunities no matter how they define their abilities.

• Skills Center: A personalized portal for employees to update their skills, find new roles, and engage in learning resources. By making it easy for employees to track progress towards career goals and take action to further professional development, Skill Center helps organizations increase employee engagement and the skills of their workforce. It uses data from Skills Nexus and insights from Skills Advisor to deliver actionable recommendations for employees. Potential actions can include completing a training course, meeting a mentor, or gaining new experiences through short-term projects. Skills Center can be accessed through any device, including desktop, mobile, Oracle Digital Assistant, and collaboration solutions such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the talent economy is in a really interesting place. Many people took time during lockdown to reevaluate their career choices and consider new opportunities for growth. This is putting pressure on organizations and HR leaders to double down on both recruitment and retention. But regardless, the foundation of their strategies should be centered around one thing: skills,” said Lisa Rowan, research vice president, HR software & services research at IDC.  

“Skills are at the core of understanding your talent. Oracle’s new Dynamic Skills offering is designed to help organizations take a more proactive approach to skills, truly harness the power of skills within their workforce, and motivate existing talent to achieve more in their careers,” added Lisa Rowan.