Since the pandemic hit, enterprises have been actively transforming business models and adopting new technology to stay competitive. Instinctively, organizations usually need to redesign critical job roles to support such pivotal change for the business goals.
Often, managers rush into implementing the job redesign by simply deploying employees into the newly redesigned job roles. They perceived those employees possess the adequate skills, desired behaviors and tools needed to succeed and perform to expectation in a short period. Unfortunately, the reality is not the case, and they rarely perform to expectations.
To hasten the closing of skills gaps for the redesigned job role, some leaders attempt to simply send the impacted employees for external courses to upskill or reskill may even render the transition ineffective and costly.
There are multiple facets in order for a redesigned job role to be successful. One critical success area would be an integrated strategy for developing a skills transition roadmap coupled with support conditions of the redesigned job role and its desired behaviors. This strategy will focus on three components that enable a more sustainable job role skills transition for the impacted employees. They are:
- Job skills transition roadmap
- Minimum viable skills journey map
- Redesigned job role support network
Let’s explore these in detail.
Job skills transition roadmap
Implementing this comprehensive transition plan ensures smooth and adaptive adoption by the workforce. When designing the transition plan, it is crucial to identify the right category of job role the worker is transitioning to. One approach is to adopt a targeted job skills transition roadmap.
Organization stakeholders play a critical role in co-creating this roadmap for implementation. The goal is to engage them to co-create iteratively and chart the vital components for the job role skills transition effectively and sustainably.
There are five primary containers in this roadmap. The top row consists of skills identified as the current skillset, desired skillset and transitional competence. The bottom containers are the desired behaviors and support systems that serve as enablers for the transition journey.
How does this work?
Organization stakeholders and managers conduct a skillset analysis to determine the current skillset and desired skillset needed. This analysis is carried out collaboratively and transparently to enlist impacted employees, their supervisors and stakeholders to capture holistic and objective inputs for this purpose. Leaders and impacted parties work together iteratively to determine what skillsets will be needed to deepen or develop new ones to achieve the desired skillset.
Within the list in the desired skillsets container, there is a group of skills known as minimum viable skillset. The MVS is a set of skills identified at the minimum level required for the job holder to perform the redesign role successfully without any problems or assistance. MVS aligns with impacted employees’ areas of need in skills development of integrated process performance goals, technology adoption and new ways of work.
The transition competence container is divided into a minimum of two main phases for job skills development that targets the acquisition of MVS. In the first phase, the skills selected for development are based on the current skillset closest to the MVS found in the desired skillset. In the second phase, the chosen skills are generally new or more complex than in the first phase and target the remaining MVS.
Generally, the timeframe is fluid for implementing two phases as it depends on the proficiency, complexity and operational requirements of the skills targeted for development. For more detailed planning, enterprises can consider adopting workplace learning and development plans for structured and applied skills development in the two phases.
Next, organization leaders work with respective line managers and supervisors to select a suitable behavior profiling tool for the impacted employees. The chosen profiling tool is recommended to adopt behavior dimensions that can be applied to different occupations, such as agility, compliance, cooperation, delivery, efficiency, influence, innovation and resilience. This profiling outcome is a vital piece of guiding information that shares succinct insights about the desired behaviors for impacted employees of what they should do more or less in this transition.
The final container is to provide a cohesive set of considerations for creating supporting resources that would facilitate impacted employees’ skills development and performance at work. These performance and innovation considerations explore work relationships, activities, learning and growth and the supporting organization resources. The MVS journey maps will provide further detail on the next segment.
The following illustrates an example of a job skills transition roadmap from an HR administrative manager to an HR business partner manager within the same company. The skills titles and proficiency levels are referenced from Singapore SkillsFuture Framework.
Minimum viable skillset journey maps
The MVS journey map offers a holistic framework of how employees can progress in their skills development from learning to performance. The four main stages in the MVS journey maps are awareness, practice, application and naturalization.
- Awareness – focus on familiarization of tasks and concepts.
- Practice – focus on training the skill, on practicing the skill to meet performance.
- Application – focus on applying the skill learned on actual work tasks, solve problems and adapt changes when applying the skill.
- Naturalization – focus on mastery in using the skill for performing the job, continuous improvement.
Each stage has a set of components with key pointers and practices for adoption that may be illustrated as goals, learning, actions, touchpoints, learner needs, pain points and supports presented incrementally.
I have developed three interrelated MVS journey maps (learner, learning and support) for enterprise usage. The following infographic for an MVS journey map is learning.
Redesigned job role support network
Within this strategy, the minimum viable skillset journey map is also bolstered by a redesigned job role support network that is holistic to make the transition effective and sustainable.
As shown in the illustration above, for any support network to succeed, the various roles in the organization are critical in providing the right motivation and guidance and making accessible resources. Every stakeholder in the network may support the impacted employee in areas of work performance, value creation of the role, learning needs and motivation aspects, thereby enabling higher chances of a frictionless job redesign transition.
The takeaway
In essence, the roadmap provides actionable insights on 1) building a job skills transition map and 2) identifying the minimum viable skillset for enterprise goals in business and workforce transformation, thereby delivering a sustainable impact for the organization.
The MVS journey map provides a guiding framework for leaders and managers in planning a more comprehensive implementation of the skills development plans to achieve the desired business outcomes.
Lastly, the process of employee skills development and transition to the redesigned role is iterative, and it is imperative to build a strong support network to make the change lasting.
