What Works: Delta Air Lines Unveils Its Skills-First Strategy E191
Oct 14, 2024
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Tim Gregory, Managing Director of HR Innovation and Workforce Technology at Delta Airlines, shares insights on the airline's groundbreaking skills-first strategy. He discusses how Delta leverages skillstech and AI to enhance career mobility and employee satisfaction. Gregory highlights the pivotal role of transparency in skills development, addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Delta’s approach not only fosters growth but serves as a foundation for customer satisfaction and market success, making it a leader in the airline industry.
Delta Airlines' skills-first strategy emphasizes leveraging employees' unique skills rather than traditional qualifications to enhance workforce potential and diversity.
The integration of AI in workforce planning enables employee career growth by providing data-driven insights on skill trends and job opportunities.
Deep dives
Transitioning to a Skills-Based Organization
The journey towards becoming a skills-based organization emphasizes the importance of recognizing and utilizing the unique skills employees possess, regardless of their formal qualifications. Many job descriptions have historically focused on advanced degrees, which may not be necessary for certain roles. By shifting the focus to the actual skills required, organizations can open doors for individuals who have valuable experience but lack traditional credentials. This approach not only aligns with the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) but also serves to harness the full potential of the existing workforce.
Utilizing AI for Workforce Planning
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into workforce planning is a pivotal component of the skills-based organization model. AI helps in processing and analyzing data regarding skills trends and job openings, allowing employees to make informed decisions about their career paths. This data-driven approach enables individuals to visualize their aspirations and see how their current skills align with present and future job opportunities. By empowering employees with this information, organizations can foster long-term career growth and retain top talent within the company.
Creating a Transparent Career Architecture
Establishing a structured career architecture is crucial for helping employees navigate their career advancements within an organization. This involves standardizing job definitions across different divisions to ensure consistent criteria for roles with similar responsibilities. A transparent system allows employees to easily access information about skills required for various positions and identify training and development opportunities. By implementing this system, organizations can better support employees in their aspirations while also aligning talent management strategies with business needs.
Delta Air Lines understands the importance of its employees, managers, and leaders, so the company has built one of the airline industry’s most advanced “skills-first” strategies. Built on its investment in SAP technology (Talent Intelligence Hub) and a focus from the top, the company fully embraces an agile cross-functional career model, all built around skills.
In this episode Tim Gregory, Managing Director of HR Innovation and Technology at Delta, walks Kathi Enderes through the company’s strategy, describing how Delta uses skillstech and AI to help employees advance their careers across job families in the company (we call this The Dynamic Organization).
Delta is a pioneer in this effort: most airlines fall far behind in their talent and HR strategies. As Tim describes, this strategy not only helps employees grow and develop, it gives Delta a foundation of sustainability and customer service others only emulate.
Delta is rated the #1 airline for passenger service in the US, and we believe this HR strategy is foundational to its market success. Join our course Career and Talent Mobility to learn more.