Who can do what?  

This is the most important question in any workplace. You can’t get the job done without a capable team, and capabilities are evolving daily. That’s why it’s essential for managers to understand their teams’ skills — not just to fill roles, but to unlock agility across the organization.  

We hear the word “skills” constantly, especially in learning and development (L&D). But skills are more than just a buzzword, they represent a significant opportunity to leverage data and technology to rethink how we structure work, develop talent and make strategic decisions at every level of the business.   

From HR Asset to Business Intelligence 

Historically, skills data has been siloed within human resources (HR). L&D teams track training; skill platforms scrape assessments and job descriptions. But the result is often a narrow view of employee capability — useful for recommending content or fueling talent marketplaces but disconnected from broader business needs.  

That needs to change.  

As organizations adopt more advanced data strategies — from predictive analytics to machine learning — there’s a clear opportunity to use skills as a core input for automation, workforce planning and operational efficiency. But that shift only happens if we stop treating skills as an HR asset and start treating them as business intelligence.  

Moving forward, L&D must integrate skills data into the broader business ecosystem to optimize talent, streamline operations and create real-time insights that drive growth. In fact, one part of the workforce is already showing what this looks like in practice: the front line.  

Lessons From the Front Line 

As companies connect people systems with operational tools, they’re using skills data to make real-time decisions. In warehouses, it determines who can operate a forklift. In retail, it informs who gets scheduled for inventory tasks. In hospitality, it ensures the right employees are assigned to serve VIP guests. The same data that supports initiatives like cross-training and talent mobility can now inform everyday decisions.   

 So, why have skills gained traction on the front line while struggling to take hold in corporate settings? The answer: Clarity and scale.  

Front-line roles are clearly defined, with many employees performing similar tasks, making it easier to measure and apply skills across the workforce. In contrast, corporate environments often involve specialized roles, where it’s harder to standardize skill sets and apply them at scale.  

The lesson: We don’t need to map every possible skill to make progress. Broad taxonomies can be overwhelming and hard to apply. Instead, we should focus on the skills that matter most — define them clearly, measure them reliably and embed them into the systems that run the business. This approach ensures that L&D efforts have a direct, measurable impact on performance.  

This is how L&D can move from supporting the business to powering it, driving smarter decisions, faster execution and more agile workforce planning.  

People Are More Than Skills 

Getting skills right is critical — to keep L&D relevant and to help employees navigate a changing workplace. A well-defined skills framework will enable smarter decisions, faster execution, improved growth and greater agility. 

However, it’s important to remember that a skills profile is only part of the story. Two employees may have identical skills on paper but contribute in vastly different ways. As we build more data-driven, AI-powered workplaces, we can’t lose sight of the human element. Skills matter — but people are more than inputs. They’re the reason the system exists in the first place.