How Dennis Di Lorenzo is connecting skills to real work at Micron

Micron had invested in skills frameworks and learning content, but productivity had not improved as expected. Existing job structures described titles and pay bands without providing enough detail about the work behind them.

For Dennis, that gap mattered. To make development relevant, the organization needed to connect the skills conversation with what employees were responsible for delivering.

His focus shifted toward understanding the tasks people performed and how those tasks related to the needs of the business.

Using Reejig’s work data, Micron mapped work at the task and subtask level. Leaders and experts then checked whether that picture reflected how jobs were actually done.

Their involvement helped ground the analysis in experience. The resulting understanding gave the business a clearer basis for connecting learning to operational needs and considering where AI could support or change the work.

For Dennis, this made the discussion more concrete. Skills could be considered in the context of the responsibilities people held and the work the organization needed them to do.

A skilling summit helped executives see the broader relevance of that work.

The same understanding could inform workforce planning, talent pathways, and how people and AI might work together. The initiative gained CEO-level support and expanded beyond its HR origins.

This was a turning point in Dennis’s story. Connecting skills to work had made the initiative relevant to decisions reaching beyond learning programs. It gave leaders a shared foundation for discussing how work could change and what that would mean for employees.

The work also led Dennis to question how organizations recognize employee contribution as AI changes the way tasks are performed.

If someone could deliver meaningful outcomes in less time, what should leaders expect from them? How should performance be assessed, and how should their work be designed?

These were questions Dennis was exploring, rather than a completed change to Micron’s performance system. They extended his original focus on development into a broader consideration of how people contribute and how organizations recognize that contribution.

Understanding work made it possible to connect those discussions: what people need to learn, what they need to accomplish, and how expectations may need to evolve.

Dennis’s next priority is using that understanding to inform job structures, career pathways, and employee development.

The ambition is to give development a closer connection to the work people perform and the responsibilities they may take on next. That requires keeping the picture of work current as tasks and business needs change.

His approach gives Micron a foundation to build on. By connecting skills with validated work detail, Dennis is helping leaders consider employee development alongside wider decisions about AI and the workforce.