HR Doesn’t Own Work: Here’s Your Game Plan

Too many organizations underestimate the importance of understanding the full scope of work being done. This crucial oversight stems from a fundamental gap: HR doesn’t own the work; this responsibility lies within the business. Traditionally, there has been no way to see what work is actually being done at scale.

Attempts to solve this with job architectures and skills ontologies miss the mark. They overlook the fact that understanding tasks is crucial, as tasks form the core of the work being done and their outcomes. We’ve focused too much on getting visibility of talent without truly understanding the work.

From my personal experience, last year when I was reinventing my workforce, I struggled with just a view of skills. Skills alone did not reveal the work being done, making it difficult to reorganize my workforce or adopt AI. Skills signal that someone could perform a task, but they don’t show what work is being done. Without this insight, it was hard to strategically reorganize the workforce or embrace AI.

People have skills > work has tasks > A Task is a Skill in action

That’s why we updated our Skills Ontology to a Work Ontology, and why it won Product of the Year 2023 by HR Executive. Now, every customer can see their work at a deeper level, including:

• Tasks
• AI or automation potential of the task
• Tasks duplicated in other jobs
• Skills
• Requirements like education or certification
• Time – Fixed/Flex/Gig

It’s crucial that workforces have this intelligence about their business, as it solves workforce challenges and improves the match quality of work to workers. We’ve been so focused on "talent intelligence" that we’ve missed solving the actual problem: getting the work to the right worker.

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