Sandra Loughlin — Inside a True, Skills-Based Organization

Sandra is the chief learning scientist at Epam Systems, a global provider of software engineering, digital platform engineering, and product development services.

Interestingly, EPAM has been on a skills-based journey for over 30 years and is as close an example as you’ll find of a skills-based organization.

Sandra has been a proud advocate of Epam’s journey and helped build the critical foundations with ups and downs!

Key topics in this episode:

• Should every organization become skills-based?

• Matching skills supply & demand data

• The EPAM way and how they stand out in the market

• The importance of skills data for the business

• Skepticism about skills-based initiatives

Explore how Sandra’s expertise can inspire your journey toward a skills-based organization.

My key takeaway quotes:

• “Skills are owned by the business (...). It’s impossible for a people organization to know what skills are trending, what skills are critical, and start predicting skills needed."

• "Have someone come in and look at your ecosystem - chances are you have redundancies & gaps."

• “How long will it take to be a skills-based organization? It is a long-term play because it’s a data play.”