Washington - Business Roundtable today released a set of resources to help employers reform their hiring and advancement practices to emphasize the value of skills, rather than just degrees. Skills-based talent strategies are key to expanding jobs and economic opportunity to more Americans, including by increasing diversity and equity in employment. The resources, including company best practices, success stories and a “how-to” guide, were developed as part of the organization’s Multiple Pathways Initiative (MPI).
“With a focus on skills, not just degrees, Business Roundtable CEOs are actively changing the way their companies think about criteria for employment or promotion,” said Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of General Motors and Business Roundtable Chair. “As companies have opened new skills-based pathways to employment and advancement, not only is the talent pool larger but, importantly, more diverse. As a result, companies are playing a vital role in broadening economic opportunity and upward mobility for all Americans.”
Barra launched MPI in December 2020 as Chair of the Business Roundtable Education and Workforce Committee and also led the organization’s efforts to address the racial wealth gap on those issues. Through MPI, a multi-year initiative, employers are reforming their talent management strategies to better recognize and evaluate skills of all job seekers and to identify upward career paths that employees can navigate by acquiring new and/or different skills. Companies are also developing and updating training programs to help employees gain the skills they need to advance.
Over the past nearly two years, chief human resource officers of some of America’s largest employers have been working together with experts to catalogue best practices and develop resources for companies focused on core components of skills-based talent strategies—innovation, internal mobility, metrics and talent acquisition. Business Roundtable partnered with Jobs for the Future to lead the development of resources across the four Working Groups. Other leading experts consulted include Opportunity@Work on innovation, FSG on internal mobility, Grads of Life on metrics and Education Design Lab on talent acquisition.
As the next phase of the multi-year MPI effort, today the Roundtable released the following resources, with the goal of arming other large employers with the tools needed to implement skills-based talent management strategies at their companies:
- Skills-based success stories from over 50 companies
- Guides on innovation, internal mobility and metrics
- Innovative Skills-Based Talent Practices
- Skills-Based Internal Mobility Playbook & Executive Summary
- Measuring the Impact of Skills-Based Talent Practices
- A Guide to Improving Recruitment, Retention, Advancement and Equity developed by Business Roundtable, The Burning Glass Institute and Lightcast
“United is proud to be among the nearly 80 Business Roundtable companies advancing skills-based hiring and talent management strategies to strengthen our workforce and ensure employees are assessed based on their skills—the know-how to get the job done,” said Scott Kirby, CEO of United and Business Roundtable Education and Workforce Committee Chair. “‘Do you have the skills to do the job?’ or ‘With some additional training, can you learn the skills to do the job?’ By reimagining how we recruit, retain and promote great employees, business is leading the way in providing more opportunities for more Americans to prosper and have a good-paying job and career.”
Representing every sector of the economy, companies participating in MPI include: Abbott, Accenture, ADP, The AES Corporation, Aflac Incorporated, Alliant Energy Corporation, Altec, Inc., American Express Company, American Tower Corporation, Aon, Assurant, Inc., AT&T Inc., Bank of America Corporation, Baxter International Inc., Bechtel Group, Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., BorgWarner, CF Industries, Chevron Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Cummins Inc., Cushman & Wakefield, CVS Health, Dell Technologies, Delta Air Lines, Dow, Duke Energy Corporation, DXC Technology, Eastman, Edison International, EY, FedEx Corporation, Flex, Fiserv, Flex, Gap Inc., General Dynamics Corporation, General Motors Company, Hearst, Humana, IBM Corporation, Interpublic Group, JPMorgan Chase, KeyCorp, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Mastercard, Mattel, McKinsey & Company, Medtronic, Inc., MetLife, Inc., Moody’s, Northrop Grumman Corporation, PepsiCo, Pfizer Inc., Pitney Bowes Inc., Principal, Progressive Insurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, SAP, SAS, Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc., State Farm, Steelcase Inc., Synchrony, Target Corporation, Tractor Supply Co., United Airlines, Verisk Analytics, Verizon Communications, Visa, Inc., Vistra Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., Walmart, Wells Fargo & Company, Western Union, Workday, World Wide Technology, Inc., Xylem Inc., Zebra Technologies and Zoetis. For more information, visit www.brt.org/workforceskills.
In addition to MPI, Business Roundtable companies are investing in workforce development through strong investments in worker training, apprenticeships and second chance employment, along with collective efforts such as the Business Roundtable Workforce Partnership Initiative, Apprenticeship Accelerator and the Second Chance Business Coalition. To learn more about these Corporate Initiatives, click here.