Aided by technology, organizations are shifting toward skills- and outcomes-based approaches to build agility and resilience.


By Maggie Mancini

The composition of work is changing. As technological transformation, economic and business uncertainty, and skill readiness gaps abound, organizations are beginning to rethink workforce design and planning. AI is taking on repetitive, fundamental tasks allowing employees to focus more heavily on strategic thinking and planning. This evolution is causing existing roles to disappear with new ones filling their place.

The nature of jobs is changing with 71% of workers already performing some work outside of the scope of their descriptions.

These shifting priorities are already having an impact on the workforce. In some cases, teams are getting smaller and employees are being tasked to do more with less. Research from ADP finds that the average team size has decreased slightly from 7.4 people per team in January 2019 to 7.2 people per team in May 2025. The nature of jobs is also changing. Some roles no longer reflect the actual work being done, with 71% of workers already performing some work outside of the scope of their job descriptions.

With more change on the horizon as organizations adapt to market conditions and tech advancements, workforce planning based entirely on jobs or headcount may not provide the agility that organizations need, according to research from Deloitte.

“As technology takes on more repeatable tasks, organizations are rethinking what truly requires human judgment and where people add the most value. Skills-based hiring shifts the focus from credentials and titles to what actually drives results: capability, adaptability, and impact. As work evolves faster than job descriptions can keep up, this approach gives organizations access to broader, more diverse talent pools and builds flexibility into the workforce.” – Heather Shulick, EVP of HR, AllCampus

Restructuring Work

Deloitte’s research on workforce planning indicates that just 19% of executives think jobs are the best way to structure work. AI is accelerating this shift away from job roles as the primary way work is structured and is moving toward outcomes, skills, and capabilities, says Heather Shulick, EVP of HR at AllCampus.

“As technology takes on more repeatable tasks, organizations are rethinking what truly requires human judgment and where people add the most value,” she adds. This approach mirrors what many leaders are experiencing more broadly. AI isn’t eliminating the work so much as it’s unbundling it. This is pushing organizations to move away from static roles toward more flexible models where people are responsible for outcomes instead of staying instead the lines of job descriptions.

“Moving beyond organizing work around job titles, organizations are defining the work that needs to be done, breaking it into tasks and outcomes, and determining the most effective combination of human capability and intelligent systems to complete it,” says Laura Coccaro, chief people officer at iCIMS. “HR leaders are now asking different questions about where work lives, who owns it, and how value is measured.”

This shift opens up greater opportunities to apply AI to tasks and workflows, rather than simply forcing it into existing roles. The result is an agile, future-ready approach to workforce design. Roles become more fluid and able to evolve as business needs change, Coccaro explains.

This is also redefining employee experience. According to iCIMS’ latest report, 48% of workers already view AI as a tool for their work, and another 9% see it as a teammate. The workforce is increasingly ready to collaborate with intelligent systems to support their daily work, Coccaro says.

“This shift isn’t just structural, it’s cultural. Moving away from jobs as the primary unit of work requires trust: trust that people can stretch, learn, and contribute beyond a title,” Shulick says. “HR has a real opportunity here to lead with intention by balancing innovation with inclusion, and efficiency with humanity.”

AI adoption is accelerating the breakdown of traditional job-based structures, explains Ciara Harrington, chief people officer at Skillsoft. Fixed roles and job descriptions used to guide hiring, performance, and workforce planning, but they can’t keep pace with work that now shifts and evolves almost daily.

“AI agents are moving from helpers to true coworkers, taking on more than just the routine and administrative work, freeing talent to focus on strategic and human-centric tasks,” she says. “This is driving organizations toward a skills-based workforce, where success is measured by real-time visibility into skills and execution, rather than role ownership, and where both human and AI contributors are trained to achieve successful outcomes.”

Centering on Skills

Organizations that are embracing skills-based hiring are already rethinking traditional org charts, Coccaro says. They’re designing hybrid models where employees and AI agents work together to deliver outcomes, and job functions are no longer static.

“Skills-based hiring shifts the focus from credentials and titles to what actually drives results: capability, adaptability, and impact,” Shulick says. “As work evolves faster than job descriptions can keep up, this approach gives organizations access to broader, more diverse talent pools and builds flexibility into the workforce.”

When hiring and development are aligned around skills, Shulick explains, organizations move faster, employees see clearer growth paths, and the workforce is better prepared for what’s next.

“This shift gives HR and business leaders a clearer and more flexible way to align work to the right mix of AI and human capabilities,” Coccaro adds. “Organizations can achieve greater agility and create new paths for employees to build experience, develop new skills and grow as business needs change.”

Shifting to skills-based hiring helps leaders focus on what people can do rather than their title, Harrington says. It creates a far more objective and consistent process: Interviewers first work with HR to identify skills critical for the role they’re hiring, map questions directly to skills, and feedback is captured at the skill level, not filtered through assumptions tied to past roles.

“When leaders view talent through a skills management lens, looking at proficiency, potential, and adjacent capabilities, HR and business leaders can build teams aligned to evolving business needs, make more informed growth decisions, and deploy people to projects where their skills will drive measurable outcomes,” Harrington says. “Over time, this replaces static job descriptions with dynamic, actional skills data that supports faster decision-making, stronger career pathways, and a workforce model built around outcomes rather than legacy roles.”

Outcomes-Based Workforce Planning

For HR leaders looking to lead the broader shift towards agile, outcomes-based workforce planning, there are some best practices to consider.

• Anchor workforce planning in outcomes. It’s important to clearly define the end goals and what specific skills and capabilities are required to deliver those results, Coccaro says. Then, assess where those skills live across the organization. Understand what skills can be performed using technology, which ones can be provided by the human workforce, and which ones require a combination of both.
• Bring leaders along early. “This kind of shift requires a strong partnership with executives, managers, and operations teams so everyone understands why work is being redesigned,” Shulick says. From there, leaders can design more flexible workforce models that intentionally and responsibly blend human and technological expertise to support the work, Coccaro adds.
• Invest in learning. Agile workforce planning only works if employees feel supported in building new skills, Shulick explains. Psychological safety, transparency, and access to development are what make adaptability sustainable.
• Embed skills-based evaluations into all HR processes. Aligning hiring, internal movement, performance management, talent assessment, and succession planning decisions reinforce and accelerate the shift toward skills-based thinking across the organization, Harrington says.

“The future of HR lies in blending people-centric strengths with deep technical, analytical, and process capabilities,” Harrington adds. “To stay influential, HR must evolve to understand the business first: what the organization is solving for, where value is created, and how talent, skills, and organizational design can accelerate outcomes.”