Executive leaders must avoid short-term skill fixes and prioritise the human capabilities technology cannot replicate.

By Simon Kent

Right now, learning and development professionals are faced with a plethora of options for delivering skills training to employees. Moreover, as businesses seek to be more agile, the emphasis is on developing those skills in the right people in the fastest possible time. Much has been made of the need for AI skills, but this isn’t all organisations are looking to bring to their workforces. According to BPP’s Employer Research Study, the three main priorities for learning among businesses are:

1. workplace success skills that technology cannot replicate, like adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and resilience;

2. digital fluency and AI literacy; and

3. sector and role-specific training, particularly important in regulated industries.

Creative marketing platform System 1 employs around 200 employees across 19 countries. Reflecting BPP’s research, their Chief People Officer Emma Cooper confirms that while AI skills are important to the business, they also need the human skills to complement this, like critical thinking, empathy, collaboration, and creativity.

“We are rolling out AI across our products and internal ways of working,” she says. “The creativity of our teams is magnifying what we can achieve, so it’s very much a collaborative exercise across the business.”

To deliver this more effectively, Cooper says the business emphasises the importance of strengths as well as skills. “We subscribe to the ‘Clifton Strengths’ methodology of underlying strengths being important as well as the skills you build,” she says.

Cooper agrees there is always a drive for speed to get the right skills into the business, but this needs to be balanced with direction and time to embed change.

People leadership, digital and AI capability, and the development of the executive pipeline are the main three areas of skills development for global engineering and professional services firm WSP. Their Global Director for Talent Jane Grant explains that leadership is always the starting point for the business. “Creating confident, self-aware leaders who can bring people with them is what unlocks everything else,” she says. “Alongside that, we’re building capability in how we apply technology in a practical way, and making sure we’re developing a strong pipeline of future leaders to support long-term growth.”

Leadership also underpins agility for the business. “When leaders are equipped to navigate complexity and lead through change, the organisation can respond more quickly and with greater confidence,” says Grant. “Just as importantly, investing in our own talent allows us to grow capability from within. It creates an environment where people can step up, take ownership, and thrive as the business evolves.”

Interestingly, WSP places L&D as a central part of delivering the company’s wider HR strategy. Rather than a standalone initiative to enhance activities in the business, it is seen as an enabler across the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding through to leadership development.

“What really matters is that it’s joined up,” says Grant. “We work closely across HR and with the business to create consistent, meaningful experiences that genuinely build capability.

Assessing the skills required by the organisation is carried out through the consideration of both what WSP’s people need to grow and what the business needs to deliver—and being honest about where the gaps are between those two.

“From there, it’s about being deliberate,” says Grant. “Focusing on the learning that will have the greatest impact, while staying flexible enough to adapt as priorities shift.”

This need for L&D to make a real impact is something Ben Baginsky, organisational consultant at Roffey Park Institute, has seen playing out across multiple businesses. “Right now, organisations aren’t looking for more noise, they’re looking for learning that helps people navigate constant change with confidence,” he says. “The focus is on equipping employees to adapt proactively to rapid technological transformation, build resilience in the face of uncertainty, and tackle complex challenges through diverse perspectives.” He also notes that businesses are recognising that high performance and people-centred leadership are no longer competing priorities, and the strongest organisations are those able to deliver both.

In the context of AI skill demand, Baginsky’s advice is to avoid knee-jerk reactions to what appears to be the immediate skill need. “The key is to avoid chasing short-term skills fixes but use targeted learning interventions to build long-term capability,” he says. “While simply teaching technical skills can quickly become outdated, the real value lies in developing more strategic, critical, and adaptable thinkers.”

Sally Lane, head of people development for E.ON UK, says it’s necessary to focus on building confidence with emerging technologies such as AI and automation rather than simply building skills. The company places equal importance on the human skills that help people thrive through change, including adaptability, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. “In a fast-paced sector, we need to empower our workforce with the confidence to try new ways of working and to remain curious about developing new skills,” she says. “Prioritising this people-first mindset, alongside a focus on digital capability, helps our people stay agile and work effectively across multidisciplinary teams.”

“We provide self-assessment tools that colleagues can use at any time, either to assess against the future skills framework, or against more detailed skills clusters such as digital capabilities. Alongside other inputs, these self-assessments act as a continual source of data, strengthening the picture of skills within our organisation and allowing us to plan with increasing effectiveness.”

As Lane points out, to remain competitive, organisations need to be able to respond quickly to new challenges and opportunities and that means equipping people with the necessary tools for them to learn continuously and embrace change, helping them build resilience and adaptability in fast-moving environments.

“For us, investing in skills development isn’t optional. It’s how we build a workforce that’s ready to innovate and improve operational performance,” she says.

E.ON’s skills needs analysis is data-led, not just looking internally—and it is also considers how the external landscape is changing. In 2024, the company developed its own future skills framework, designed to empower leaders and colleagues to think proactively about their own skills and those of their teams, and how those skills needed to evolve over time. “We provide self-assessment tools that colleagues can use at any time, either to assess against the future skills framework, or against more detailed skills clusters such as digital capabilities,” explains Lane. “Alongside other inputs, these self-assessments act as a continual source of data, strengthening the picture of skills within our organisation and allowing us to plan with increasing effectiveness.”

Baginsky points out there’s really no reason why organisations should now be trying to second guess their business needs in the future and therefore the skills their employees will need. “Businesses now have access to richer workforce data than ever before, but too few take the time to turn those insights into meaningful development programmes,” he says. “Doing this well relies on embedding learning directly into business strategy and value creation, not treating it as a separate function.”