You heard it here first: The skills-based organization is not going to come to Vietnam in the next 20 years. Here’s why:

• It is a fad to begin with. 
• It requires a complete overhaul of systems and methods that have only just started to establish themselves in HR in Vietnam. 
• It diminishes the value of degrees, which is contrary to culture and country ambitions. 

Should we be sad? No, we shouldn’t!

In a nutshell, the skills-based organization is an organization that only looks at people’s skills for staff decision making (hiring, promotion, salary).People no longer hold ‘jobs’ within departments; instead, they work in small, ever-changing project groups, for which they are selected based on the skills that are needed at that moment. 

It might look like an idealistic view from a Diversity & Inclusion point of view (“only skills matter, not your background or skin color”), but that is not why it was made up! It is an effort to systematize and break down “work” into the smallest possible components, to make outsourcing (e.g. to freelancers) and automation decisions faster and with more accuracy. Instead of learning-on-the-job, you will be milked for the skills you have until the organization can get it cheaper somewhere else. 

That is of course a bit cynical view on the skills-based organization, but so far there are three key questions proponents have yet to answer:

• How are skills different from competencies? There is no agreed definition of skills, so before you know it, it includes personality traits, motives and mindsets, and the DE&I argument is out of the window. 
• How are we going to assess all these skills? For technical skills, it’s already challenging to keep tests up-to-date with the latest changes. Now imagine assessing a skill like ‘critical thinking’! Which authority is going to assess these hundreds of skills? 
• Is the entire overhaul of your organization into a skills-based organization worth it? When major consultancy firms push for large-scale transformations like this, we should be cautious: it is of course in their interest to guide this massive change, that of course comes with massive invoices. 

So, spare your organization the hassle of a “skills-based approach”. If you really want it, you can just remove the degree requirement from your vacancies. 

When your organization has managers that:

• show interest in their staff members’ skills and ambitions
• have the authority to challenge their employees continuously with new projects that might leverage their strengths, or learn new skills

và you have a proper career development framework, then you don’t need this skills-based-approach nonsense. 

No-Nonsense Management can help you with this. Contact us here