Delta Air Lines, for example, used a skills-based approach to enhance its employee value proposition by enabling internal mobility for its frontline population, according to Natalie Tincher, general manager of talent, skills, and performance management, who has led Delta’s ambitious skills journey. Starting with a clean job architecture and a skills taxonomy, Delta aligned critical skills to all high-volume frontline roles and provided visibility into functions, roles, and skills through its new career development platform, Talent Hub. In combination with competitive pay increases, profit-sharing, listening programs, and recognition, Delta continues to see strong retention, internal mobility, and an overall positive workforce experience.5

State Street took a similarly focused but pragmatic approach. They first defined a narrow set of critical skills for each role within a skills library and enabled workers to self-report their skill proficiency levels to explore personalized learning and career pathways on a digital platform. Supported by manager-led development conversations, the organization increased employee engagement scores by 11%, leadership readiness scores by 15%, and made 1,200 internal promotions in the first six months of the program. Notably, these outcomes were achieved with a commonsense approach and simple architecture, which didn’t require heavy skill intelligence or an expensive third-party talent marketplace.6

Organizations in our analysis that reported they are seeking outcomes related to being an employer of choice are twice as likely as those pursuing other paths to engage in skills-based hiring with external talent marketplaces and embed skills in job descriptions. They’re also more likely to experiment with skills passports: portable, worker-owned records of verified skills, experiences, and credentials that can improve transparency and access to opportunity across roles and employers. Walmart, for example, is working with other employers through the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a collaboration led by the Burning Glass Institute, to create a cross-employer framework of skills that could underpin future portable skills passports.7

Unlike those pursuing other outcomes, those on the employer-of-choice path are three times less likely to rely on detailed skills definitions, detailed proficiency levels, or advanced technology that infers workers’ skills. Instead, they often prioritize trust, participation, and engagement. Self-reported skills, supported by manager input, are typically sufficient, especially when the goal is to use skills to enable growth and mobility rather than to make high-stakes decisions about pay or performance.

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