A growing number of organisations are coming to realise that they already employ the talent they’re struggling to recruit. The problem is that the realisation is often dawning too late.

A LinkedIn study found that 63% of staff turnover in 2024 was ‘preventable’, because companies failed to leverage the potential of the people they already had. The issue isn’t a lack of capability, it’s a lack of visibility. Skills are being hidden behind outdated job titles, rigid hierarchies and scattered data, creating a blind spot that‘s driving attrition, pressure on pay, and unnecessary hiring.

A structural issue

Let’s face it, many of our current job definitions were built decades ago in a world where careers followed linear ladders and roles stayed relatively stable. Today’s workforce is nothing like that. Hybrid roles, fluid team structures, cross-functional work and new AI-driven capabilities are all rendering those old static role profiles unfit for purpose.

Too often, skills data sits in too many places and in far too many formats to be genuinely useful. Even when companies know which skills matter most, they often don’t know who possesses them because role frameworks are out of date.

This lack of clarity creates a costly domino effect: inflated recruitment, slower workforce planning, stunted pay progression and frustrated employees who are unable to see their future because it isn’t being mapped out for them.

Uncover hidden mobility

The antidote to this is a shift in focus, from jobs to skills. When organisations put skills at the forefront of workforce planning, something powerful happens: they uncover hidden mobility.

Skills reveal lateral possibilities that job titles on their own cannot. Employees who appear ‘blocked’ might, in fact, be one or two new skills away from an entirely different role.

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