The TechWolf Podcast
The TechWolf Podcast
Podcast Description
Technology in HR is booming, yet confusing.
Many vendors claim to include AI (agents), skills, seamless integrations, and other technologies in their product offerings.
In practice, product promises often differ from reality.
In this podcast, our host, Julius Schelstraete, holds no-nonsense conversations with business practitioners and thought leaders on everything related to "the skills-based organization": what it is, whether it's realistic, typical roadblocks, real-life use cases, and more.
Join us as we move beyond the hype and examine skills-based HR from a critical, realistic lens!
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into themes surrounding the evolution of HR into skills-based organizations, addressing topics such as the practical hurdles organizations face, the critical role of skills data, and the balance between strategy and technology. Episodes include discussions on whether all organizations should adopt a skills-based approach, real-world examples from EPAM Systems, and strategies for gaining business buy-in for skills initiatives.
Technology in HR is booming, yet confusing.
Many vendors claim to include AI (agents), skills, seamless integrations, and other technologies in their product offerings.
In practice, product promises often differ from reality.
In this podcast, our host, Julius Schelstraete, holds no-nonsense conversations with business practitioners and thought leaders on everything related to “the skills-based organization”: what it is, whether it’s realistic, typical roadblocks, real-life use cases, and more.
Join us as we move beyond the hype and examine skills-based HR from a critical, realistic lens!
Most companies chase a skills strategy and end up with a portal nobody opens. Ian Bailie has built this twice, once at Cisco a decade ago, the hard way, and now at Synopsys, a 40-year-old company that just doubled in size and absorbed a $35 billion acquisition. His take is blunt: stop turning skills into an HR project. Lead with what AI is doing to the actual work, fix your job architecture first, and give people a reason to care before you ever ask them to touch a profile.
Timestamps
00:45 — The Kyle Forrest question: how to actually get HR, IT and finance in one room
02:30 — Why “we're HR, and we have the solution” is the wrong way in
06:00 — Doing this at Cisco 10 years ago, before the tech existed
07:50 — The Synopsys stakes: doubled size, a $35B acquisition, 40 years of legacy
11:30 — 3,000 people, one job title: when job architecture is too simple
15:00 — Why he refused to buy another skills portal
22:00 — One taxonomy, three platforms: Degreed, Avature, BetterWorks
27:40 — Automate, augment, human-only: reading the task data
31:00 — Giving people the agency over how AI changes their job
38:30 — HR's moment, and the risk of missing it
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