Why skills over qualifications will define the future of work

For HR leaders navigating AI adoption, economic pressure, and rapidly changing workforce needs, traditional approaches to professional development are coming under increasing scrutiny.

In a recent episode of The HR Leader Podcast, Jerome Doraisamy was joined by DLPA chief executive Karlie Cremin and explored what the future of people development means for HR teams, and why skills are becoming more important rather than formal qualifications.

Cremin discussed how HR can identify the capabilities that genuinely drive organisational performance, build development into existing business initiatives and demonstrate a clearer return on investment.

She also examined the skills that are going to remain critical as work continues to evolve, from critical thinking and communication to influence and trust.

With AI reshaping workplace environments, Cremin argued that investing in the development of skills for people must remain central to a successful transformation.

Importance of skills over qualifications

Cremin highlighted that the rapid pace of change in the workplace is making traditional qualifications harder to keep relevant.

“The environment is moving so fast that the content of those qualifications is going to struggle to respond and still fit our qualifications, frameworks and certifications,” Cremin said.

“Jobs don’t necessarily sit neatly in buckets anymore that an accountant isn’t what an accountant used to be.

“That’s much more a people-focused role, that’s much more an influencing role now.

“I think critical thinking is like an evergreen one; communication and a lot of these soft skills around influence and persuasion and building trust, that’s inherent to who we are as people.”

Cremin noted this shift in focus towards people skills should also change how employers approach recruitment.

“What if we actually recruit for skills? What if we actually look at aptitude around the things we know are critical for us and try in small ways to move away from that?” she said.

“It does actually work, if we’re really clear about the skills that add value.”

People development and ROI

Cremin encouraged organisations to be better at connecting people development with the outcomes of a business.

“Really looking at what are the behaviours that are directly correlated to our success, what is driving our success and talking to your people about that,” Cremin said.

“If you want to be measuring ROI, you need to know what return in your organisation is, and a lot of organisations we see don’t do that in the people space.

Looking to the future, Cremin deemed that the success of AI adoption would ultimately depend on how organisations develop their people.

“Its success and whether or not it does great things is almost entirely dependent on the people piece around what are people going to do with it?

“I think figuring that out and having that success around saying this is the symbiotic environment that we all wanted when AI first came out ... I think that’s really exciting,” she said.

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