Skills at Work: Building Capability from the Inside Out

It’s been a while since skills have moved to the centre of the talent agenda for organisations. Not just in hiring, but in how they develop people from within. SHRM's 2025 Skills-First Movement report confirms this shift: organisations that have embedded upskilling into their culture, report an employee engagement score of 59%, nearly double the 31% seen elsewhere. The competitive advantage isn't anymore in finding the right person. It's in building one.

Capability Building as a Strategic Priority

Across the globe, organisations have placed workforce capability at the heart of business and cultural transformation. The imperative is no longer simply to fill roles; it is to continuously develop the skills those roles demand. AI is accelerating this urgency, with over 80% of respondents in SHRM's research agreeing that AI will fundamentally change which skills are valued, reshaping job functions faster than traditional learning structures can respond.

The most future-ready organisations are responding by treating learning as infrastructure - not just a benefit, but a business enabling system. Organisations using project-based development and applied learning report lower turnover (46% vs. 34%) and stronger cultures (86% vs. 78%).

Assessing What People Can Do

As capability-building gains priority, so does the need to assess it rigorously. The traditional degree is no longer sufficient proof of competency. Here is how leading organisations are measuring skills today:

• Project-based assessments: Employees are evaluated through real work simulations or live assignments, demonstrating applied competency rather than theoretical knowledge. Organisations using this approach report notably lower turnover rates.

• Micro-credentials and digital badges: Short, focused qualifications from platforms such as Coursera and LinkedIn Learning allow individuals to validate specific skills on their own timeline, with credentials that are verifiable and stackable.

• Skills taxonomies and internal diagnostics: Organisations are building structured skills inventories, mapping capabilities across the workforce and identifying gaps to inform L&D planning and internal mobility decisions.

• 360-degree and manager assessments: Behavioural and power skills - critical thinking, active listening, coordination - are assessed through structured peer and manager feedback, providing a fuller picture than any credential alone.

• Specialty credentials and industry certifications: Domain-specific credentials validate deep, applied expertise in priority areas, signalling that an individual can perform in a defined context, not just demonstrate familiarity with a subject.

Specialty Credentials: Deeper, Faster, More Targeted

Given the above context, specialty credentials are therefore reshaping this space. Unlike broad qualifications, they validate applied expertise in a specific domain, answering the question that matters most in a learning culture: can this person perform, not just pass a test?

SHRM's Specialty Credentials exemplify this standard. The AI + Human Intelligence (AI+HI) Specialty Credential builds the capability HR professionals need to lead AI integration — a priority across global organisations digitising their people functions. The People Manager Qualification (PMQ) develops the applied management capability that turns business strategy into team results. Both are designed not for credentialing's sake, but for performance.

The organisations winning on capability are those that treat skills assessment not as a one-time gate, but as a continuous loop - identifying gaps, enabling learning, and validating growth. Even in the MENA region, where workforce transformation is both a national priority and a business imperative, this discipline is no longer optional. The tools exist. The credentials are trusted. The question now is whether HR leaders will build the systems to use them consistently and the cultures where learning never stops.

Explore more about SHRM Specialty Credentials at shrm.org/mena/credentials/specialty-credentials