Hi Eric, it’s a pleasure to have you at HRTech Cube! Can you share your professional journey and what led you to focus on talent management and skills development within organizations?
I started my career as an accountant. Realizing that was not for me, I began to do strategy and change consulting for a number of years. After a while, I began to question if we were really making any sustainable change in organizations. That questioning led me to see that the only way to sustainable change in organizations is to build a critical mass of professionals with new habits and ways of working. That lead to 25+ years in talent development! I never looked back!
You’ve emphasized a “skills first” approach to training employees. What do you see as the limitations of traditional training models that focus solely on productivity?
The productivity focus is short-term and all about today. Those abilities may be transferable. However, it is not purposeful planning for today and tomorrow at the organizational or individual level. With today’s exponentially increasing pace of change, agility is key. You need individuals who are able to pivot from knowledge domain to knowledge domain. And organizations need many people with the ability to pivot to enable great organizational agility. A productivity focus does not yield what is needed today. A skills-first approach does.
How can organizations better understand and address the changing expectations of their workforce regarding skill development and personal growth?
First, we must acknowledge the “deal” has changed. In addition to performance and career progression, employees want to grow personally. They desire skills and experiences that increase their potential AND make them portable.
Gartner’s Human Deal Framework highlights five components that employees seek:
›Deeper connections
›Radical flexibility (sense of autonomy)
›Personal growth
›Holistic well-being
›Shared purpose
If you ensure these five things are integrated across a holistic educational experience that focuses on skills for today’s role and those enduring human skills or attributes, you can begin to address the new deal in a way that will drive engagement, performance and retention.
In your view, what role do skills play in enhancing organizational capability, and how can they be integrated into strategic planning?
As mentioned before, a skills-first approach enables greater talent mobility. And greater mobility enhances organizational agility.
And with good skills data, you have a data-based view for connecting strategic planning and talent planning that can enable you to move fast to identify needs and put actions in place to effectively address.
What strategies have you found effective for growing skills within the workforce that align with both business outcomes and employees’ personal growth?
First, organize enterprise skills. Second, align core competencies/skills with professional development efforts. Third, create expectations, paths and methods for providing professionals with varied opportunities to strengthen both skills and attributes. Fourth, cultivate an environment/talent ecosystem that encourages ongoing learning & development. Finally, recognize the leverage point in any organization is the basic work unit, teams and use both organizational design and development activities to leverage.
Can you discuss the importance of continuous learning in today’s workplace and how organizations can foster a culture that supports it?
The pace of change demands it. And we all are learning every single day as we go through the day. For me, it starts with a philosophical underpinning that you need to align the talent ecosystem to provide intentionality & focus to the fact we are learning every single day. And then if we can purposefully use that energy in the direction that enables skill development and professional development, what a win-win. Otherwise, it will continue to happen haphazardly. Think expectations, broad educational programs, use of experiences, learning in the flow of work, etc.
What personal strategies do you implement to stay current with trends in talent management and ensure your approach remains relevant?
Personally, I read and attend select conferences that promote edge practices (GSV+ASU, DevLearn, SXSW) and actively participate in networks of like practitioners
What advice would you give to HR leaders looking to adopt a more strategic approach to skills development that prioritizes employee engagement?
Your approach has to be directly and simply tied to the strategy of the organization and the core competencies. AND address the new deal. If you do that, the CEO will see you as a strategic asset, and professionals will be better.
Looking ahead, how do you envision the future of talent management evolving, especially as employee expectations continue to shift?
In those organizations where it evolves, not all will, it will be strategic and the heartbeat. Talent and organizations will have greater agility. That, in turn will enable them to keep meeting professionals where they are at and organizational performance.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers about your vision for managing talent or the principles that guide your approach?
Don’t wait. Don’t get hooked on a shiny object like a new technology or the perfect skills taxonomy. Get forward momentum and keep adjusting.
Eric Dingler Co- Author of The Talented- Fueled Enterprise
Eric Dingler is a seasoned leader and retired senior human resources executive from the "Big 4" firms. He has over 30 years of experience enabling organizations to cultivate nimble, high-performing workforces. He recently served as Managing Director and Chief Learning Officer of Deloitte, where he spearheaded learning and development initiatives for over 120,000 practitioners across four countries. Eric's strategic transformation efforts aligned with business goals and culture, earning him recognition as an intrapreneur and positive disruptor. During his tenure at Deloitte, Eric developed a $1.4 billion transformation strategy to support the future of work, focusing on precision development at scale across technology, functional, and leadership skills. His leadership achieved measurable results, including cost efficiency and increased learning impact, alongside a 100% increase in the learner base. Eric's career journey began as an auditor at Arthur Andersen before transitioning to consulting and subsequently holding Talent Leadership roles at Coca-Cola, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and The Gap. His commitment to equality and LGBTQ issues in the workplace and education has earned him recognition, including the University of the Pacific's Outstanding Alumni Award for university service in 2022. A University of the Pacific graduate with a B.S. in Business Administration and Accounting, Eric also holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. In addition to his professional endeavors, Eric and his husband split their time between Palm Springs and Long Beach, California, enjoying travel, surfing, and cooking.
