“Our skills data is out of date”
Head of Workforce Planning · Resource management
A Head of Workforce Planning who says their skills data is out of date knows that any matching tool is only as good as what it's fed. They're right. Ask how it goes stale: when skills were last updated, and what would make people keep them current.
Practise it before the real call
Free to start. No credit card.
What the buyer says
Our skills data is out of date. Any matching tool will just give us bad answers faster.
How to handle it
Listen
Hear "bad answers faster". The worry is data quality, and that a tool will hide the problem rather than fix it.
Acknowledge
Agree that matching on out-of-date skills gives poor results, and that keeping skills data current is hard.
Explore
Ask when skills were last updated, how they're captured today (self-assessment, managers, project history), and why people stop updating them. Ask which skills matter most for staffing decisions.
Respond
If your product keeps skills current in ways that don't depend on people filling in forms, for example from project history, show exactly how. Propose starting with the skills that matter most, not the whole taxonomy.
Say this
“You're right. A matching tool is only as good as the skills data behind it.”
Say this
“When were people's skills last updated?”
Say this
“What would make people actually keep them current?”
Variations
- HR Systems Manager: “We ran a skills survey two years ago. Nobody's touched it since.”
- Head of Resourcing: “Our people profiles say what people did five years ago.”
Questions people ask
How do you respond when a buyer says their skills data is out of date?
Agree that matching is only as good as the data. Ask when skills were last updated and why people stop updating them, then show how your product keeps skills current without relying on forms, starting with the skills that matter most.
How do firms keep employee skills data up to date?
Approaches include drawing skills from project history, prompting people at natural moments such as the end of a project, and focusing on the skills that matter most for staffing rather than a very long list.
More objections in Resource management
- “We could build it ourselves”
- “Our partners will never give up control”
- “Show me the payback in our numbers”
- “Our people won't want an algorithm deciding”
Practise it before the real call
Free to start. No credit card.