While the topic of skills has been gaining traction in recent years, it took on new life in 2025. The rapid proliferation of AI, as well as a changing labor market, emphasized the urgency of HR prioritizing employee skills—assessing them, building them and somehow planning for those that will be needed in a still-materializing future of work.
We spoke with several large organizations this year that are modeling how HR can navigate this crucial space—with a deep understanding of the needs of the business and its people, alongside a bit of creativity.
Spectrum: a more modern approach to higher ed
Spectrum, which employs 95,000 people as the country’s largest provider of rural internet services, knew that its frontline worker population wanted to advance their skills and education, but the company’s existing tuition benefit required employees to pay all costs upfront. Two years ago, it partnered with Guild for a revamped tuition offering with zero cost to employees.
More than 13,000 employees have since taken part—8.5 times the previous rate—and the vast majority are now frontline workers.
“This has been one of the more transformative benefits we have offered, and we have gotten great feedback,” CHRO Paul Marchand told us. “It has been a success greater than we ever thought it was going to be.”
Walmart: building a skills taxonomy for frontline workers
Skills are an increasingly critical currency for employees, said Donna Morris, chief people officer at Walmart and our 2025 HR Executive of the Year. That’s why the nation’s largest employer launched the Opportunity Summit last year to bring together thought leaders from business, government and nonprofit circles to develop a “taxonomy” of skills for frontline American workers.
The inaugural event spurred the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, an ongoing effort to standardize skills profiles across frontline jobs.
“We want to celebrate the skills that [frontline workers] acquire on the job,” Morris said, “and we want to make sure they’re able to capture those skills and communicate about them as they progress their careers.”
Blackstone: leveraging a skills framework for talent development
HR Executive’s 2025 HR Leader of Distinction, Paige Ross, global head of HR at Blackstone, knew that strategizing for future talent success would depend on doing a deep dive into current employee skills. Last year, she and her team conducted an exhaustive look into the capabilities that define investor excellence at Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager.
That led to the development of a framework highlighting the technical and non-technical skills possessed by the firm’s leading investors, which has since been embedded across talent programs, from leadership development to learning and 360s.
“When we look at the future leaders of the firm, they will need to be extremely well-rounded because the world is changing so fast,” Ross said.
New York Life: a platform to ‘unleash the art of the possible’
This summer, New York Life, the largest mutual life insurance company in the U.S., launched a new career growth platform focused on building skills and opportunities for advancement among its 12,000 workers. The AI-powered tool helps employees explore their current skills, take advantage of personalized upskilling opportunities and understand career paths within the company.
It’s an effort to help employees “unleash the art of the possible,” Joanne Rodgers, senior vice president and CHRO told us.
Pandora: highlighting the role of the manager
When an employee starts with global jewelry manufacturer and retailer Pandora, either in one of its retail stores or its factories, they are immediately given insights into how they can grow their careers with the company, said Byron Clayton, chief HR officer. Equally important has been training managers to help walk employees through that journey. In 2024, it launched a new leadership development program that has since trained more than 650 leaders.
“The career path itself is less valuable if the manager doesn’t actually spend the time, show the interest,” Clayton said.
