Visier acquires skills-focused Boostrs
Is the future for HR going to be navigated by data-backed skills approaches?
Why You Should Care
Skills shortages are undeniable.
One way firms are managing this is by trying to better understand the skills they can access both internally and externally.
This is part of the reason Visier has acquired Boostrs, in order to expand and improve their offering.
A conversation that is getting undeniably louder in the HR space is the one around skills.
With many organizations finding it continually difficult to fill open vacancies — earlier this year, the British Chamber of Commerce found that 80% of businesses were still struggling to recruit staff — or retain experienced employees, many are at the very least talking about moving to skills frameworks, creating new cross-team skills ontologies, and making new internal skills marketplaces.
Yet, even experienced HR leaders don’t find the skills-centric approach completely straightforward.
Speaking to UNLEASH before UNLEASH World Paris, Meredith Wellard, VP of group talent acquisition, learning, and growth at Deutsche Post DHL, explained that even if you move to a skills-based approach it is difficult to know if the skills you have as a business match what’s needed.
DHL’s Wellard said: “Today, I don’t know what skills are going to be required in two years’ time; it’s not possible to know because we don’t know what changes will happen in the world and we’re still in a global flux.”
The right technology and tools
Therefore, it is timely that Visier, the people analytics and HR metrics provider, used by Uber, Electronic Arts, ebay, SONOS, and Ford, has acquired the assets of Boostrs, an API-first skills mapping engine.
A spokesperson for Visier explained that this acquisition has been made in order to boost their product offering by allowing organizations to turn both internal and external skills and workforce data into a clear picture of the skills they have and will need going forward.
Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH about the acquisition, Dave Weisbeck, chief strategy officer at Visier explained, that with an uncertain economic outlook an enhanced ability to pinpoint needed skills can be reassuring for businesses and individuals alike.
He said: “Employees are looking to business leaders for reassurance that their employer understands what’s important to them.
“And, with learning and development front of mind for employees, reskilling and upskilling programs are critical to ensure employee retention.
“The reality of today however is that the goalposts are constantly moving, so determining where, who, and how to reskill so as to make the biggest business impact is no easy feat.
“To succeed, reskilling efforts require a data-driven approach.”
It is with the Boostrs move that Visier believes this data-driven approach will be expanded.
Founded in 2017, Boosters entered the market in order to help organizations understand the underlying skills behind each job so they can recruit and retain the right talent, identify career paths for their people, and connect employees with learning opportunities to advance the business and the individual.
Visier hope that this acquisition will therefore improve the depth and breadth of the insights they can give to customers, especially in the areas of attraction and retention (by offering better-focused upskilling and reskilling), learning and development, succession planning, promotion identification, and compensation.
Included in the deal, Visier has also hired 10 Boostrs engineers and data scientists and the Boostrs headquarters in Paris will become a Visier satellite office.
Having hit unicorn status in 2021, Boostrs is the second acquisition made by Visier in 2022; the firm has also bought analytics collaboration firm Yva.ai.
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Multiple award-winning journalist, editor and content strategist
Dan is an award-winning HR journalist and editor with over five years experience in the HR space.
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