How to Improve Agility in the Workplace: Top 5 Strategies

In an era defined by disruption, from rapid technological shifts to evolving workforce expectations, workforce agility has become more than a competitive advantage. It’s a business imperative. Agile organizations can respond to change faster, innovate faster and adapt talent strategies in real-time.

This is driven by the rise of Skills-Based Organizations (SBOs) organizations that prioritize what people can do, not just their roles. At the heart of this model are Skills Intelligence Platforms, like the one being developed by Edstellar, which give organizations deep visibility into their workforce capabilities and make faster, data-driven decisions.

If your company is preparing for a future where adaptability and speed matter, here are five foundational strategies to build true workforce agility.

What is Workforce agility?

Workforce Agility is an organization’s ability to quickly adapt to change through a flexible and skilled workforce. It’s about empowering employees with the right mindset, tools, and opportunities to respond to shifts in the market, technology, or internal needs.

A key driver of this agility is the talent marketplace a platform that connects employees to internal gigs, projects, or roles based on their skills. It helps companies move talent where it’s needed most, boosting speed, innovation, and resilience.

“The key driver of workforce agility is intelligence. If you have no idea what is on the horizon there is no way you can prepare for it. People can get scared off or turned off by nonsense terms like "big data". Employ some data nerds to gather and synthesize. Exploit new technology. Ensure the knowledge is used by those who can identify potential. ”

Dr. Helen Tracey

Assistant Professor, LHRM at Northumbria University

1. Shift from Role-Based to Skills-Based Approach

One of the biggest obstacles to agility today is the traditional role-based approach. Job descriptions are often outdated, narrow and don’t reflect the real capabilities of the people. This structure prevents an organization from pivoting, reskilling or deploying talent fast enough to meet changing business needs.

The answer lies in a skills-based model, which is a structure where work is defined by what people can do, not by their job titles. This model allows an organization to quickly find available skills, match talent to emerging needs and reconfigure teams for new initiatives.

According to Deloitte, companies that use skills-based models are 107% more likely to place talent correctly and 98% more likely to retain high performers.

Skills Management Platforms make this model scalable by continuously mapping workforce capabilities and creating a living inventory of the organization’s talent.

2. Enable Internal Talent Mobility Through Real-Time Skills Visibility

A common problem in large and growing companies is the underutilization of internal talent. Employees are stuck in roles or departments, unaware of new opportunities, while hiring managers look outside for skills that already exist in-house.

This is well documented in a McKinsey report that shows nearly 70% of executives think their internal mobility is poor.

The answer is to unlock internal mobility with real-time visibility into employee skills. By centralizing and surfacing skill data across the organization, companies can match internal talent with short term projects, mentorship roles or new positions based on their current and adjacent skills.

Skills Intelligence Platforms do this by creating transparent internal marketplaces and surfacing employees’ growth trajectories and hidden potential.

3. Give Managers and Team Leads Skills Insights

In today’s fast paced work environment, managers play a big role in employee growth and adaptability. But recent research shows a decline in managerial support for career development. According to the 2025 LinkedIn Learning Report, only 15% of employees said their manager helped them build a career plan in the last 6 months, down from previous years.

This decline is due to the increased demands on managers who are juggling team leadership, employee well being and their core responsibilities. To fix this, organizations should:

• Provide Dedicated Training: Give managers the tools and knowledge to support employee development effectively.​
• Make it Easy to Use: Offer platforms that allow managers to identify skill gaps and recommend personalized learning paths.​
• Recognise and Reward Supportive Managers: Highlight and incentivise managers who are actively involved in career building and internal mobility.​

By giving managers the right insights and resources, organizations can increase internal mobility, employee engagement and a culture of continuous learning.

4. Create a Culture of Continuous Learning and Adaptability

One of the biggest barriers to workforce agility is outdated learning models. Traditional training programs don’t keep up with rapidly changing skill requirements and employees feel unprepared for change and innovation stalls.

Gartner’s 2025 research highlights the importance of developing “connected learners” people who are not only learning continuously but are also part of networks that facilitate faster skill acquisition. Connected learners can develop new skills 25% faster than their peers. And organizations that have connected learners report 26% better employee performance and are 3x more likely to have high performing employees.

To create this environment organizations should:

• Learner Centric Solutions: Move away from one size fits all training and towards personalized learning experiences that align to individual career paths and business goals.​
• Connector Managers: Equip managers with the skills to connect employees to the right development opportunities to improve performance and engagement.​
• Skills Intelligence Platforms: Use platforms that identify skill gaps in real time, recommend learning pathways and link upskilling to growth opportunities.​

By embedding these strategies organizations can create a culture where continuous learning is the norm, employees are adaptable and motivated and the organization is ready for future transformations.

5. Use Skills Data to Future-Proof

A major problem in workforce planning is the lack of foresight. Businesses react to skill shortages only after they start to impact performance or competitiveness. This reactive approach causes unnecessary disruption and cost.

The solution is to use skills analytics and forecasting to plan ahead. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, nearly 39% of core skills will change by 2030 driven by AI, big data and digital platforms. 9 million jobs will be displaced but 19 million new roles will be created mainly in AI specialists, sustainability experts and data analysts.

With a Skills Intelligence Platform organizations can analyze workforce capabilities, benchmark against industry standards and model scenarios against strategic goals. This data driven planning means organizations are future ready not future shocked.

By doing so leaders can anticipate emerging skill demands, reskill in advance and shape a workforce that’s ready for what’s next whether that means adopting AI tools, launching new services or entering new markets.

Case Study: Building Workforce Agility through a Strategic Upskilling Initiative

Let us now discuss some real-life scenarios  how workforce agility could help in achieving success and upskilling employees. 

Background: A major telecom company, facing rapid digital disruption, chose to proactively reskill its workforce instead of relying on external hiring. The company launched an ambitious initiative to upskill and reskill over 250,000 employees for future roles.

Key Highlights:

• Skill Gap Analysis: Conducted a company-wide audit to identify internal talent potential and future skill needs.
  
• HR Overhaul: Updated performance management and development processes to prioritize critical, in-demand skills.
  
• Digital Enablement: Introduced a self-service platform with:
  
  • Personalized career profiles
    
  • Career intelligence tools
    
  • Job simulation experiences
    (Accessed over 6 million times in one year.)
    
• Learning Partnerships: Offered industry-relevant courses and certifications through external education providers.
  
• Career Lattice Model: Shifted from linear career progression to a more flexible, inclusive career lattice approach.
  
• Open Communication: Maintained transparent conversations with employees about evolving roles and future opportunities.

Impact: The upskilling initiative created a strong culture of continuous learning, internal mobility, and adaptability across the organization. Employees were empowered to take charge of their own career growth through transparent access to learning resources, real-time market insights, and internal opportunities.

This not only improved employee engagement and retention but also reduced the company’s dependency on external hiring for critical roles. The shift toward a lattice career model encouraged lateral moves and skill-based progression, making career paths more inclusive and flexible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion: Embedding Agility into the Organization’s DNA

Workforce agility isn’t about chasing every trend it’s about building a system that allows your people to respond, adapt and grow continuously.

The five strategies above skills-based structures, internal mobility, empowered managers, continuous learning and predictive skills planning are the building blocks of this transformation. They allow businesses to move fast without losing direction or cohesion.

At Edstellar, we believe Skills Intelligence is the foundation of workforce agility. Our upcoming Skills Management Platform will help organizations harness real-time skills data, support agile team formation and drive continuous development at scale.

The future of work is agile not as an initiative but as a way of being. And with the right strategy and tools in place, any organization can make that future a reality.