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Building a skills-first workforce
Building a skills-first workforce
Skills are the new currency of work. In the current climate of talent scarcity, technological disruption and shifting workforce expectations, HR teams are finding that traditional, credential-based approaches are not enough.
Our latest research paper, Building a skills-first workforce, reveals how a growing number of forward-thinking companies are adopting a skills-first mindset, recognising that competencies, not degrees or job titles, drive agility, innovation and business growth.
The report offers you:
Insight into how Top Employers are embedding skills-first practices across the talent lifecycle.
A practical roadmap for building an agile and resilient future-ready workforce.
Our research shows that organisations embracing skills-first practices are already seeing tangible results: improved internal mobility, reduced turnover, and stronger diversity outcomes.
Why it matters
The next wave of workforce performance will be defined by how organisations embed skills-first practices into strategy and culture. Leaders who invest now in skills transparency, career mobility and integrated workforce planning will be better able to meet the needs of their business while planning for the future of talent management.
Sign up to download the research paper for free today and start building a skills-first workforce.
Embedding Transparency and Building Resilience
What does it take to build a resilient workforce in a time of constant change? How can organisations balance transparency with trust, or use AI while staying human-centred? And what does career growth look like in a flatter, more agile world?
These questions reflect the real tensions that HR leaders are grappling with globally. In fact, trust in HR has declined by 11 percentage points since 2022, according to the World of Work Trends 2025 report by Top Employers Institute. This signals a growing need for people practices that are transparent, inclusive, and grounded in purpose.
During her recent visit to Singapore, Nicole Pieterse, Global Head of HR and Property & Casualty at Top Employer Swiss Re, shared how the organisation is responding to these shifts—investing in trust, adaptability, and long-term sustainability to better serve both employees and business goals.
Swiss Re’s approach offers valuable, real-world learnings for HR teams seeking to future-proof their people strategies amid continued disruption.
Let’s get inspired by how Swiss Re is approaching some of the most urgent priorities facing HR today:
Embedding global pay transparency as a trust-building practice supported by manager capability and open dialogue.
Reframing career development for a flatter world—moving beyond vertical promotions to focus on skills, exposure, and agility.
Equipping future leaders with adaptability, ambition and emotional intelligence needed in a rapidly changing, tech-enabled environment.
Evolving workplace culture through distributed ownership and real-time employee listening, rather than relying on top-down cascades.
Introducing AI gradually and purposefully, helping employees shift from fear to empowerment through productivity gains and clear communication.
Making Pay Transparency a Global Standard
Swiss Re is ahead of the curve in responding to upcoming EU pay transparency regulations. Going beyond taking a regional compliance approach, the company is implementing full pay transparency across all major global locations. The aim is twofold: ensure fairness, and foster trust. Employees are now able to see how their pay compares to market benchmarks. This has opened the door for more honest, informed conversations about remuneration, recognition, and career progression.
To support this shift, Swiss Re developed dedicated dashboards for line managers and delivered tailored training to help them navigate complex discussions. This was essential, particularly when addressing sensitive topics such as employees reaching the top of a pay band or those starting at the lower end.
Transparency in pay, when done thoughtfully, becomes a catalyst for deeper conversations about value, growth and retention. As Nicole shared, “It’s not just about the numbers—it’s about what those numbers mean to people.”
Building Line Manager Confidence
Swiss Re recognised early on that transparency would only be meaningful if line managers were confident and skilled in discussing it. To ensure readiness, the organisation took a pragmatic approach by investing in capability-building.
Managers received not only tools, but training sessions grounded in Swiss Re’s overall pay philosophy. Designed as a holistic learning journey. managers gained deeper understanding about the link between reward and development, and how transparency can strengthen employee trust. By treating transparency as a relational practice, the company ensured it was embedded across the employee experience.
This directly addresses a broader challenge identified in the World of Work Trends 2025 report: rebuilding trust in HR and leadership through open dialogue and systems that employees feel are fair and human-centred.
Redesigning Careers for a Flatter World
With fewer layers in the organisation, traditional hierarchical career paths no longer apply. At Swiss Re, this challenge became an opportunity to reframe how growth and development are understood. Employees are now encouraged to build a “skills portfolio” through lateral moves, project-based work, and cross-functional exposure. This is supported by learning opportunities and performance conversations that focus on future potential—not just role-based performance.
Nicole pointed out that employees are still looking for the same fundamental things: growth, good leadership, and purpose. But delivering those experiences now requires more agility and personalisation.
This approach resonates with the shift described in the Trends report – meaningful development is no longer tied to a job title, but rather the accumulation of experience, learning, and capability.
A Future-Ready Leadership Approach
Swiss Re continues to prioritise leadership development, particularly in preparing talent for bigger roles amid growing complexity. The organisation uses a structured assessment framework that goes beyond performance to evaluate ambition, agility, emotional intelligence, and cultural alignment. Importantly, leadership development is tailored to different career stages and integrated into succession planning — ensuring leaders are identified and nurtured well before key roles become vacant.
In parallel, Swiss Re is exploring how AI can complement leadership. Early efforts focus on using AI to improve productivity and data-driven insights, while preserving the role of human leaders as sense-makers and culture carriers.
This hybrid approach reflects an emerging trend: the rise of AI-powered leadership, where leaders use intelligent systems to support strategy and team development — without replacing emotional intelligence and ethical judgment.
Embracing AI with Clarity and Care
Swiss Re has taken a deliberate, phased approach to introducing AI into the workplace. The first phase focused on workplace productivity—giving employees access to tools that save time and reduce manual tasks.
This lowered anxiety and built confidence, laying the foundation for more transformative AI adoption in the future.
Importantly, Swiss Re has framed AI not as a threat, but as a co-pilot. This narrative shift—supported by education and clear communication—has allowed the organisation to introduce new technologies while maintaining trust.
The World of Work Trends 2025 report reinforces this as a best practice: organisations that embrace AI as a partner rather than a disruptor are seeing improved employee engagement and internal promotion rates.
Evolving Culture through Distributed Ownership
Swiss Re has opted for cultural evolution rooted in lived experience. Since the arrival of its new Group CEO in 2024, the company has focused on enhancing what’s already working, while being clear about new expectations for speed, collaboration, and impact.
Key to this effort is the activation of “culture movers”— employees embedded across the business who act as champions of culture and practice. Combined with regular pulse surveys, this approach ensures Swiss Re can respond to local realities without losing global coherence.
Culture, as Nicole puts it, “isn’t about sameness. It’s about alignment between our stated values and how people actually experience the workplace.”
This model aligns closely with insights from the World of Work Trends 2025 report, which highlights how organisations must design cultures that are inclusive of diverse experiences and that extend beyond the organisational boundary.
Responding to Generational Shifts with Inclusive Design
With Gen Z becoming the dominant demographic in many organisations, there’s pressure to tailor workplace strategies to their expectations. But Swiss Re has taken a more inclusive view by creating policies that resonate across generations.
While Gen Z may value flexibility, purpose and sustainability, these are increasingly universal desires. Swiss Re’s approach is to meet those needs in ways that also support mid- and late-career employees.
This is a core message in the Trends report: that building sustainable workplaces requires designing for all life stages, not just the loudest demographic. By doing so, organisations build cultures of trust, equity and long-term retention.
Advice to the HR Community
Reflecting on her own journey, Nicole shared one piece of advice for HR professionals that stood out: “Stop being apologetic. Claim your space.”
HR, she emphasised, must confidently take its place at the strategic table. That means understanding the business deeply, speaking its language, and demonstrating value through data and action.
It’s a timely reminder that HR’s influence grows when it delivers both care and clarity, and when it acts as both an advocate for people and a steward of business performance.
Closing Thought
Swiss Re’s example offers a practical roadmap for any organisation aiming to align its people strategy with the realities of the modern workforce. From transparency and culture to AI and careers, the emphasis is on intentionality—designing systems that are human, fair, and future-ready.
As the world of work continues to shift, these lessons serve as a benchmark for what forward-thinking, principle-driven HR can look like in practice.
How neuroinclusion drives a thriving team environment
Neurodiversity is gaining increasing attention in workplace discussions. A non-medical umbrella term that includes the conditions autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and ADHD, neurodivergence is evident in around 10-20% of the population.
As the workforce becomes more diverse, many employees will be working alongside a neurodivergent colleague in the coming years. And so, in this age of the collective workforce – the central theme of our newly launched World of Work Trends 2025 report – the ability to design workplaces that are intentionally neuroinclusive has become essential.
Our latest research paper, Neuroinclusive by Design, builds on this theme and explores how leading HR teams are embracing a systems-thinking approach to inclusion, building team environments that are collaborative, adaptive, and resilient by design.
The research offers a blueprint for organisations ready to move beyond isolated DEI efforts toward truly integrated talent strategies that ultimately tap into collective strength through individual empowerment.
Organisations could and should therefore be seeking a positive step change in productivity through their recruitment and retention strategies for neuroinclusion. Even so, many struggle with where to begin. So, to understand what makes neurodiverse teams excel, Top Employers Institute conducted in-depth interviews with neurodivergent employees and organisations, to offer guidance on how HR professionals can take immediate actions for the benefit of both.
Our resulting neurodiversity research paper, Neuroinclusive by design, explores the steps organisations can take to build truly inclusive workplaces.
Here are three actions that HR can take immediately to create a culture of neuroinclusion by design in their organisation:
1. Harness individual talents for collective success. Many neurodivergent individuals value opportunities to explore different roles, projects and responsibilities. By building teams where individual strengths are recognised and supported by colleagues with different skill sets, HR can ensure that everyone can contribute meaningfully to the team’s success.
2. Define and commit to consistent ways of working. This practice involves HR establishing explicit behaviours and rules, creating clarity and allowing all employees – neurodivergent and neurotypical alike – to contribute effectively.
3. Embrace empathy and nurture interpersonal trust. HR needs to create a culture where empathy is prioritised, and assumptions are avoided. When colleagues approach interactions with neurodivergent employees with patience and willingness to understand their perspective, they foster a more inclusive and supportive environment.
From accommodation to acceleration
HR leaders can apply these three practices to better support neurodivergent employees and unlock their full potential as a strength within their organisation. If they can, they will cultivate workplaces that embrace diverse ways of thinking, communicating, and working. This in turn encourages ongoing reflection on how work gets done — and whether there might be better ways.
What we can learn from high-performing neurodiverse teams
Neurodiversity research tells us that teams that leverage individual strengths, co-create clarity in how they work, and prioritise empathy form a strong blueprint for building more inclusive, high-performing teams across the organisation. They lead to more adaptable, resilient, innovative – and yes, more productive – organisations.
By championingneurodiversity best practices research within teams, companies are not just creating better workplaces, they are shaping the future of work itself and creating a thriving environment for all.
Neuroinclusion in practice: From awareness to action
Our recent webinar, Neuroinclusion in the workplace: From awareness to action, showed HR leaders how to take a giant leap forward from understanding the importance of neuroinclusivity to embedding it across leadership and teams at every level of an organisation.
Sarah Andresen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Top Employers Institute discussed best practice neuroinclusivity with Eline Jammaers, Assistant Professor at Hasselt University and Tristan Lavender, Founder & Chair of Philips Neurodiversity Network.
The case is made, so let’s move to action.
HR leaders should already know that neuroinclusion helps organisations widen their talent pool, unlock latent potential and create stronger, more connected teams. There is no shortage of research showing that inclusive organisations have a better chance of meeting the expectations of socially-conscious consumers, while employees working there are more likely to feel engaged – and stick around.
Top Employers Institute’s new paper Neuroinclusive by design: Creative and thriving team environment for all echoes these findings and goes much further. It identifies three features of thriving, inclusive teams: harnessing individual talents, co-creating clarity and embracing empathy to drive better business performance.
Below are just some of the practices that the webinar looked at to show best practice inclusivity in action.
1. Start with leadership: Role models set the tone.
Senior leaders play a pivotal role in introducing neuroinclusive practices. When leaders are open about their own neurodivergence, it sends a powerful and positive message. It normalises differences and encourages psychological safety, especially among younger employees and others unsure about disclosing their neurodivergence.
Line managers are also vital role models. Their ability to sit and to listen, respond with flexibility and ask the normal day-to-day questions, such as ‘What support would help you do your best work?’ can be transformative.
One enduring myth that the webinar also explored is when neurodiversity is billed as bringing ‘superpowers’ to the workplace. While neurodivergent employees do bring unique strengths, these must be wholeheartedly supported. The true value of neurodivergence is only unlocked with the active encouragement of leaders and managers; a passive acceptance that we are all different is simply not enough.
2. Continue with teams: Embed psychological safety as an everyday instinct.
To move inclusion beyond good intentions means teams must also play their full part. Psychological safety needs to be a daily given, built through small, consistent behaviours. Both leaders and their teams should, for example, ask new hires about communication preferences, environmental needs or work styles as an instinct, without the need for a formal diagnosis. Simple common-sense actions like these have a wider purpose – they reduce barriers and improve collaboration among not only neurodivergent employees but everyone.
Inclusion happens in these ‘micro-moments’ of work: how to run meetings, give feedback, and handle discussions. Leaders and teams need to model empathy and openness, not just in policy but in day-to-day behaviour, until it becomes deeply embedded.
This needs to be visible externally, to attract future talent. Personal stories of neuroinclusion attract the job candidates of the future, as well strengthening internal alignment.
3. Reinforce through ERGs and metrics: A key role for HR.
Our Neuroinclusive by Design research describes a necessary mindset shift from ‘accommodation’ to ‘intentional inclusion’, building flexibility, clarity and empathy proactively into team culture from the outset. And HR has a key role to play in driving this forward in several ways.
For example, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are a powerful tool for accelerating inclusion. They provide safe spaces for connection, education and advocacy. For them to flourish, HR leaders must support them in a similarly active way, with funding, time and clear links to organisational strategy.
The webinar showed how companies like Philips have introduced formal neuroinclusion policies at a national level to make sure that ERG insights translate into organisation-wide support. And this is the kind of structural reinforcement that Top Employers’ new platform, HREdge | NeuroInclusion, has been designed to support. It provides the necessary tools, insights and expert guidance for embedding inclusion across the employee lifecycle.
Measuring neuroinclusivity also remains a challenge for many employers. One practical way for HR to play a role is to embed questions within existing wellbeing or engagement surveys, to align with key desired outcomes like job satisfaction or a sense of belonging. This requires trust, with participants needing to believe that their responses will not only be anonymous but used constructively. ERGs can play a unique role here too, for example through running pulse surveys or providing qualitative insights from neurodivergent communities.
Final word…
Neuroinclusion by design in 2025 is no longer only for the neurodivergent. It is a journey from awareness to action for all, a framework for designing better work for everyone, at every level of an organisation.
To explore how to start or scale your neuroinclusive practices, download our research paper or for tailored business recommendations and benchmarking solutions, find out more about our new platform, HREdge | NeuroInclusion.
Neuroinclusion by design: Progressive HR strategies to drive team success
Organisations today face growing pressure to create environments that embrace all forms of human diversity – including the need to accommodate diverse ways of thinking. In a recent LinkedIn Live webinar, Dr Emily Cook, Senior Researcher and Paola Bottaro, People Director, both from Top Employers Institute, explored the insights behind our new paper, Neuroinclusive by Design: Creating a Thriving Team Environment for All.
The session offered a compelling blueprint for HR leaders seeking to embed neuroinclusion into the way work gets done – not just as a reactive set of accommodations, but as a proactive principle of workplace design.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with neurodivergent professionals and the experiences of certified Top Employers such as Tata Consultancy Services and Bentley, the research identifies three essential traits of high-performing neurodiverse teams: harnessing individual talents, co-creating clarity, and embracing empathy.
The concept of intentional neuroinclusion is gaining traction, shifting focus from making adjustments for individuals to proactively structuring work environments to both expect and support a wide range of cognitive and behavioural styles. This not only benefits neurodivergent employees, but also enhances the working experience for all.
Rather than responding to challenges as they arise, this proactive approach integrates flexibility, clarity and empathy from the outset. This in turn enables a more inclusive and productive culture that supports differing ways of thinking, communicating and working.
Unlock collective success by harnessing individual talents
Many neurodivergent employees bring distinctive strengths, such as pattern recognition, that employers are in danger of overlooking when using traditional role definitions and job descriptions.
Our research encourages HR teams to look out for new skills. Techniques like skills profiling, using internal marketplaces for talent and more intentional performance conversations can help uncover and leverage these often-hidden strengths.
Neurodivergent professionals also frequently contribute beyond their formal roles, engaging in innovation projects and employee resource groups (ERGs). Supporting and celebrating this kind of engagement is one way that organisations can help fully unlock individual potential and elevate team performance.
Define and commit to consistent ways of working
The research found that inconsistent or mismatched expectations around how work gets done – whether in meetings, communication styles or collaborative processes – can become significant barriers for neurodivergent individuals.
Flexible and inclusive ways of working can be achieved by co-creating team norms, rather than imposing top-down rules. For example, teams might need to agree on meeting cadences, notification boundaries, or which tasks are best tackled together versus independently.
This shared clarity creates an environment where all team members, regardless of their cognitive profile, understand what’s expected and feel able to contribute effectively.
Embrace empathy to build trust
Our research showed that trust and psychological safety emerged as foundational to neuroinclusive teams. Neurodivergent employees often feel pressure to conform to behavioural expectations, such as direct eye contact or small talk, that may not align with how they naturally interact. This “masking” can take a toll on mental health over time.
Empathy, in this context, involves understanding and accepting diverse forms of communication and engagement. Employers can reinforce this through formal systems like manager training and inclusive policies, and through everyday signals – such as how to deliver feedback or how to understand alternative working styles.
Regular check-ins that focus on employee experience, not just outputs, can play a vital role in normalising support-seeking and creating space for authenticity.
Adapt neuroinclusion for differing cultures and contexts
In response to a question from the webinar audience, it was acknowledged that while in this instance our research interviews did not cover all geographic regions, the broader research we do at Top Employers Institute draws on data and insights from organisations across multiple continents. The principles highlighted in the paper – flexibility, clarity, and empathy – are designed to be adaptable to local context and nuance.
Neuroinclusion strategies should never follow a “one-size-fits-all” model. Different regions, industries, and cultures bring varying approaches, vocabularies and challenges to the topic. The key lies in building environments that are fundamentally inclusive by design, yet flexible enough to reflect local norms and realities.
A strategic blueprint for a better world of work
The overarching takeaway from our webinar was that neuroinclusion should not be seen as an adjustment to existing systems, but rather as a framework for the design of modern work. Through intentional design, organisations can build environments that both expect and celebrate diversity.
Along with this research paper, we’ve introduced a new platform, HREdge | NeuroInclusion, as a practical support tool for organisations at any stage of their neuroinclusion journey, providing access to tailored insights, expert guidance and a global network of HR leaders. And as the research makes clear, organisations that commit to neuroinclusion are not just improving workplace culture – they are positioning themselves for greater adaptability, innovation and long-term success.
How Top Employer, CME, transformed its People Strategy and gained business influence
In a media landscape defined by fierce competition and rapid transformation, Central European Media Enterprises (CME) did something bold: it made people strategy a business priority.
A few years ago, the HR team at CME operated with limited visibility, minimal influence, with no consistent processes across its regional markets. Employee engagement wasn’t measured, employer branding was uncharted territory, and HR did not have a seat at the table when the organisation discussed its business agenda.
That was the landscape Soňa Schwarzová stepped into as she took on the role of Chief People and Sustainability Officer, but fast forward to today, and the company is being recognised for its excellent people practices as a Certified Top Employer. That milestone reflects how the organisation.
From marginal to mission-critical
Fast forward to today, and CME stands tall as the first media company in Central and Eastern Europe to be Certified as a Top Employer. But as Soňa is quick to emphasise, the Certification itself wasn’t the final goal. It was the catalyst for continuous change and improvement.
The process of going through the audit is more important than the Certification. That’s more the cherry on top. — Soňa Schwarzová
The Top Employers Certification Programme acted as a powerful framework for CME as it gave the team data-led insights that allowed them to prioritise creating alignment, unlocking collaboration across markets, and transforming the HR function from reactive to strategic.
What changed for CME?
The case study reveals a roadmap for HR transformation:
Structured audits became CME’s annual People strategy blueprint
Cross-country collaboration flourished, empowering smaller HR teams
HR gained credibility, influence, and internal legitimacy
Employer branding accelerated, enhancing CME’s appeal across talent markets
HR now informs business strategy, not just supports it
As Soňa notes, Every country CEO included the Top Employers [insights] in their top-to-top presentations. That’s a major shift. We’re on the agenda.
The key takeaway
This isn’t just a success story. It’s a strategic playbook for HR leaders navigating complex environments, limited resources, and growing expectations.
Whether you’re rethinking your HR operating model, seeking to elevate your employer brand, or striving for business alignment, CME’s journey offers concrete, replicable insights.
Discover how our globally recognised Certification Programme, along with our data-led insights and advisory expertise, enables you to advance your talent attraction, development, engagement and retention strategies.
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