The TechWolf Podcast

TechWolf

Technology in HR is booming, yet confusing. Many vendors claim to include AI (agents), skills, seamless integrations, and other technologies in their product offerings. In practice, product promises often differ from reality. In this podcast, our host, Julius Schelstraete, holds no-nonsense conversations with business practitioners and thought leaders on everything related to "the skills-based organization": what it is, whether it's realistic, typical roadblocks, real-life use cases, and more. Join us as we move beyond the hype and examine skills-based HR from a critical, realistic lens!

  1. 5 days ago

    “Nothing’s being asked of HR that hasn’t been asked before.” | Deloitte's Kyle Forrest on zero-based work, spotting fake AI agents, and what the CHRO job becomes by 2030

    Every vendor at every conference is selling you an agent. Most of them are selling you a workflow with a chat window. Kyle Forrest runs Deloitte’s Future of HR practice and its Next Generation CHRO Academy, and he spends his weeks in the room with CHROs trying to separate the real from the rebranded. In this episode, he lays out the test for a genuine agent, why “make HR strategic” has been the same ask since the 1980s, and what it actually costs a leader to redesign a function that includes their own job. Timestamps: 02:00 - The knowledge walking out the door as boomers retire 09:36 - Can HR’s “unique AI moment” and “nothing new here” both be true? 15:37 - The three types of HR function, and why “be strategic” is a lazy demand 24:00 - Stagility: 75% of workers want stability, 85% of execs want agility 28:09 - 42% of workers say no one is measuring AI’s impact on them 31:45 - AI assisted, augmented, powered: telling people where their role is headed 33:19 - Zero-based work: should this work even exist? 40:55 - The BS test for a real agent versus a workflow with a chat window 47:10 - The trend Kyle wants you to push back on: pre-built agents

    “Nothing’s being asked of HR that hasn’t been asked before.” | Deloitte's Kyle Forrest on zero-based work, spotting fake AI agents, and what the CHRO job becomes by 2030

  2. 26 Jun

    “What took us months now takes minutes.” | Cotality CHRO Kendra Angier on building a skills engine, engaging the C-suite, and her 12-24mo strategy

    Most skills programs never make it out of the spreadsheet. Cotality's CHRO spent nine months trying to hand-build a skills taxonomy before she killed it and started over. In this episode, Kendra Angier explains how she rebuilt the workforce-intelligence stack around dynamic data, pulled her COO, CTO, and CFO into the buying decision, and earned an 80% employee NPS on skills along the way. It's a candid look at what actually moves a skills strategy from theory to Monday-morning reality. Timestamps 00:50 - Why she rejects the idea that AI is killing early talent 02:43 - The Cotality rebrand, and what it demands from the workforce 06:09 - The case for a 12-24 month horizon, not a ten-year plan 08:36 - How she got the CFO, COO and CTO to fund skills 13:42 - The nine-month taxonomy that nearly broke the team 21:22 - “What took us months now takes minutes” 25:47 - Why the change-management risk beats the data risk 38:17 - From chief HR officer to chief work officer

    “What took us months now takes minutes.” | Cotality CHRO Kendra Angier on building a skills engine, engaging the C-suite, and her 12-24mo strategy

  3. 17 Jun

    AstraZeneca’s 4-year Odyssey with skills intelligence | Lara Martinez, Global Director of Talent Intelligence, on why agility beats the SBO label

    Everyone wants a “skills-based organization.” Almost no one has built one.  At AstraZeneca, Global Director of Talent Intelligence Lara Martinez Gonzalez has spent four years connecting a tangle of recruitment systems, development platforms, and job architecture into one language for the workforce, and she’s blunt about how hard it has been.  In this episode, she argues skills is a data problem, not an HR project, explains why she refuses to say the word “skills” in front of business leaders, and shows where the value has actually landed so far. Plus the trap that cost her almost a year, and the company she’s seen get closest to skills-native. Timestamps: 00:57 — The one skills claim leaders should push back on 02:05 — Four years of skills work, told as an Odyssey 05:46 — How to pick which problem to solve first 10:48 — Why she drops the word “skills” in business meetings 16:30 — Reading the market: from skills to tasks 20:19 — Who should own tasks:  HR or the business? 21:54 — The honest ROI: “still squeezing the lemon” 31:32 — Her 90-day advice to peers two years in

    AstraZeneca’s 4-year Odyssey with skills intelligence | Lara Martinez, Global Director of Talent Intelligence, on why agility beats the SBO label

  4. 25 May

    "Tell me about your strategy. Skills can wait." | Sandoz's Workforce Intelligence Lead on the one move that flips SWP from push to pull

    Most strategic workforce plans never make it past the CHRO's desk. The horizon is five years, the work is detailed, and the business leader you need in the room would rather talk about anything else. Felipe Hessel runs Workforce Intelligence at Sandoz, and he's worked out how to flip that dynamic, getting executives to pull SWP towards them rather than dodge it. In this conversation, he walks through his six-step framework, the contracting move that earns him the right to ask about critical roles, and the agents he built that cut his own SWP cycle time by 60%. Timestamps 01:11 - Why HR's role in AI transformation isn't what most people think 04:30 - The three-legged stool of transformation is missing a leg 07:33 - The four legs of Workforce Intelligence: analytics, SWP, skills, AI 11:02 - The 90-day playbook for a new Workforce Intelligence role 12:57 - How to flip a sceptical CEO from push to pull on a 5-year workforce plan 18:11 - The six-step SWP framework, from contracting to course correction 23:51 - Why investing in workforce tech without integration is a trap 28:45 - The AI claim every business leader should push back on 32:46 - 2030 prediction: HR as a product organization

    "Tell me about your strategy. Skills can wait." | Sandoz's Workforce Intelligence Lead on the one move that flips SWP from push to pull

  5. 29 Apr

    "Sellers close deals 14% faster." | Special Episode: Workday’s Josh Tarr & TechWolf CEO Andreas De Neve on Revenue-Linked Skills Strategy.

    When your sales team closes deals 14% faster, the "skills gap" stops being an HR problem and starts being a revenue solution. In this Special Episode, TechWolf CEO Andreas joins Josh from Workday to discuss the messy, high-stakes reality of transforming a 20,000-person organization. They move past the buzzwords to discuss why 75% of skills profiles usually fail and how Workday used AI to achieve a 91% skill acceptance rate from their employees. Timestamps: 00:00 - Highlights: why 75% of skills data is usually "dead" on arrival. 01:29 - Fast & Thoughtful: Defining the Workday x TechWolf partnership. 02:20 - The "Less than 20%" Problem: Why most job profiles are missing the point. 04:38 - 3 Years of Mistakes: What I’d tell my past self about data strategy. 06:08 - The AI Pivot: Moving from "Internal Mobility" to "Workforce Planning." 08:18 - Precision Hiring: Identifying the "Critical 12" skills for every role. 08:50 - The 14% ROI: How skills-based hiring directly impacts sales velocity. 09:44 - Scaling to 20,000: The rollout of the Skills Suggestion App. 10:42 - 91% Acceptance: How to actually get employees to own their skills data.

  6. 15 Apr

    "There would actually be a people shortage" | McKinsey’s Sven Smit & Anu Madgavkar on AI, Agents, Robots, and the $100-Trillion Economy.

    The world is bracing for mass unemployment, but McKinsey Global Institute researchers Sven Smit and Anu Madgavkar suggest we might actually face a labor shortage. As agents and robots move from theory to the office floor, the real friction isn't just the tech; it's our inability to learn as fast as the machines. This episode challenges the "soft skills" myth and explains why your AI strategy will fail if it lives in the IT budget. Timestamps 07:05 – Why 80% automation might still lead to a labor shortage. 11:50 – The "Happy AI" trap: Why adding tools isn't the same as productivity. 19:20 – The blurring lines between knowledge workers and physical labor. 22:57 – Why "Soft Skills" are a dangerous trap for the next generation. 36:53 – Tasks vs. Workflows: The secret to 80% productivity gains. 49:08 – The Budget Error: Why AI belongs in the business P&L, not IT.

    "There would actually be a people shortage" | McKinsey’s Sven Smit & Anu Madgavkar on AI, Agents, Robots, and the $100-Trillion Economy.

  7. 23 Mar

    "Skills are just a lazy proxy for work." | A transparent debate with FM’s Mike Manning & Preethi Gowda on why business problems must dictate talent data.

    It is rare to hear two leaders from the same organization move past the corporate script and into a "healthy debate" about the very foundation of their work. In this episode, Mike Manning (VP, HR Data & Innovation) and Preethi Gowda (Global People Insights Lead) from FM do exactly that. While Preethi advocates for the proactive power of layering skills with knowledge and ability , Mike challenges the "skills revolution" as a lazy proxy for understanding the actual tasks that drive revenue. They don't always agree on the terminology, but they are perfectly aligned on the outcome: if HR doesn't speak the language of the P&L, it isn't doing its job. 01:31 – The positive start: Mike and Preethi’s differing takes on a world without skills data.08:22 – Sparring over "The Skill-Based Organization" vs. the reality of the job.13:01 – Mike’s wake-up call: "You lost me when you called me an HR professional".18:10 – The SIPOC Framework: A Six Sigma approach to talent.28:15 – Case Study: How Preethi and Mike’s joint investigation saved $3M by slowing down hiring.43:04 – The collaborative "Hard Question" for our next guest.

  8. 9 Mar

    "Stop pushing skills validation on everyone." | Why ServiceNow uses 'pull' talent strategies to find critical engineers.

    Most HR leaders are obsessed with "skilling" their workforce, but they’re ignoring the tasks that actually make up the work. Josh Newman, VP of Workforce Skills at ServiceNow, argues that skills data is essentially dead weight unless it’s tied to specific business processes and AI impacts. In this episode, Josh breaks down how ServiceNow is moving beyond simple taxonomies to create a "Talent Signature", a dynamic data layer that predicts who is ready for a promotion before they even raise their hand. 01:05 – Why AI makes HR more human, not less. 02:30 – Why redesigning HR won't be automatic and will take a "shitload of work." 04:00 – Defining the "AI-Native" organization and operationalizing intelligence. 05:25 – The "Talent Signature": Building the data layer for individual understanding. 06:30 – How ServiceNow uses intelligence to close the "Readiness Gap." 07:45 – Identifying "Forward Deployed Engineers" through capability adjacencies. 10:15 – The "Pull vs. Push" strategy: Why arbitrary skills validation fails. 12:20 – The 6-Layer Workforce Intelligence Stack (Strategy to Skills). 14:35 – Why ServiceNow chose TechWolf: The API and dynamic data layer. 16:25 – Measuring success: Infrastructure health vs. business-specific metrics. 18:50 – The next horizon: Integrating LLMs and organizational redesign. 20:15 – Josh’s question for the next guest (The Skills Skeptic).

    "Stop pushing skills validation on everyone." | Why ServiceNow uses 'pull' talent strategies to find critical engineers.
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About

Technology in HR is booming, yet confusing. Many vendors claim to include AI (agents), skills, seamless integrations, and other technologies in their product offerings. In practice, product promises often differ from reality. In this podcast, our host, Julius Schelstraete, holds no-nonsense conversations with business practitioners and thought leaders on everything related to "the skills-based organization": what it is, whether it's realistic, typical roadblocks, real-life use cases, and more. Join us as we move beyond the hype and examine skills-based HR from a critical, realistic lens!

Information

  • Creator
    TechWolf
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    33
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © TechWolf
  • Show Website
    The TechWolf Podcast

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