IBM and ServiceNow Address Talent Gaps with New Services Solution

Generative AI is fundamentally changing the world of work by redefining the skills and jobs needed for the future. In fact, recent research from ServiceNow and Pearson found that an additional 1.76 million tech workers will be needed by 2028 in the US alone. 

However, according to the IBM Institute for Business Value, less than half of CEOs surveyed (44%) have assessed the potential impact of generative AI on their workforces.

To help customers develop and upskill their workforces to meet the demands of a rapidly changing talent market, IBM Consulting® is announcing a new services solution in collaboration with ServiceNow.

As part of the IBM Skills Transformation offering, the new solution combines IBM’s HR and talent transformation consulting expertise with the IBM Talent Frameworks skills taxonomy data to identify critical industry- and role-specific skills. This solution can accelerate the launch and adoption of the ServiceNow® Talent Development solution, which helps customers create more agile, adaptable and skill-centric workforces.

The talent challenge in the age of AI

HR and people leaders sit at the center of workforce planning and design, which is a critical role at this moment. Businesses need a clear skills roadmap to ensure they have the right talent in place to execute their strategy today and in the future.

That roadmap includes redefining employee roles and responsibilities to take advantage of existing skill sets and harnessing the power of technologies such as AI and automation. It also involves building a strategy to fill gaps with reskilling, upskilling and redeploying talent—while aligning roles in a new operating model that brings people and technology together in new ways.

Access to trustworthy data and insights about the current state of the workforce is also key for leaders to help their organizations:

• Establish a strong and accurate skills roadmap
• Build the right talent strategy to close skills gaps
• Equip their teams with the skills and competencies needed for the jobs of the future

Data and AI to support talent strategy

The new services solution can help businesses optimize their talent strategy by mapping a clear skills roadmap and closing skills gaps.

ServiceNow’s Talent Development helps organizations better understand the capabilities of their workforce so that they can build high-performing teams and improve employee experiences—all on a single platform.

As the AI platform for business transformation, ServiceNow’s open architecture and dynamic, AI‑powered skills intelligence engine can help give people leaders a distinct competitive advantage. In doing so, it can enable companies to integrate with systems across the enterprise and third-party data sources.

With AI and skills intelligence on a single platform, organizations can identify skill gaps and recommend relevant training and growth opportunities for employees in the flow of work.

For example, AI can help detect if an organization needs more salespeople with experience selling in a specific region. It can also assist in recommending relevant training to build those skills. This training helps ensure that employees have the critical capabilities to drive the business forward.

IBM has deep expertise in HR and talent transformation, reimagining and modernizing HR to unlock employee and work potential. This expertise includes developing a skills-focused culture, driving organizational change management and leadership alignment, advancing the HR digital roadmap and reengineering a company’s HR technologies to realize this transformative vision.

The new services solution can help enterprises accelerate time to value in three ways:

1. Skills ontology: By supplementing ServiceNow’s out-of-the-box job and skills ontology with the IBM Talent Frameworks skills taxonomy data, companies will have a more robust database that helps them understand the skills they have and the skills they need.
2. Implementation: IBM will help customers implement the Talent Development solution, including a tailored approach to ensure a seamless integration with existing HR enterprise systems and processes.
3. Organizational skill transformation: IBM will help employees understand why and how Talent Development is crucial to personal growth and business success, and consult on critical success metrics.

Testing our own processes and solutions

IBM Consulting worked with ServiceNow as a client, helping with skills mapping for a pilot group across a few key job functions. The collaboration has yielded impressive results, reducing the time to build job family architectures for these groups at ServiceNow by 50%. IBM also tailored a change management strategy to support the internal rollout of Talent Development at ServiceNow.

Through this engagement, the companies have seen firsthand the valuable impact combining ServiceNow Talent Development and IBM Consulting expertise can have on an organization. Technology, paired with an effective change management strategy, is critical for companies on a skills journey.

IBM is also a customer of ServiceNow. IBM is using the advanced workflow automation capabilities of the ServiceNow platform across many parts of its enterprise to help improve operations and user experiences for employees.

A growing partnership

The new solution builds on IBM and ServiceNow’s longstanding collaboration supporting HR leaders at client organizations.

As one of six Global Elite Partners of ServiceNow, IBM combines technology and ServiceNow platform consulting and implementation expertise to help enterprises in every industry jumpstart their ServiceNow AI-enabled journey across all functional enterprise domains.

Earlier this year, IBM and ServiceNow announced a new integration that will combine the power of the Now Platform® with IBM watsonx™ to boost productivity for mutual business partners and customers. ServiceNow will also incorporate watsonx.ai™ and IBM® Granite™ large language models into its Now Assist experience for ServiceNow customers.

ServiceNow also joined the AI Alliance in 2023, co-launched by IBM and Meta. Together, ServiceNow and IBM can help organizations unlock their employees’ full potential and cultivate the workforce they need for today and tomorrow.

Find out more about how ServiceNow Talent Development and IBM Consulting capabilities empower leaders to gain insights into their workforce’s skills and abilities.