Material science company Dow recognized that its future success, including achieving critical sustainability and decarbonization goals, was directly tied to the capabilities of its global workforce. The organization knew that talent investment was a critical component to meet its ambitious sustainability and growth goals.
Dow’s workforce encompasses many skills and functions. 60% of its workers are in plants, solving client problems. They’re handling experiments, and managing workflows. But Dow’s global talent processes were fragmented, lacking agility, and hindering visibility into the existing skills of its workforce. The company needed a unified view of the talent it had in-house, how it managed internal recruiting, and how that talent aligned with its long-term vision and strategic needs. This lack of clarity made it difficult to make informed talent decisions for today and tomorrow.
In 2022, Dow made the strategic decision to move to a skills-based talent strategy. This would allow it to build a more agile and future-ready workforce with the right skills-based hiring, career framework, and job architecture in place.
A unified platform for a skills-valued culture.
To turn this vision into a reality, Dow needed a unified talent system that could pull skills through all its talent processes, from hiring to development. With several Workday products already deployed, including Workday Human Capital Management, adding Talent Management was an easy decision.
“We knew we needed to have one system, with one skills taxonomy that allowed us to grow,” says Jason Sheffer, Associate Director of Talent Management. “Workday was a no-brainer. Now we keep our data unified so we can analyze it and make informed decisions for the business. This is especially important if we purchase more companies or expand into other regions.”
Since going live with Workday, Dow has established a skills framework consisting of 3,500 skills, 200 of which are unique to Dow. The team has successfully integrated skills into its job architecture, tying skills to 95% of Dow's jobs globally.
This was achieved through a dual approach: validating skills with business partners and using Workday AI to suggest relevant skills.
Empowering employees and driving engagement.
Unlocking skills immediately benefited employees, with 83% of users in concept testing reporting a positive experience and feeling they got value. Since going live, 60% of employees have inputted their skills into their profiles to see their career development opportunities. Over 50% of employees are engaged in career development and planning.
And now they have more time to focus on their own skills development as Dow is saving over 185,000 hours that would previously have been lost to nonproductive work.
To enhance transparency and drive equity in internal mobility, Dow leveraged Workday Career Hub. Employees can now see the specific skills needed for their next role and identify opportunities for development, mentorship, and experience-based learning. “The internal mobility and flex teams allows our managers to hire internal talent, and employees get that on-the-job experience that allows them to grow and develop,” says Sheffer.
Beyond technology, change management played a crucial role in the successful transition to a skills-based organization. Dow spun up a dedicated skills ambassador network to communicate and drive change. “This was a global initiative where we used individuals who were part of our employee experience group. They volunteered and became experts in tools like Career Hub and Jobs Hub.” The sharing of information in local language, in local settings ensured adoption success and employee buy-in.
AI also supported the global rollout and organizational skills shift. “Workday AI allows us to have the data governance that’s needed to make sure we always have a human in the loop but also meet the ethics our teammates want us to deliver.”
While AI will never be responsible for decision-making at Dow, it is providing suggestions and playing a role in making people more efficient. This human-centric approach meets Dow’s internal AI policy and ethical requirements globally.
A future-ready partnership.
Looking ahead, Dow is continuing on its skills journey and is laser-focused on ensuring it advances its talent strategies, to attract and develop the best talent to meet business and employee goals.
“Workday is the right partner for Dow,” says Sheffer. “It helps us meet our talent priorities and enables us to have a future-ready workforce.”
Workday AI always keeps a human in the loop. It makes suggestions that make our jobs as leaders and managers more efficient but it does not make a decision.
Associate Director of Talent Management