Chapter 3: From Job Titles to Skills – Alex Faces the Job & Skill Architecture Dilemma

A Sensitive Topic: Skills and Works Council Concerns  

Alex paused. These weren’t just questions about systems: they were about identity, trust and the future of work. 

Together with the Pentos team, she reframed the conversation: 

• This is not about automating people away, it’s about equipping our workforce to thrive in the evolving future of work. 

• The business challenge became clear: without understanding what skills were critical for future success, the company risked losing competitiveness, wasting training budgets and missing opportunities for internal mobility. 

• Right now, we don’t even know what skills our business will need, or who already has them. 

• Without a structured, transparent approach to workforce planning and skills management there is a significant risk of talent becoming obsolete amid this fast-moving world. 

That message struck a chord. 

She explained that the goal of becoming a skills-based organization was not replacement, but readiness: 

• Supporting reskilling and upskilling 

• Uncovering hidden internal potential 

• Making growth more inclusive and agile 

Job evaluations and pay structures would not disappear. Instead, they would be clarified and modernized with Works Council involvement from the beginning. 

The Human Factor: Resistance from Within 

Alex understood that introducing a job architecture and skills wasn’t a minor change. It was a big shift in how people viewed their roles and themselves. Pentos had already warned her: even well-meaning initiatives can feel threatening if handled poorly. Sudden changes in job titles, levels, or terminology often trigger strong emotional reactions. 

Alex knew the risk was real. In similar transformations, resistance had come from unexpected places: 

“Why is my role now classified lower than before?” 

“My colleague and I used to be on the same level, but now we’re separated.” 

The underlying reason was simple: employees feared losing recognition, value and fairness. That emotional resistance was a signal, not an obstacle, showing where communication and inclusion were most needed. 

This type of pushback could derail progress unless handled carefully. 

That is why Alex did not begin with a large job architecture program. Instead, she used a clever approach inspired by another Pentos customer: shift the focus from structure to growth. 

She and her team designed a new format for development conversations between managers and employees. These conversations included a simple but important step: identifying the job role and expected competencies, not for evaluation, but to spot growth opportunities and skill gaps. 

The reaction was striking. Instead of resisting, managers began asking: 

“How can we guide career development if we don’t know role expectations?” 

 “If we want to invest in learning, shouldn’t we focus on the skills the business really needs?” 

Through this, the “why” behind job architecture became clear to everyone: it wasn’t about control, it was about giving people a fair and transparent way to grow. 

By presenting job architecture as a way to enable development rather than control, Alex turned the narrative from fear to empowerment. 

Still, she knew change management had to be built in from the beginning and introduced step by step. The roadmap already included tailored support: structured communication, alignment workshops and manager enablement.  

Rebuilding, Not Renaming  

At this stage, Alex understood the truth: there was no quick fix. 

QwinWork needed consistent job architecture. Without well-defined roles and harmonized pay grades, teams in different countries were not on the same page. The fragmented structure had created inefficiencies: duplicated work, unclear expectations and uneven career paths. It wasn’t just a data issue but a business risk. 

Something as simple as aligning on the term Supervisor vs Lead or how jobs fit within job families could take weeks to resolve. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, Alex and her team faced these gaps with honesty, and let Pentos guide them, one step at a time. 

A Structured and Sustainable Path Forward 

Working with Pentos helped Alex find the right roadmap: 

Phase 1 – Foundations 

• Build a job architecture framework across the enterprise. 

• Create job profiles from scratch, aligned with business needs and global/local context. 

• Define governance roles: who owns what and how decisions are made. 

Phase 2 – Skills Mapping and Design 

• Use a skills approach to connect roles to relevant capabilities (technical, functional, leadership). 

• Validate with business and HR partners, rather than simply uploading vendor lists. 

• Involve the Works Council to shape the employee-facing experience. 

Phase 3 – Innovation Layer 

• Pilot SAP’s Talent Intelligence Hub to test AI-supported skill suggestions. 

• Set clear boundaries: AI supports decisions but does not make them. 

• Monitor risks and security together with IT and compliance. 

“You don’t have to do it all at once,” the Pentos consultant told her. 

“Start in key areas, validate what works and then scale what makes sense.” 

This felt different. It felt achievable. 

The Big Dilemma: Sustainability 

Even with a strong architecture in place, Alex faced another tough question: 

“How will we keep it all up to date?” 

In her industry, skills change quickly. Manually updating models, tracking labor trends and aligning learning content were impossible with their current resources. 

This was not just a technical problem; it was a question of how to stay relevant as a business. Without a living system to track evolving skills, workforce planning would quickly become outdated and strategic agility would be lost. 

The solution was not adding more HR administration, but creating systems that evolve with change: 

• AI-assisted monitoring of emerging skills 

• Integration of external market data sources 

• Clear governance that defines how updates happen, how often and by whom 

Still, Alex knew this would require investment and trust. Leadership had to be convinced. Without it, the company would continue making decisions in the dark. 

And to her, that was the bigger risk. 

What Changed for Alex 

Alex did not leave this phase with a completed skills framework. She left with something more durable: a shared understanding of why it mattered, a roadmap she could defend to leadership, and the Works Council at the table from day one. The architecture was still being built. But now everyone agreed on the blueprint. 

Does that sound familiar? Many HR and P&C leaders are somewhere on this same path, knowing the destination, but still figuring out the first steps. If that is where you are, the question worth sitting with is not “how do we do all of this?” but “where does it make the most sense to start?” 

Coming Up Next 

In the next blog, Alex takes a closer look at AI. It promises automation and insights, but what about bias, governance and ethics? Can AI really help HR become more human? Or is it just another buzzword? 

Can AI Help Us Build Better Workplaces?  

Read the series from the beginning  

Explore Further

• Managing Skills in a Rapidly Changing World 

Skills are the new currency of work. This Pentos article explores how to move beyond rigid job descriptions, manage skills at scale with SAP SuccessFactors, and build a living system that keeps pace with change. 
[Read the article] 

This article is based on a fictional scenario created to illustrate common challenges and approaches in People & Culture transformation. 

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