IBM HR head Diane Gherson on becoming a skills-based company

Gherson took over as HR chief in 2013, but in her 17 years at the company, she's seen plenty of

change. In 2014-15, IBM was facing "massive disruption," Gherson said, from a shift to the cloud

(where software is distributed online instead of through hardware), new AI and blockchain tech, and

accompanying new business models. This meant that many of its more than 350,000 employees

worldwide would need to adapt or be replaced.

"There's a limit to how much you can just sort of change out your workforce, right?" Gherson said.

"Particularly in a lot of countries where that's quite painful."

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Instead of having managers work with each of their employees to map out their skills and then work

with other managers to see what skills were still needed, IBM automated the process. Internal software

could analyze employees' work experience and writings to infer what they excelled at. It prompted a

cultural shift within the company.

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"It was the first time we realized, 'Wow, we don't have to let all these people go and go out and hire

people for these openings even though they don't have the background that you would normally look for

in the external market. They have the skills to be successful in these jobs,'" Gherson said.

So if the company believes it can re-train most of us to adapt rather than replace us, why do the massive RA's continue? And sounds like IBM doesn't really like the labor laws of those countries where it's difficult (nearly impossible in some countries) to easily RA employees.

And there's internal software analyzing our writings? So I guess all those blog posts and comments are being sc-aped, parsed, and analyzed by Watson (referred to as "internal software" in the article) and in support of this endeavor?

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ibm-is-using-artificial-intelligence-to-retrain-workers-2019-4

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@YNgDQLi-1tnn Your post is dead on accurate and describes most of IBM to a T!

The skills DB is complete C-ap at IBM.

IBM is of course using it as GOSPEL for decisions on any employee.

Once again, it will blow up in IBM's face as people will focus on something that is incorrect to make major decisions. Watson for health care anyone? This is just like that only for HR internally.

This gal Diane is another washed up exec from IBM.

Wow her words are extremely disturbing.

She is a real POS just like Ginni

Of course she has to make up some kind of fantasy BS. She knows the truth , her and management have no clue what anyone in IBM is doing and worse, what our customers want . Another female token with zero leadership.

A remarkable work of fiction. IBM is on a campaign to spill and fill high overhead employees with cheap graduates and contractors on lower T's&C's

So first, the automatic aim is dead wrong in most cases...it uses connections communities and the other internal social network for a lot of it,so if you're out doing real work instead of that c-ap, you'll be evaluated lower than you really are.

Second, they spend essentially zero compared to competitors on training, even in hot areas like security and cloud. They think it's cheaper to hire a summit millennial with no experience but current skills than retrain high knowledge staff with outdated skills (usually in products that IBM still sells, where they were deemed too valuable to let transfer). The result is a company with a paper veneer of current skills, but that has no business acumen or knowledge.

It's a paper mache company. Looks real until you try to do anything with it.

She is Ginni lite. Don’t believe her BS.

Diane in typical IBM fashion you took an idea that worked in a controlled envio, and applied it to an entire company with 4 completely different divisions who have 4 completely different workforce’s customers, and expectations scattered across the world. Guess what. You most likely k--led IBM and in the process threw their most precious resource (their skilled employees) to the wind Congrat’s it takes real skill to destroy a company

What employee writings? PBC? Does IBM know fiction in is still fiction out? IBM has been using Watson to provide answers for new PMRs by analyzing the vast ocean of old PMRs. The recommendations are so useless. This is just another inept, harebrained fiction from IBM. IBM should pivot into publishing fact-free fiction, we are the best at it.

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IBM HR head Diane Gherson on becoming a skills-based company

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