In this in-person episode of The TechWolf Podcast, we sit down with Ben Wein, Director of Workforce Skills Enablement at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), live from the Flanders House in New York City.

Ben shares the inside story of how one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is becoming a skills-based organization—starting with a business-critical talent shortage in cell therapy manufacturing. He explains how BMS uses skills data to drive faster hiring, smarter workforce planning, and ultimately, patient impact.

💡 Final Takeaway: In pharma, solving the right talent problem isn’t a nice-to-have—it can literally save lives. Skills data is how BMS gets there.

Ben shares:
✔ Why time-to-fill became a life-or-death metric at BMS
✔ How skills helped solve a manufacturing talent crisis in cell therapy
✔ What not to focus on in your first year of becoming skill-based
✔ Why AI and task-level data will define the next wave of skills strategy
✔ What pharma gets right about workforce planning—and what others can learn

Time stamps:

[00:00] Meet Ben Wein, live from NYC
[03:33] What is a skills-based organization anyway?

[06:45] How a talent shortage in cell therapy became a catalyst
[09:09] Why BMS started with talent acquisition—not L&D
[11:34] How they built up skills data from zero
[13:28] Managing business expectations with imperfect data
[15:09] What language to use when speaking to the business vs HR
[16:15] What the BMS skills team looks like (and why it moved out of Talent)
[18:50] Their North Star: Time-to-fill and internal mobility
[20:41] Why tasks, roles, and skills must be treated as one system
[24:28] How they built employee trust—from podcasts to pilot rollouts
[28:52] The future of skills-based workforce planning in pharma
[31:08] Where Ben learns: forums, whiteboards, and peer networks
[33:02] Ben’s question for our next guest: “What if we’re wrong about skills?”

In this episode of The TechWolf Podcast, Marc Ramos, industry learning leader with Google, Novartis, Microsoft, Cornerstone, and EdTech advisor to leading HR tech companies, joins TechWolf CTO Jeroen Van Hautte to explore the emerging frontier of task-based intelligence.

Live from New York, we unpack how tasks are reshaping the future of work, why task data may be even more actionable than skills, and how AI is accelerating both.

From change management to job architecture to AI’s role in redefining value, this is a masterclass in what’s next for skills strategies.

[00:08] — Welcome and guest intros: Marc Ramos & Jeroen Van Hautte
[01:44] — How to navigate change in skills strategy: Marc’s reflections from Novartis
[07:24] — What is task-based intelligence and why is it emerging now?
[11:25] — Skills → Tasks → Outcomes: A framework for linking strategy to execution
[13:40] — Is this a new initiative or part of the skills-based journey?
[16:56] — Why tasks help define work better than job titles
[18:28] — TechWolf’s internal case study: Automating tasks and shifting skill needs
[21:41] — Re-skilling & internal mobility: Tasks bring clarity to re-skilling paths
[23:28] — How tasks reduce resistance to change & align skills to business goals
[28:40] — How AI helps map tasks and extract intelligence from work data
[30:07] — Sales example: Tasks over skills when validating pipeline success
[33:17] — Proficiency: Replacing subjective ratings with task completion evidence
[35:14] — Marc: “I hope proficiencies go away” — and what replaces them
[43:38] — Who owns task data? IT vs HR vs Infrastructure
[49:48] — Task intelligence leaders: Entropic, Novartis, and the rise of TOS (Task Operating System)
[53:47] — Prediction: Skills or tasks—what drives value in 2030?
[58:42] — Gig economy and task-driven value: where the future might go
[1:00:08] — Where Marc & Jeroen go to learn about AI, skills, and task data
[1:03:24] — Marc’s question for the next guest: What cultural attributes drive your skills strategy?

In this face-to-face episode of The TechWolf Podcast, Kason Morris, Global Director of the Future of Work and Skills-Based Organization Strategy at Merck, joins us in New York City to discuss why skills are not a trend—they're infrastructure. 

With experience at Allstate, Salesforce, and now Merck, Kason breaks down the practical realities of skills transformation: where to start, how to prove value, and what too many companies get wrong.

He shares Merck’s own journey toward becoming a more skills-informed organization, lessons learned on data governance and stakeholder management, and why the key to progress lies in durability, not perfection.

🔑 Key Takeaways from Kason Morris on Building a Skills-Intelligent Organization

🧠 Why "Skills" Are Just a Starting Point

• Skills aren't new—they're just newly scalable thanks to AI.
  

• It's not a skills problem, it's a data opportunity.
  

• Smart orgs aren't becoming skills-based—they're becoming skills-informed.
  

⏳ Waiting Is a Losing Strategy

• Delaying skills transformation puts your organization behind the curve.
  

• Momentum starts with mindset—not tools or budget.
  

• Begin lean, focused, and aligned to the business.
  

💼 How Merck Made Skills Strategic

• Business triggers came first: diversity in hiring, cross-functional capability gaps.
  

• Skills work supported digital transformation, talent mobility, and architecture.
  

• Governance structure enables scaling across business units.
  

📊 Getting and Maintaining Good Skills Data

• Start with inference and AI tools—not exhaustive self-assessments.
  

• Treat data as "do no harm"—transparency with employees is essential.
  

• A three-tier governance model keeps the data alive and business-aligned.
  

🚀 Talent Marketplaces & the Superworker

• Talent marketplaces help democratize access and power personalized growth.
  

• AI enables “superworkers” by freeing capacity for learning and creativity.
  

• Internal mobility still faces resistance—especially from middle managers.
  

🛠️ How to Sell Skills Internally

• Identify “hero use cases” with visible business impact.
  

• Use pilots to earn trust—but treat them as step 1 in a long-term journey.
  

Link skills work to outcomes leaders already care about: time-to-hire, engagement, agility.

In this in-person episode of The TechWolf Podcast, recorded live in New York City, we sit down with Sarah Gretczko, Head of Talent & Belonging at PayPal.

With 20+ years of experience in HR strategy, Sarah shares unfiltered insights on the evolution of skills-based organizations—and why focusing only on skills is a mistake.

From her time at MasterCard and JP Morgan to PayPal today, she brings stories of real transformation, failed pilots, business alignment, and the human side of tech.

Sarah shares: 

• Why skills are only one piece of the puzzle when understanding human potential.

• What companies get wrong when jumping into skills transformations.
• How a failed workforce planning project became a critical success during COVID.
• Her advice for choosing the right use cases and getting business buy-in.
• How to evaluate HR tech vendors without getting lost in the hype.

💡 Final Takeaway: Don't get distracted by buzzwords. Skills data is only useful if it's connected to real business problems—and implemented in a human-centric way.

In this episode of The TechWolf Podcast, Nico Orie, VP of People and Culture at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), shares why technology investments often fail without equal focus on people.

He dives into CCEP's skill-based transformation, the critical gap in how we value human capital, and why organizations must balance AI with a human-first approach.

From dynamic work design to driving adoption on the shop floor, this conversation offers grounded lessons for HR and business leaders alike.

In this episode, Robert Gibby, current Data Science Director at Cox Enterprises, former Director of People Analytics at Meta, and Chief Talent Scientist at IBM, shares his experience designing AI-powered skills intelligence for workforce planning, talent mobility, and hiring.

Robert Discusses:

• How AI can be used to redefine skills-based job architecture
• Why skills-based transformations can stall - how to keep them going
• The problem with self-reported skills data - and how AI improves accuracy
• How companies can move from a job-based to a skill-based workforce
• What's next for skills intelligence - and why the future is skills-to-work, not skills-to-job

He also unpacks the biggest lessons he learned about using skills data to drive real business impact, talent agility, and workforce planning.

Final Take-away: Skills-based organizations don't just need better data - they need Ai-driven strategies to make skills intelligence actionable at scale. 

Meredith Wellard is the former VP of Group Talent Acquisition, Learning, and Growth at DHL, where she spent nearly five years laying the foundation for one of the most ambitious skills-based transformations in a global enterprise. At DHL, she championed internal mobility, launching innovative initiatives like ‘Talent Tinder’ to shift hiring from external to internal placements, reduce onboarding costs, and future-proof the workforce.

Now, Meredith is taking her expertise beyond DHL, helping organizations navigate the people and change management side of tech-enabled transformations—particularly around skills. A true pragmatist with a deep understanding of HR tech, she’s on a mission to help companies move beyond the hype and make skills work in the real world.

In Today’s Episode with Meredith, We Discuss:

• Why the skepticism around a skills-based organization?

• Is a skills-based transformation really worth it to pursue?

• What verticals are in most need to pursue a skills-based transformation NOW?

• How did Meredith go to pursue one of the boldest skills-based transformations at DHL?

• Should HR professionals go out to buy tech & AI, and if so - where do you even start?

• How did DHL get started on their skills journey?

• How to convince SVP-level leaders to go along on a 5-year-long talent transformation journey?

• What did DHL do to avoid the business losing patience with the program in those 5 years?

• What was the business case presented to business leaders?

• How would you advise companies to get started TODAY?

• What is beyond the use case of talent mobility?

• What are companies you look up to for their skills-based approach?

• Question to our next guest?

Sandra is the chief learning scientist at Epam Systems, a global provider of software engineering, digital platform engineering, and product development services.

Interestingly, EPAM has been on a skills-based journey for over 30 years and is as close an example as you’ll find of a skills-based organization.

Sandra has been a proud advocate of Epam’s journey and helped build the critical foundations with ups and downs!

Key topics in this episode:

Explore how Sandra’s expertise can inspire your journey toward a skills-based organization.

My key takeaway quotes:

Gina Jeneroux is the former Chief Learning Officer at BMO Financial Group, where she gained years of experience in enterprise learning and skills strategies, design, operations, and governance.

She now sits at the intersection of AI, skills, and industry as the Chief Skills & Innovation Officer at Executive Networks, Professor of Practice in Future Work & Skills, and Director of the Future Talent Research Institute at International Business University (IBU).

We cover many topics, including:

My key takeaway quotes:

See here for additional reads to this conversation:

Josh Tarr is the Director of Skills-Based Organizations (SBOs) at Workday. He and his team are fully committed to the concept of skills-driven organizations for Workday's internal workforce. In this interview, we explore Josh's vision for SBOs and the steps he has taken to achieve it.

We cover many topics, from the hype cycle around SBOs to Workday’s skills transformation journey, practical milestones the team has already achieved, and the importance of skills use cases.

My key takeaway quotes:

See here for additional reads to this conversation: