“From Skill Gaps to Sustainable Employability”

I see the changing role of HR as moving from “talent acquisition” to “talent activation”—connecting India’s informal talent pool to formal employment, skills, dignity and sustainable careers. This aligns strongly in enabling formal employment through staffing and its recognition that flexi staffing can help extend social security to informal workers.

In my Human Capital and Technology & Transformation experience, my approach is a 3-step Skill-to-Workforce model:

• Identify: Use workforce analytics, skills assessments and local talent mapping to identify capability gaps—not just qualification gaps. Staffing partners become strategic talent-supply partners rather than transactional vendors
• Enable: Build structured apprenticeship/traineeship pathways combining digital learning, on-the-job exposure, mentoring and competency-based assessment. Technology can create a skills passport that makes capability visible beyond conventional credentials. Importantly, Employee Experience and Wellness are embedded from day one—financial awareness, mental wellbeing, workplace readiness and belongingness improve the probability of successful workforce integration.
• Convert & Measure: Track the journey from training → deployment → formal employment → retention → career progression. For DEI, I would measure women and underserved talent hired across gender, apprenticeship-to-employment conversion, retention, internal mobility, pay equity and representation across levels.

The impact is therefore broader than a hiring metric. Formal staffing creates access to structured employment, benefits and social protection, while apprenticeships create an entry bridge for talent traditionally excluded by experience or credential barriers. 

Note: ISF’s research also demonstrates continued demand for formal flexi employment.

My belief: HR can become the bridge between employability and economic mobility—using technology to scale, staffing to connect, apprenticeships to build skills, DEI to widen access, and wellbeing to make inclusion sustainable.

Author

Alapinee Deshmukh

HR Lead India (HR Tech & Transformation ,DEI and Wellness)

eClinicalWorks