Paper 3: Skills-First: What Does It Mean for My Organisation?

Abstract

This paper extends the Skills-First Working Paper Series by examining how employers understand and engage with skills-first practices in real-world conditions. It is intended to support employers in kickstarting their own journey towards a skills-first organisation that enables greater performance and resilience by sharing ideas from the ongoing experimental practices of various forward-leaning employers.

Authors

Chin Yin is the Chief People Officer at Grab, leading Grabʼs People, Places (real estate), Security and Systems (employee tech solutions). Under her leadership, Grab has earned accolades like Best Places to Work 2020 and Top 50 HR Leaders in Asia 2024. She sits on the boards of Workforce Singapore, HCLI, advises VC funds and startups, mentors women leaders, and supports Assisi Hospiceʼs HR Committee.

Dragana is an expert in the future of work, emerging tech, and digital transformation. She leads Google Workspace technical sales in APAC, helping organisations harness the value of generative AI for productivity transformation. Before Google, she held leadership roles at Dell Technologies, HPE, and a couple of startups. She holds Systems Design Engineering degree, from Waterloo University, Canada.

Cornelius Chang is the Head of People Strategy at Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading superapp technology company, where he previously led the People and Organisational Development team. He finds excitement in helping organisations achieve greater long-term performance while enabling the people to do ever-better work. Prior to Grab, he was a Partner at McKinsey&Company.

Ravin Jesuthasan is a recognised global thought leader, futurist and bestselling author on the future of work and AI. Ravin has been recognized as one of the leading management thinkers by Thinkers 50, one of the top 25 most influential consultants in the world by Consulting Magazine and one of the top 8 future of work influencers by Tech News. He is the author of 6 books and over 250 articles.

Sahara Sadik is a political economist specialising in AI, skills, and the future of work. Her research spans Finland, Switzerland, South Korea, India, and Singapore, examining how job and education systems evolve. She co-designs policy and enterprise experiments to build inclusive, high-skill pathways in rapidly changing labour markets.