Automation is pushing employers to “unfreeze” their jobs, disaggregate them into component tasks and subtasks, and separate those that can be automated and reassemble the remaining tasks into newly formed “refrozen” jobs. As developments in technology reshape jobs, some employers are looking for new structures to organize work —that enable workers to flex as needed instead of unfreezing and freezing jobs.

According to Deloitte Insights, skills-based organizations are based on four principles:

1. Liberate work from the confines of the job by reorganizing work as a portfolio of fluid structures, including and beyond the job,
2. Reconceive workers from being employees in jobs to being a “workforce of one”—individuals who work on- or off-balance-sheet, each with a unique ability to make contributions and a portfolio of skills and capabilities that match the work,
3. Use skills rather than jobs to make decisions about work and the workforce—from who performs what work, to performance management, to rewards, to hiring.
4. Build a “skills hub,” an engine of skills data, technology, governance, etc. to power these decisions.