Most organisations still make talent decisions based on resumes, job titles, and past roles rather than verified skills. This information is easy to gather, but it does not reliably reflect what someone can actually do. That gap affects how talent is understood and how opportunity is distributed inside companies. It also leaves a large portion of workforce capability underused or misread.

Bryan Bostic of Visual Workforce Inc points to a lack of consistency in how skills are defined across roles. Without standardised skill criteria, organisations cannot reliably compare individual capability.

That’s where Visual Workforce steps in. It was set up to organise workforce capability around skills rather than documents. The company’s goal was not to improve existing talent workflows, but to replace the logic they were built on. It emerged from a technology recruiting firm where decisions relied heavily on resumes and job titles instead of actual skills.

Visual Workforce was founded in 2017 and is based in Richmond, Virginia. Bryan Bostic serves as its Chief Executive Officer. 

SME BUSINESS REVIEW reached out to Mr. Bostic for a chat to discuss how organisations are rethinking workforce capabilities and the role that skills-based intelligence plays in talent decisions.

“Most companies are sitting on unknown, untapped talent. The skills, certifications, and career ambitions of their people are locked in a few people’s brains or in stale spreadsheets. Visual Workforce changes that.”

Skills-Based Talent Systems

The argument for skills-based talent systems is no longer confined to product design or HR experimentation. It is now part of the senior-level workforce discussion.

At the SHRM Talent Summit in April 2026, Johnny C. Taylor, CEO of SHRM, and Scott Pulsipher, President of Western Governors University, described the need to break roles into individual skill units in order to make talent systems more reliable.

Moving toward a skills-based model requires more than changing hiring criteria. It demands a fundamental redesign of how organizations define, assess, and develop talent.

“So how do we get to a skills-architected talent economy?” Scott asked. “Employers have to define their skill needs. One of the biggest gaps today is that employers have not atomized the required skills people need to possess for specific roles.”

This “atomization” involves breaking roles down into discrete, measurable skills. From there, education providers can validate competency, and employers can assess candidates more objectively.

Building a Skills Intelligence System

Visual Workforce maps workforce capability based on skills rather than scattered employment records. It does this through three core areas that define how skills are understood, developed, and aligned with internal talent and external labour market dynamics.

Skills Intelligence shows how capability exists across an organisation, mapping skills, proficiency levels, gaps, and development pathways through AI-based analysis.

Skills First Maturity sets out a staged way of understanding how organisations move toward skills-based workforce systems over time.

Job Market Intelligence links internal capability with external context, such as demand trends, compensation patterns, and regional availability of skills.

Bryan Bostic explains the intent behind this system, “Our goal is to remove ambiguity from workforce data so organisations can define capability using shared standards and apply those standards across hiring, development, and planning.”

AI Mapping of Workforce Skills and Capability

Most organisations already hold large volumes of workforce data, but it is fragmented across systems that do not communicate with each other. Skills, certifications, and development records often sit in spreadsheets, HR platforms, and informal managerial knowledge.

Visual Workforce uses AI to reorganise this information into a structured skills inventory that can be accessed directly. Leaders can ask questions in natural language, such as identifying certified individuals or tracking expiring qualifications, without waiting for manual reporting cycles.

“We are removing dependence on static reporting layers so workforce capability can be accessed at the point of decision-making rather than after it,” Mr. Bostic says.

This reduces uncertainty in how organisations interpret their own workforce.

Skills First Maturity™

As noted above, Skills First Maturity™ is a framework that helps organisations understand how far they have progressed in adopting a skills-based workforce system. It provides a fully autonomous way to assess and track how skills are defined, used, and embedded across hiring, development, and planning.

It presents this progression as a staged development rather than a single change, reflecting how workforce data, decision-making, and talent processes evolve. Each stage shows how reliably skills are defined, how widely they are used in decisions, and where gaps still exist across systems.

Most significantly, Skills First Maturity™ helps organisations surface existing but under-recognised talent. Leaders can identify individuals ready for expanded responsibility, address succession risks earlier, and align development plans with future business needs. As a result, organisations achieve faster decision-making, reduced attrition, and a workforce better prepared for future demands.

“Workforce intelligence systems only operate reliably over time when skills data is structured and properly validated,” he explains.

Industry-Wide Relevance

Visual Workforce serves organisations where workforce capability directly affects outcomes. This includes those focused on retention, those investing in Learning & Development, and those seeking improved understanding of workforce structure.

It is not limited to any one industry because the underlying challenge is universal. Organisations need to understand what skills exist internally, where gaps are emerging, and how capability develops over time.

“We define our value through multiple outcomes, including greater visibility into workforce capability, better alignment between skills and opportunity, and a closer link between Learning & Development activity and organisational needs,” he explains.

Risk Mitigation through Workforce Intelligence:  M&A and Succession Planning

Visual Workforce Inc.’s Workforce Intelligence Map (WIM) is designed for private equity portfolios and organisations involved in mergers and acquisitions. It provides clarity on human capital value ahead of transactions, helping organisations understand the people dimension of deal execution and reduce integration risk.

LinkedIn research indicates that a significant proportion of M&A failures are linked to insufficient assessment of the people responsible for executing the strategy. This shows why workforce capability should be evaluated early in the deal process.

“You need visibility into workforce capability early, because once the deal is in motion, it is already too late to fix gaps in execution readiness,” Bryan notes.

Succession planning remains another structural gap across organisations. Deloitte reports that only 35 percent of global companies maintain a formal succession planning process. Within Visual Workforce’s Succession Planning product, organisations use a Succession Dashboard to track key indicators such as Coverage Rate, Readiness Rate, Depth Rate, and Bench Strength. These metrics provide visibility into how prepared the organisation is for future leadership needs.

The product maps key roles, candidates, and skill gaps, ensuring they are actively maintained rather than manually tracked. This moves succession planning away from a static, manual exercise and into an ongoing, data-driven organisational capability.

What Clients Say 

Visual Workforce clients previously found workforce capability fragmented and difficult to track. Following engagement with the company, they systematically track it and incorporate it into decision-making.

“I genuinely value the depth of functionality and the superior user experience your platform offers. Throughout this process, I often leaned toward your specific solution because, on a standalone basis, it is exceptionally strong. Your platform's ability to visualize skills and development plans is exceptional, and it outperformed the suite option in my scoring for those specific functions...You have a world-class product.” - Bruce W., VP Learning & Development, Regional Construction Company

“I have never worked with a software company so committed to our success. They actually listen to our needs and deliver on their promises. Best I have ever worked with.” - Scott W., COO, Global Manufacturing Company

“Visual Workforce solves the technology workforce alignment challenge by a proactive data-driven process.” - Kathy C., CHRO, National Insurance Company

ABOUT | BRYAN BOSTIC

Bryan Bostic is the Chief Executive Officer of Visual Workforce Inc.