More than six in ten managers have made workforce decisions based on assumptions about employees' skills rather than reliable skills data, according to a new study by CodeSignal. The findings highlight a gap in how organizations understand the capabilities of their workforce, particularly when making decisions about hiring, promotions, employee development and project assignments.
The CodeSignal workforce decisions study surveyed 2,000 respondents, including 1,000 people managers and 1,000 employees, to examine how organizations assess employee skills and use that information in workforce-related decisions. It found that 62.5% of managers had made decisions based on assumptions about employee skills during the previous 12 months.
Only 14% of managers said they had never made workforce decisions without gathering the necessary data.
Managers Continue to Rely on Personal Observations
The research found that 64.4% of managers relied on their own observations or judgment when assessing employee skills. This suggests that personal assessments remain an important part of how organizations evaluate workforce capabilities, even when more structured information may be unavailable.
The findings are particularly relevant to decisions involving internal mobility, promotions, reskilling and project staffing, where an incomplete understanding of employee skills can affect how talent is identified and allocated.
The study also found that 86.4% of managers said employees' actual performance often differed from what their resumes or interview performance had suggested. This points to a gap between the skills candidates present during recruitment and the capabilities managers observe after they join an organization.
Changing Skills and Fragmented Data Create Challenges
Managers identified several obstacles to maintaining an accurate picture of employee skills.
Around 16.9% said skills were changing too quickly, making it difficult to understand the capabilities employees currently possessed. Another 13.9% pointed to skills information being scattered across different systems, while 12.7% cited a lack of suitable tools for assessing workforce capabilities.
These challenges can make it harder for organizations to maintain current skills records and identify expertise across teams. As job requirements and employee capabilities evolve, information collected during recruitment or earlier performance reviews may not fully reflect the skills available within the workforce.
The Wider Implications for Workforce Planning
The findings raise questions about how organizations make talent decisions when reliable skills information is incomplete or difficult to access.
Workforce planning increasingly involves identifying existing capabilities, understanding skills gaps and determining where additional training or recruitment is required. However, the CodeSignal results suggest that many managers still depend on personal observations and assumptions when making these assessments.
The study also reported that 84.2% of managers said their organizations had increased investment in AI, while only 20.6% said their organizations could measure the return on that investment. This adds another dimension to the challenge of evaluating workforce capabilities and organizational readiness as businesses introduce new technologies.
Taken together, the findings highlight the difficulty organizations face in keeping pace with changing skills and making workforce decisions based on a clear understanding of employee capabilities.
