About

In 2022, Rolls-Royce faced a critical juncture: multiple business units in the company were heading towards significant skills shortages in specific skillsets. To solve it, the organization didn't just recruit; they fundamentally redesigned how work happens.

In this session, Stuart Evans, Director of Future of Work & Digital Employee Experience at Rolls-Royce, will share the story of how one of the world’s most iconic engineering firms solved a looming skills crisis through radical talent agility & the introduction of a skills-based organisation that saw the alignment of 14,500 engineers into a single, agile, enterprise function; effectively solving recruitment gaps by mapping transferable skills across traditional silos.

Stuart will continue the “Rolls-Royce Story” by exploring elements of the subsequent enterprise-wide transformation – a three-year journey that helped drive a surge in share price – and many changes to ways of working within the organisation. Stuart will round out the conversation with focus on evolving the world of work through dynamic workforce shaping in the era of Artificial Intelligence - moving beyond traditional HR and IT boundaries to treat "work" as a singular, strategic, asset rather than a divided responsibility; requiring a framework to determine which work components are best suited for automation and which require uniquely human skills.

During the session, Stuart will challenge the prevalent "keeping work human" narrative, arguing that this particular ship has already sailed.