Traditionally, organisations have addressed workforce planning and skill gaps through two primary strategies: developing internal talent via upskilling and reskilling or acquiring new talent through external hiring. However, with the rapid acceleration of technological change and the growing impact of AI and automation on workflows, organisations must re-evaluate whether this approach is still fit for purpose.
Today's business landscape demands a more dynamic and forward-thinking strategy. With over a third of employees lacking confidence that their skillset will allow them to succeed in their roles, the urgency to close the skills gap remains a major concern. To remain competitive, businesses must act sooner rather than later and reassess their current workforce strategies, ensuring they remain agile and equipped to futureproof their organisations for the next era of work.
Enter the "Four Bs" framework: Build, Buy, Borrow, and Bot. This approach reflects the needs of modern HR leaders, empowering them to close skill gaps and prepare for future capabilities through a combination of internal development, strategic hiring, external partnerships and technological augmentation. Let's explore how the Four Bs offer a roadmap for navigating modern workforce requirements and the importance of "building" in connecting them all.
Build: The basis of workforce resilience
The most sustainable and impactful strategy for businesses and employees is to build skills within internal teams. This approach is not only effective but also aligns with employee needs as 62% of workers rate their organisation's AI training as average to poor. While employees are overwhelmingly positive about the potential of AI, employers are falling short in embracing adoption and supporting AI-driven initiatives. This gap presents a big opportunity.
Organisations must prioritise in-house learning and development to meet the evolving demands of the modern workforce, tailored to their strategic goals and the needs of their existing teams. To do so, they must promote internal talent beyond simply providing access to learning. This means creating a company culture that encourages growth, supports curiosity, and aligns learning with business goals. When done effectively, this foundation strengthens every other pillar of the Four Bs framework.
Structured talent practices - such as biannual 9-box reviews, succession planning, and performance cycles aligned to an organisation's strategy cascade - ensure continuous monitoring and evaluation of talent. These processes help identify whether skills gaps are being closed, assess role fit and future potential, and guide where individual development and skilling should focus. By embedding these practices into the fabric of talent management, organisations can more effectively align workforce capabilities with long-term strategic needs.
Buy: Hiring strategically to fill the gaps
While building internal talent is essential for long-term success, there are moments when speed is critical, making external hiring a strategic way to quickly bring in the required skills. In the tech sector, this is particularly important, as rapid innovation means AI, machine learning, technical leadership and power skills are constantly evolving. Strategic hiring can complement internal capabilities, reduce the pressure on continuous internal training and bring fresh expertise into the organisation.
This is especially true when bringing in a critical leader, where the urgency to drive transformation demands immediate expertise. However, in these cases, the upskilling of the existing team remains a key component of that leader's success - ensuring alignment, capability building, and long-term sustainability.
To make this hiring method as effective as possible, organisations must shift toward skills-based hiring. This means assessing candidates based on their competencies rather than traditional credentials like qualifications. Tools such as skill assessments, certifications, and scenario-based interviews can help identify talent ready to contribute from day one.
Once new hires have joined the business, integration at the early stages is key. New employees excel when supported by strong onboarding, mentorship, clear and consistent expectation setting (around skills, behaviours, and outcomes), surrounded by a collaborative team environment. Setting expectations early - regarding role responsibilities, performance standards, and development goals - helps new hires understand how they contribute to the broader strategy and what success looks like. For example, as organisations introduce AI-focused roles, having existing AI capabilities within the existing team enables seamless collaboration and knowledge sharing, so both new and existing employees can fully leverage shared technologies and expertise.
Borrow: Add agility by maximising external partnerships
Accessing the right talent doesn't always require training or permanent hires. Businesses can also tap into a flexible workforce of contractors, consultants and partner agencies, who are ideal for meeting short-term demands or quickly filling specialised skill gaps. This "borrowed" talent approach offers agility and speed, especially during periods of rapid change or when niche expertise is needed.
However, the success of this approach depends on how well external talent is integrated. Internal teams must be equipped to collaborate, communicate, and learn from external experts. All borrowed talent should also be evaluated and hired against our core skills, as well as for cultural fit, to ensure alignment with our values and ways of working. To enable this, leaders should prioritise training in power skills such as providing feedback, time management, and cross-functional collaboration.
Leaders also need to break down silos and create a true team dynamic that is inclusive of all team members - internal and external - contributing to the same outcome. Upskilling individuals with these skills is just as important as providing technical skills like AI literacy when it comes to navigating complex environments and promoting innovation. When done right, it ensures borrowed talent can contribute immediately to the long-term goals of the organisation.
Bot: Augment human potential with AI
AI and automation have surpassed their theoretical status and are now integral to the modern workforce. These technologies work alongside their human teams to automate everyday tasks, improve operational efficiency and drive business momentum with greater speed and purpose.
The rise of agentic AI has added a new dimension, as these tools can now learn, reason, and independently complete tasks that once required human involvement. For example, conducting a skills gap analysis, previously a time-consuming process, can now be streamlined with AI, which collects data and generates actionable insights to support more informed decision-making.
But AI's effectiveness hinges on human readiness. Employees must understand how to use these tools effectively, recognise their limitations and integrate them seamlessly into daily workflows. As a result, upskilling in AI literacy has become a core pillar of workforce strategy, ensuring teams are equipped to use the technology to its full potential.
As we move into a world shaped by Agentic AI, it's critical to keep the human element at the centre. Just because an AI agent can do the work doesn't always mean it should, or that it's right for your organisation. Leaders must consider how AI aligns with company culture and values, and make intentional decisions about when to insert human connection into workflows versus when to delegate tasks to AI.
Bringing the four Bs to life
How organisations apply these four pillars will naturally vary based on their industry, strategic targets, financial constraints and existing workforce capabilities. Yet, this framework holds significant potential to address the talent crisis in an era of rapid transformation. To get started, businesses should follow these key steps:
- Make the build, buy, borrow, and bot framework a fundamental part of all talent decisions
- Conduct a skills gap analysis to identify current capabilities and future needs and inform targeted workforce planning
- Utilise "building" to maximise the potential of every person within the organisation
- When speed and urgency are critical, deploy Buy, Borrow, and Bot and ensure success by setting up existing teams who are prepared to embrace them
- Make it a shared objective across the business by involving all leaders and departments to drive organisation-wide adoption
As the workplace evolves, organisations must stay competitive by moving beyond outdated models and adopting a workforce strategy that's dynamic, inclusive, and future-ready. The Four Bs offer a framework to address the talent crisis and empower businesses to thrive in the age of AI.
