Skills-based hiring has been a hot HR topic for a number of years—but it’s often a conversation that doesn’t center on the true needs of a critical talent population. About 40% of the American workforce is comprised of frontline workers, yet without a clear understanding of the skills they bring to the table—and those that are most likely to drive frontline success—both workers and organizations are missing out on critical opportunities.

That’s according to Donna Morris, chief people officer at Walmart and HR Executive’s 2025 HR Executive of the Year.

“People overlook the fact” that so many American employees work on the frontlines—and that their development needs may differ from those of desk or knowledge workers, she says. “If I’m a frontline worker, I may not have ever finished my high school education, or I may not have pursued higher education—but I have skills.”

Those skills are a currency, Morris says—especially in an environment where tech is rapidly reshaping workforce needs and organizations are deemphasizing the influence of formal education on career advancement. Yet traditionally, there has been no “shared language” to describe the skills that enable frontline workforce success, on par with how a particular educational degree would convey skills required and expectations for advancement.

That’s where the Opportunity Summit comes in.

Using skills to drive opportunity

In April 2024, Morris oversaw Walmart’s inaugural Opportunity Summit. Held in Washington, D.C., in partnership with nonprofit Education Quality Outcomes Standards, the event brought together more than 120 leaders from large employers, government agencies, nonprofits and more to explore the collaborative opportunities that can enable frontline worker success.

Chief among the outcomes was the development of a “taxonomy” of skills for core frontline jobs—that is applicable across industries.

“How can customer service skills,” for example, Morris cites, “equate from Bank of America to Verizon to Johnson & Johnson to Microsoft?”

Just as degrees are transferable among employers, the thought leaders involved sought to emphasize that core skills should also enable frontline workers to move with confidence through their careers, across sectors and organizations.

From the Opportunity Summit grew the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, which created a framework to drive skills-based hiring. The effort offers standard skills profiles across 30 core jobs—which cover about 35 million American workers. Employers can access a skills-based hiring implementation playbook, data on market trends and standards to measure skills proficiency, among other resources.

The potential of partnerships

Walmart hosted another Opportunity Summit last month—and is now ready to “pass the baton” for the next event, Morris says.

The collaborative model, she says, illustrates that empowering frontline workers goes beyond retention efforts. Contributors to the project want to give frontliners the tools to succeed in the long term, regardless of the organization they join.

“Our largest workforce is a frontline workforce,” Morris says of Walmart and its 2.1 million global employees. “We want to celebrate the skills that they acquire on the job, and we want to make sure they’re able to capture those skills and communicate about them as they progress their careers.”

As AI “rapidly reshapes” the American workforce, Morris says, out-of-the-box thinking and partnerships will be increasingly critical.

Employers today are facing an even more significant “inflection point” than they did with the rise of the internet, Morris says. This is creating more urgency for HR, particularly at large employers, to lean into innovation to find vibrant, skilled, future-equipped talent.

These organizations have a “large responsibility” to advance human-centricity in the age of AI—their workforces are vast and their business outcomes shape and influence the economy.

“There’s also a huge aspect of wellbeing in this equation,” Morris says. “Work gives a lot of people purpose—and if employers can come together to talk about how we reshape for the future, how we equip our workforces for the future, it not only strengthens one company, it strengthens the workforce more broadly.”