Atlas Copco Group x TechWolf: Laying the Foundation for Skills-Based Talent Agility

Business Context

Atlas Copco Group is a decentralized global group rapidly transforming into an industrial technology leader. With operations spanning more than 70 countries and a workforce of over 55,000 employees, the company faced an urgent need for better visibility into its workforce capabilities.

The primary problem wasn’t a lack of intent from leadership, but rather execution. Valuable talent was slipping away due to a combination of disconnected data, unclear career paths, and slow hiring processes. The organization found itself taking early steps toward addressing three incredibly urgent talent challenges: escalating time-to-fill for key roles, underused internal mobility, and rapidly growing skills mismatches. At the time, their workforce intelligence was fundamentally fragmented, inconsistent, and impossible to use at scale.

Challenges: Solving the Skills Data Gap

Before implementing TechWolf, skills data at Atlas Copco Group was scattered across multiple disjointed tools. It was unstructured and inconsistent, creating roadblocks for both HR and the broader business. The organization faced several distinct hurdles that prevented them from moving to a skills-first approach:

• The common language gap: Without a unified skills taxonomy, critical skill gaps remained completely unclear. As a result, important career conversations about internal mobility or employee development stalled before they could even begin.
• Data credibility and stakeholder hesitation: Some stakeholders across the business were hesitant to embrace a new skills language without highly trusted, objective data to back it up.
• Integration and complexity risks: The enterprise needed a way to bridge existing systems without adding another layer of complexity for their employees to learn.

We had the right intentions, but without trusted data, we couldn’t act.”
— Dorna Shafiei, xVP Talent & Learning

How We Helped: Building the Bridge

TechWolf helped lay the bridge by providing a shared, AI-powered skills language designed to work across the organization's existing platforms. To transform their workforce data into a strategic asset, we delivered a three-part framework:

• Trusted data: We moved the organization away from a static taxonomy by creating a living skills map rooted in their own data and language. We established this unified foundation by using AI to infer employee skills directly from the existing HRIS, learning data, and employee CVs, while validating and benchmarking it against external labor market data.

We didn’t want a static taxonomy, we wanted a living skills map rooted in our own data and language while validated and benchmarked against external data.”
— Cecilia Sandberg, CHRO

• Executive insights: We provided leadership with a skill-enabled job architecture designed specifically to support long-term talent processes. By intelligently linking specific jobs to required skills based on job advertisements, descriptions, and labor market data, business leaders and a cross-functional core team were able to closely shape strategic use cases anchored in real business pain points.
  
  
• Embedded actions: To drive real-world impact without adding new complexity for employees, we linked this unified skills language directly to Atlas Copco Group's existing systems. This includes preparing phased implementations for SAP SuccessFactors and Cornerstone, alongside deploying a Skill Assistant in Microsoft Teams, where employees can update their profiles in the natural flow of work.

We looked at many providers. TechWolf was the one who made our data work across the whole stack.”
— Cecilia Sandberg, CHRO

Outcomes: A Foundation for Talent Agility

Atlas Copco Group’s work with TechWolf is still in its early stages, but tremendous momentum is building. The team has successfully focused on laying strong foundations and testing initial use cases in a business-led way. Within months, recruiters in pilot programs saw faster hiring and more diverse candidate pools.

• One common language across HR systems: The organization has transitioned from fragmented intelligence to a structured, transparent foundation.
• Company-wide profiling: Skill profiles have been successfully built for all jobs, training, and pilot employee groups, providing a shared starting point for decisions.
• Improved talent acquisition: Early pilots explored the move from job title-based sourcing to skills-based approaches. Recruiters quickly reported improved relevance, quality, and diversity in applicants.
• A ready-to-scale mobility and learning framework: The goal is to enable employees to explore career paths based on their actual skills, rather than tenure or title. Generic, one-size-fits-all training is actively being replaced by personalized upskilling paths linked directly to employee needs.

Our pilot recruiters saw more qualified candidates and a broader mix of applicants.”
— Dorna Shafiei, xVP Talent & Learning

Lessons Learned in Governance: The Secret Sauce

Atlas Copco Group didn’t start with a flashy tech demo. They started with real business problems and ensured that the right people were in the room from day one to maintain momentum and trust.

• Cross-functional inclusion: A dedicated cross-functional core team meets weekly, and business leaders have been closely involved in shaping the use cases.
• Continuous feedback: Pilot groups provide real-time feedback, ensuring the system evolves alongside actual business needs.
• Executive anchoring: Executive buy-in hasn’t just been helpful, it’s been foundational to overcoming internal hurdles.

We all knew we had work to do. But anchoring it in real pain points, that’s what built momentum.”
— Dorna Shafiei, xVP Talent & Learning

What is next?

The roadmap for Atlas Copco Group focuses on moving from readiness to widespread execution. The organization is actively preparing a pilot of embedded, skills-based experiences for close to 2,000 sales and marketing employees.

Concurrently, the team is focused on building total readiness across their core platforms, SuccessFactors, Cornerstone, and Microsoft Teams. By integrating TechWolf to support recruitment, learning, and mobility, they are setting the stage for seamless employee experiences. And this is only the beginning.