Under the hood of Atlas Copco Group’s skills journey: real-world lessons from the HR frontlines
One common language across systems and platforms was non-negotiable... TechWolf offered the bridge we were looking for.
Cecilia SandbergCHRO Atlas Copco Group
In this episode of The TechWolf Podcast, we took a trip to Stockholm to sit down with Cecilia Sandberg (CHRO) and Dorna Shafiei (VP Talent Management) at Atlas Copco Group.
As a global industrial leader with over 55,000 employees across 70+ countries, Atlas Copco Group faced real challenges:
- Lengthy time-to-hire for critical roles
- Limited internal mobility
- The need to future-proof their workforce amid rapid technological change.
Cecilia and Dorna share how they transformed these pain points into a strategic advantage by partnering with TechWolf.
Their approach wasn't theoretical; it was grounded in solving specific business problems while staying true to their core values.
Key learnings from ACG’s skills journey
It’s not all about skills
Atlas Copco Group learned early that going "skills-first" doesn't mean abandoning other important factors like attitude and mindset.
After initial pushback from stakeholders who feared they were "walking away from core beliefs such as hire for attitude and train for skills," the team refined their messaging to emphasize a holistic, data-driven approach.
“The secret sauce” for building momentum
Cecilia's most powerful insight: executive sponsorship isn't optional.
Atlas Copco Group started with their executive management team, secured investment approval, and then cascaded down to presidents to identify where skills could solve their most pressing pain points.
This top-down approach was "the secret sauce" for building momentum.
Start with business problems, not tech demos
Rather than leading with AI capabilities, Atlas Copco Group identified three clear use cases: talent acquisition (reducing time-to-hire), internal mobility (increasing cross-group movement), and learning & development (targeted upskilling).
Each use case directly addressed a business challenge the leadership team wanted solved.
Choose simplicity: pilot, learn, scale
Facing the complexity of building a common skills language across a highly decentralized global organization, the team chose simplicity over sophistication.
They started with basic skills profiles, avoided complex validation processes initially, and focused on proving value through pilots before scaling.
Skills inference is a game-changer
While skills aren't new, Atlas Copco Group recognized that "AI technology to map skills to jobs and skills to people is. And that is a game changer."
TechWolf's AI allowed them to create comprehensive skills profiles from existing HR data without exhaustive employee surveys.
Why TechWolf for ACG?
Atlas Copco Group evaluated multiple skills platforms but needed a solution that could create "one common language across systems and platforms."
TechWolf stood out for several reasons.
No new platform required
Becoming skills-based is a data problem, not a platform problem.
Atlas Copco Group didn’t need more platforms.
They chose TechWolf because we don’t introduce yet another tool; we integrate with the platforms that are already there.
Customized taxonomy
Atlas Copco Group is a unique organization with a 150-year history.
A generic, industry-specific taxonomy won’t cut it.
They chose TechWolf because instead of buying skills data "off the shelf," we used ACG’s internal data (job descriptions, job ads), combined with external market data.
The result is a skills taxonomy that’s ACG-specific.
Bridge across systems
Atlas Copco Group’s employee experience spans across SAP SuccessFactors, Cornerstone LMS, and others.
The data in those systems wasn’t connected.
TechWolf offers the connectivity that Atlas Copco Group needed, so their unique language of skills appears consistently across the HRtech stack.
Early results and future vision
Quick wins already visible: Recruiters using TechWolf data in skills-based job ads and sourcing tools have seen increased diversity of candidates and higher quality of applicants. The L&D team now has dashboards showing which critical skills lack training coverage.
Q4 2025 pilot launch: Atlas Copco is launching with ~2,000 employees in sales and marketing roles across all business areas, with plans to scale to 6,000+ employees and eventually enterprise-wide.
Integrated employee experience: The long-term vision is seamless skills visibility across all HR platforms, from career pathing in SuccessFactors to personalized learning recommendations in Cornerstone.
Best practices for skills transformation
Cecilia & Dorna close off with a set of powerful best practices for anyone embarking on a skills journey:
- Communicate relentlessly: "Communicate, communicate, communicate. There are naturally many stakeholders in a transformation journey like this, and they all need to be on board." — Dorna Shafiei (VP Talent)
- Treat it as a journey, not a sprint: Both leaders emphasized patience and learning as you go. "We don't have all the answers from the onset and we will need to feel comfortable moving ahead and learning as we go."
- Focus on transparency: Skills work supports Atlas Copco Group's broader effort to increase transparency for employees, including job architecture redesign and compliance with pay equity directives.
- Leverage existing data: Rather than starting from scratch, Atlas Copco Group used TechWolf's AI to extract value from data they already had: job descriptions, learning records, and organizational charts.
This episode showcases how two senior HR leaders turned skills from a buzzword into a business advantage.
Their practical, business-first approach offers a roadmap for any organization ready to become truly skills-enabled.
About the speakers
Cecilia Sandberg serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Atlas Copco Group, where she leads global HR strategy for 55,000+ employees. Her leadership focuses on building workforce resilience, embracing AI and analytics, and future-proofing the organization through strategic talent development.
Dorna is VP Talent Management at Atlas Copco Group, spearheading the company's skills transformation initiative. She champions the shift toward data-driven talent decisions while ensuring the human elements of culture and mindset remain central to their approach.
Let’s get talking
We believe great conversations lead to great solutions. Let’s connect and see how we can help.
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