A Leadership Role for Change: the Chief Talent Transformation Officer (CTTO)

Upskilling and reskilling as manage­ment tasks: the CTTO as a new role

In gener­al as well as in the construc­tion and real estate indus­try, require­ments and process­es are chang­ing at an unprece­dent­ed pace due to digi­tal tech­nolo­gies, agile work­ing meth­ods and ESG regulations.

For managers, this means keep­ing up with tech­ni­cal devel­op­ments. They must also create condi­tions in which employ­ees can devel­op new skills. This rais­es the ques­tion of how qual­i­fi­ca­tion, trans­for­ma­tion and person­nel devel­op­ment can be harmonised syner­gis­ti­cal­ly. One possi­ble answer is the concept of an inde­pen­dent, over­ar­ch­ing C‑level respon­si­bil­i­ty: that of a Chief Talent Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer (CTTO)¹.

In this Valdivia Lead­er­ship Impulse feature, we intro­duce this new role, which has a versa­tile, cross-func­tion­al remit and relieves the Chief Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer or Chief Human Resources Offi­cer of some of their responsibilities.

Upskilling and reskilling: an overview

Accord­ing to a recent cross-indus­try study by the Insti­tute for Employ­ment and Employ­a­bil­i­ty IBE² , 88 per cent of compa­nies in Germany offer strate­gic or ad hoc train­ing and retrain­ing. Howev­er, few figures are avail­able specif­i­cal­ly for the construc­tion and real estate industry.

• In 2013, 17 per cent of construc­tion compa­nies in Germany offered exter­nal train­ing courses.
• A further 24 per cent planned to offer such courses.³ Further train­ing is much more wide­spread in the real estate indus­try. Howev­er, there are no indus­try-specif­ic quan­ti­ta­tive surveys on this.

Tech­no­log­i­cal change often neces­si­tates upskilling or reskilling. Other common caus­es include organ­i­sa­tion­al restruc­tur­ing, changes in frame­work condi­tions, and changes in regulations.

Differ­ences and challenges

While upskilling may seem under­stand­able or even desir­able to many employ­ees, reskilling is often unchart­ed terri­to­ry and is often met with resis­tance. Employ­ees are leav­ing their previ­ous field of activ­i­ty, mean­ing they can no longer draw on their usual expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge. This creates uncer­tain­ty and anxi­ety. There­fore, reskilling poses greater chal­lenges for compa­nies than tradi­tion­al upskilling.

A special case of reskilling is deskilling², where the compa­ny wants to retain employ­ees but can only offer them a job below their previ­ous level. Those affect­ed may expe­ri­ence a loss of self-effi­ca­cy and a lack of appre­ci­a­tion. This is often accom­pa­nied by finan­cial loss­es. In such cases, care­ful strate­gies are need­ed to ease the tran­si­tion for employees.

Ulti­mate­ly, howev­er, it is about more than just qual­i­fi­ca­tions. It is about under­stand­ing, moti­va­tion, and ulti­mate­ly, the will­ing­ness to accept and incor­po­rate the new into every­day work­ing life. This trans­forms upskilling and reskilling from an HR measure into a gover­nance task that shapes a change in the compa­ny-wide talent strategy.

The profile of a CTTO¹

Talent trans­for­ma­tion as a manage­ment task first requires a broad back­ground of expe­ri­ence in HR/transformation, but also in tech­no­log­i­cal and regu­la­to­ry issues. The glob­al tasks of this role are

• balanced and vision­ary lead­er­ship in an envi­ron­ment of emotion­al­ly charged and risky change,
• support­ing digi­tal integration,
• promot­ing employ­ees and redesign­ing the corre­spond­ing programmes,
• empow­er­ing indi­vid­u­als to devel­op their talents and strength­en their growth,
• accom­pa­ny­ing the work­force through change with empa­thy, and devel­op­ing cross-func­tion­al models for the work­force of the future.

Hard skills required include knowl­edge of change manage­ment, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, CSR, ESG and the selec­tion of train­ing programmes, comple­ment­ed by good presen­ta­tion skills and rhetoric. Soft skills are also partic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for the CTTO. These include strate­gic think­ing, solu­tion-orient­ed conflict manage­ment and a high level of emotion­al intelligence.

Qual­i­fi­ca­tion leads to success

Above all, re-skilling and deskilling pose partic­u­lar chal­lenges for all involved. The success of the train­ing itself is compound­ed by its effect on the future employ­ment rela­tion­ship: a posi­tive expe­ri­ence can strength­en employ­ee loyal­ty, while a nega­tive one will often lead to actu­al or inner resig­na­tion. The IBE study²there­fore recom­mends a number of points for imple­men­ta­tion that should be taken into account not only by the CTTO, but by the entire manage­ment team:

• Trans­paren­cy and compre­hen­si­bil­i­ty are para­mount: employ­ees should be informed about upcom­ing changes early on, open­ly and as compre­hen­sive­ly as possible.
• An impor­tant aspect is accom­pa­ny­ing moti­va­tion­al factors, which should ideal­ly corre­spond to the actu­al wish­es of those affected.
• The third success factor is appre­cia­tive support, espe­cial­ly address­ing fears of change.
• Often neglect­ed, but of great impor­tance, is the subse­quent support in profes­sion­al prac­tice. This includes tech­ni­cal tutor­ing as well as flex­i­ble learn­ing and prac­tice units with­in work­ing hours.

Upskilling to bridge the expe­ri­ence gap 

In a recent study⁵, Deloitte points to a partic­u­lar train­ing objec­tive that is not new, but has become signif­i­cant­ly more impor­tant with the regu­lar use of AI: AI appli­ca­tions are elim­i­nat­ing typi­cal tasks in many compa­nies and thus posi­tions for interns and junior staff. As a result, compa­nies are find­ing fewer and fewer appli­cants with the right expe­ri­ence for qual­i­fied entry-level jobs.

As a solu­tion, the study suggests search­ing broad­ly for candi­dates with suit­able person­al skills – such as curios­i­ty and a will­ing­ness to learn – and then provid­ing them with expe­ri­ence through special upskilling. Howev­er, this requires new struc­tures that can prob­a­bly only be imple­ment­ed with support from top manage­ment – for exam­ple, through a CTTO:

• Programmes for “dual in-compa­ny train­ing”: in coop­er­a­tion with a train­ing compa­ny, induc­tion, prac­ti­cal work and upskilling take place simultaneously.
• An expe­ri­ence lab where inex­pe­ri­enced employ­ees can prac­tise and test activ­i­ties and deci­sions in a controlled, AI-support­ed environment.
• A 1:1 “buddy” connec­tion with partic­u­lar­ly expe­ri­enced staff or part­ners from management.
• New career paths with many inter­me­di­ate goals that can be achieved in small steps.
• Delib­er­ate­ly mixed teams of expe­ri­enced and inex­pe­ri­enced members.
• An inter­nal wiki summaris­ing all rele­vant compa­ny infor­ma­tion and relat­ed learn­ing units – ideal­ly combined with a time budget for self-direct­ed refer­ence and learning.

Conclu­sion

Upskilling and reskilling are person­nel measures that not only have an impact on every other area of respon­si­bil­i­ty. Due to the speed at which the world of work, frame­work condi­tions and tech­nolo­gies are devel­op­ing today, they have them­selves become a task that is as complex as it is vital for survival. Respon­si­bil­i­ty silos, for exam­ple in HR or IT, are there­fore no longer suffi­cient, as they can only map the inter­lock­ing of compe­tence devel­op­ment, trans­for­ma­tion and lead­er­ship to a limit­ed extent. Against this back­drop, a role such as that of Chief Talent Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer can help to comple­ment exist­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties in a mean­ing­ful way and relieve the burden.

Whether a compa­ny fills the posi­tion of Chief Talent Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer as a sepa­rate role, in conjunc­tion with the Chief Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer or at direc­tor level depends on the size, struc­ture and matu­ri­ty of the organ­i­sa­tion. What is certain, howev­er, is that the CTTO is a lead­er­ship role that can achieve a great deal for a compa­ny thanks to its very specif­ic cross-func­tion­al expertise.

Sources

1. “Towards the C‑Suite 2035”, Robert Half Board Room Navi­ga­tor, 2025
2. “Fit for the work of the future? The impor­tance of future skills for compa­nies and how to get there”, Insti­tute for Employ­ment and Employ­a­bil­i­ty IBE, Janu­ary 2025
3. “Train­ing and Skilled Labour Report for the Construc­tion Indus­try”, SOKA-BAU Holi­day and Wage Compen­sa­tion Fund for the Construc­tion Indus­try, Decem­ber 2013
4. IHK Centre for Contin­u­ing Educa­tion GmbH, Janu­ary 2026
5. “Turn­ing tensions into triumph: Help­ing lead­ers trans­form uncer­tain­ty into oppor­tu­ni­ty”, 2025 Glob­al Human Capi­tal Trends Report, Deloitte, April 2025

(Image source: istockphotos.com)