As the saying goes, the only thing constant in life is change. This is certainly true in business. Organizations are experiencing a rapid change in the skills they need to succeed and facing the challenge of keeping their workforce equipped with those skills.
What Does Reskilling the Workforce Mean?
Reskilling and upskilling are often mentioned in the same context, but they have very different meanings. Upskilling refers to improving an employee’s existing skills, while reskilling involves teaching an employee an entirely new set of skills. Typically, these new skills are related to the employee’s current position, although organizations will sometimes train employees in new areas that are not directly related to their specific function.
Reskilling is usually performed when an employee’s role has changed significantly, or when they are being transitioned into another role. The employee will learn how to work with new technology or equipment, adapt to changes in a process, and/or develop entirely new abilities that enable them to perform additional job duties. Reskilling initiatives can also prioritize soft skills—such as communication, teamwork, and leadership—which are designed to increase productivity across the organization.
Steps to Reskill Your Workforce
It is up to learning professionals to help close critical skills gaps in their workforce. Hiring new talent is one common tactic. But many organizations see reskilling as essential strategies to help close these gaps. According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, 82% of executives see reskilling the workforce for the future as critical to business success.
Clearly, business leadership is aware of the need for reskilling, but it can be difficult putting a plan into place. These seven crucial steps will help guide your organization’s reskilling initiatives, whether you’re a manager, a director, or a head of learning and development (L&D).
Step 1: Assess Current Skills and Identify Gaps
The first thing you need to do is identify the existing skills in your workforce. Before embarking on any reskilling program, start by assessing your workforce and conducting a skills inventory. It will help you to better understand which skills to focus on.
Reskilling to transform your workforce takes time and effort. You will need to engage leaders, managers, and employees in the process, and use data-driven insights for a targeted approach. A capability map visually represents an organization’s capabilities and can provide an ideal model for your organization’s specific functions and roles.
Be proactive to stay ahead of industry changes. Try to anticipate future skills requirements based on emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities in your industry.
Step 2: Align Reskilling with Business Goals
When reskilling your workforce, be sure to align your skills development efforts with your organization’s business goals. Integrate your organization’s vision and mission into your reskilling strategy. Consider short-term and long-term goals and tailor your reskilling initiatives to support these objectives. The key lies in defining clear, measurable goals for skill development. Doing so provides a roadmap for future progress.
Amazon, for example, has committed to a $1.2 billion investment in reskilling and upskilling its employees by 2025. This initiative will develop their technical skills, enabling them to take on new positions in IT support and software engineering.
Transformation does not happen overnight. Be sure to design programs that can evolve with your organization’s demands. This ensures flexibility and adaptability, aligning with the dynamic nature of the business landscape.
Step 3: Develop a Reskilling Strategy
Once you have your roadmap of outcomes and skills requirements, you can start to design meaningful and effective learner journeys. For learning to be successful, your content must be 100% relevant and useful to the learner. A learner-centric approach tailors reskilling programs to each learner’s needs. Personalized learning content and adaptive learning pathways offer more effective learning. This leads to significantly better outcomes for today’s high-expectation workforce.
Use each learner’s role, job scope, current level of expertise, and experience to define their unique learning needs. By placing a spotlight on personalized learning paths, you acknowledge each person’s unique requirements. This learner-centric approach fosters a more engaging and effective learning experience.
Tailored learning paths help to address specific skills gaps, ensuring relevance to individual roles. This approach enhances the practical application of acquired skills and promotes a sense of ownership and motivation among learners.
Step 4: Leverage Technology and AI for Training
New learning technologies are transforming the corporate learning environment, providing L&D professionals with innovative new tools. In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative force. It is reshaping industries and redefining how we live, work, and interact. According to a study by IBM, 40% of the global workforce will have to learn new skills over the next three years due to AI implementation.
Technology plays a pivotal role in reskilling by enhancing both efficiency and relevance. Cutting-edge platforms not only streamline the content creation process, they can also track progress, identify learning gaps, and personalize learning experiences that captivate and motivate learners. This engagement is crucial for effective skill retention and application in real-world scenarios.
There are many new and innovative methods of reskilling with eLearning. Leveraging games and gamification, as well as immersive and extended reality (XR) technologies, can add a whole new dimension to the way you connect with your learners. This can enhance the overall efficacy of reskilling programs.
Step 5: Implement Continuous Learning Programs
Reskilling is not a one-time event. Organizations that create a culture of continuous learning are likelier than others to have success with reskilling. This begins by fostering a leadership culture that values ongoing development. Leaders play a crucial role in championing these initiatives. Your leadership team should not only endorse but actively participate in reskilling programs, setting an example for the entire organization. When leaders champion continuous learning, it sends a powerful message.
Managers, too, play a critical role by actively supporting and participating in reskilling programs. Their engagement ensures that the learning culture permeates all levels of the organization.
Step 6: Foster a Culture of Learning and Adaptability
Promoting collaboration across functions is pivotal in creating a dynamic and innovative work environment. Fostering a collaborative culture encourages the sharing of ideas, expertise, and knowledge among team members, leading to enhanced problem-solving and creativity. Breaking down silos promotes cross-functional collaboration, which is essential in today’s interconnected workplaces. Google is known for its open dialogue and for giving its people lots of autonomy. Their open office spaces, communal areas, and regular cross-functional meetings facilitate collaboration.
Mentorship programs, coaching, job shadowing, and cross-training all play a significant role in developing skills in a collaborative framework. Pairing experienced people with those seeking to develop specific skills not only accelerates learning, but it also provides learners with valuable insights and guidance. This helps foster a culture of continuous learning too, where knowledge is shared organically, contributing to the overall growth of individuals and the organization.
Step 7: Measure and Adjust the Reskilling Efforts
Measuring the business impact of reskilling programs is critical to ongoing success. Regular progress checks will reveal the impact of your reskilling efforts. This enables you to adapt your strategies in real time, to better align with your business objectives. By emphasizing ongoing feedback mechanisms, you can refine and improve current initiatives, and gather valuable insights to enhance future reskilling programs.
Establish clear metrics for reskilling success. A tangible evaluation framework will enable your organization to connect the dots between investment, business results, and strategic goals. These metrics not only quantify the impact on individual and organizational performance, they also guide continuous improvement efforts.
The value of ongoing feedback extends beyond program refinement. Feedback can also enhance the overall learning experience by enabling you to customize content and approaches to meet the evolving needs of learners.
Challenges and Considerations in Reskilling
While these steps will help you avoid many of the most common reskilling challenges, there are still a few potential hurdles that you need to keep in mind.
Challenge #1 Resistance to Change
Change takes us out of our comfort zones and challenges us to be better. While this can be greatly beneficial in the long run, not all of your employees may see it that way. Some may not see the value in what you are offering and perceive new training as just “one more thing to do.” For others, these changes may trigger fears of being laid off or replaced.
The key to overcoming this resistance is clear communication through every phase of the initiative. Start by informing employees about your reskilling plans before your initiative launches. This will give people time to absorb and process these changes. Be clear in what will be expected of employees. Tell them what they will be doing, when they will be doing it, and how long it will take.
Clearly communicate the benefits of what you’re doing. Employees will be much more open to change when they understand the reasons why. Once the reskilling has begun, be sure to share success stories with your workforce. This will help clearly illustrate the benefits to your employees.
Provide opportunities for feedback. Employees want to be heard, so give them the opportunity to share their opinions. This will not only help break down resistance, but you may uncover useful insights into how to improve your reskilling efforts.
It’s important to recognize that reskilling is not a one-time activity; it requires a culture of continuous learning where employees see the value of ongoing development. If you can create a culture of continuous learning there is going to be less resistance to change.
Challenge #2 Time Constraints
Employees often struggle to fulfill the basic duties of their job and may struggle to fit additional training into their already hectic schedules. If possible, consider ways to temporarily lighten employee workloads by postponing lower priority work. You should also design your learning in a way that accommodates your employees’ busy schedules. Microlearning lessons can be completed in a matter of minutes, making it ideal for any employee, no matter how time poor. You should also make learning as accessible as possible through phones, tablets, laptops. This enables employees to learn wherever and whenever they want.
Future Trends in Workforce Reskilling
Many organizations are already seeing long-term benefits from investing in reskilling programs, both in terms of business impact and the effect on employee satisfaction and customer experience.
Reskilling is a forward-thinking strategy. It can propel your organization toward sustained growth and competitive advantage. By taking these seven essential steps, you will empower your workforce to thrive today and lay the groundwork needed to navigate future disruptions.
Need help building an effective skilling strategy? Read how our learning experts can help you leverage AI to improve your reskilling efforts.
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