Workplace learning report 2021 by LinkedIn Learning reinforces a widely discussed trend: upskilling and reskilling remain the top priorities for organizations globally. Specifically, for 59% of L&D professionals, upskilling is the main focus for 2021 and upcoming years – a significant increase since June 2020, when only 15% of L&D attached great importance to this aspect.
The impact of learning at the workplace is difficult to overestimate. It’s a huge investment the companies can put into their future internal talent mobility. Besides, upskilling and reskilling are building blocks of such essential attributes as employee engagement, a successful employer brand, and life-learning culture.
If you’re in charge of L&D at your organization, here are five strategies to fire up your upskilling and reskilling machine.
1. Revise and update your learning programs
Most likely, you’ve already had plenty of employee learning programs and assets. Review them to make sure they address your current and future skill needs.
Also, think about what you can improve to deliver a better employee learning experience. Do your employees lack anything in the learning programs? Are you providing a variety of formats, including online, microlearning, peer-to-peer, and self-training options?
2. Collaborate with the talent acquisition department
For the success of the upskilling and reskilling initiative, it’s essential to align with all the HR teams at your organization, in particular, with talent acquisition.
Find out which professionals they are looking for and which skills are essential for the right-match candidates. Use insights you collect to enrich your L&D programs and upskilling initiatives. By working together with talent acquisition, you can look ahead towards future talent and skill needs and help meet them by upskilling internal employees.
3. Automate your efforts with software solutions
Technologies have become an integral part of the modern HR and L&D processes, and that’s for a reason. With an enormous amount of employee data you collect, store, and work with, it becomes impossible to live with Excel spreadsheets alone. Automation – even automation of upskilling efforts – becomes the way out.
Fortunately, the HR tech landscape is full of software solutions aimed to help HRs upskill their workforce, detect and address the skill gaps and predict future skills. With technologies in place, you can level up the way you work with skill-related data and get more insights into developing your employees. For instance, a software solution can quickly analyze your employee profiles, build career development paths, and suggest specific courses to help them upskill or reskill.
4. Deliver regular feedback loops
Help your employees stay on track and, hence, provide them with regular feedback on their progress. Ideally, make sure employees have access to their progress status, be it a shared chart, document, or software solution dashboard.
These regular check-ups will help you stay aware of top and promising talents at the company and spot areas of improvement in your upskilling and reskilling programs early on.
5. Perform skill assessments
Skill assessment helps you understand the state of things and skills available at your organization today. With this data, you can help the organization stretch towards its desirable tomorrow.
Along the way, it’s essential to regularly validate skills your employees acquire within upskilling programs. Thus, you’ll always keep the future-forward image and the company’s goal and focus.
Final thoughts
Employee upskilling has yet to take root among HR and L&D professionals across the globe. With digitalization, companies need to make sure they can forecast and acquire skills that will put them on the competitive edge in a job market.
We hope these upskilling and reskilling strategies will help you level up your employee L&D initiatives and guide your organization towards the innovation and future of work.
