Upskilling has become a hot topic worldwide. Technology is constantly evolving, and the marketplace has become extremely competitive. So, organizations must provide employees with the resources to update their skills.
Multinational giants like Verizon, McDonald’s, Google, Wal-Mart, and Marriott International have invested billions in upskilling programs to help staff members learn new skills, improve existing skills, and earn a college degree.
In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor created the Dislocated Worker Grant program to provide training and temporary employment to dislocated workers. It recently expanded funding for the program by $100 million.
Since recruiting qualified candidates has become so challenging, businesses are turning to upskilling and reskilling to develop current staff. If yours is one of them, you may be wondering how to upskill staff.
How to Upskill Staff
Organizations implement upskilling programs to help employees improve their skills. For instance, a web designer could move into web development by learning WordPress and Java and shadowing a web developer. A web content manager who wants more involvement in analytics and reporting could attend Google Analytics and Market Research workshops and be assigned an experienced analytics employee as a mentor.
Upskilling helps prepare your workforce for the future and ensures you have a talent pool of qualified employees ready to take on new challenges. These are tips on how to upskill staff successfully.
- Analyze Current Skills: Analyze employees’ skills and examine skill needs critical to your business goals. Are there hard and soft skills lacking that will hinder your ability to meet your business and growth goals? Do not just rely on data. Ask employees what they think their strengths and weaknesses are and where they need help. This will help you identify knowledge gaps and plan for future staffing needs.
- Set Upskilling Goals: Define your current and future staffing priorities and work with employees to develop customized upskilling plans and timeframes. Be specific about what abilities and competencies they must learn, explain how the skills are relevant to their current roles, and how they align with future opportunities. Set measurable goals and milestones and define metrics so you and the employee can gauge progress.
- Define Upskilling Pathways: Work with staff members to create customized upskilling pathways. Examples of options you can offer include online learning, workshops, conferences, mentorships, stretch assignments, and job rotations. People have different learning styles. So, experiment with various approaches to see what works best for each employee.
- Provide Resources and Support: Provide employees with the necessary resources to execute upskilling plans. Allow them to set aside specific time blocks for learning and development and offer access to courses, workshops, and other tools. Designate a mentor for each employee who can provide 1:1 coaching and advice.
- Measure Results and Impact: If you do not measure progress, you will not know whether a program is working. So, track progress using regular assessments, through observations, and solicit third-party feedback. Keep track of skills and proficiencies employees have acquired, note performance improvements, and tie outcomes to business impact by checking for improvements in productivity, work quality, engagement, and innovation.
- Realign as Necessary: Allow employees to apply new skills and see what is working and what areas still need work. A big part of upskilling is assessing what knowledge has become obsolete and needs to be updated. So, meet with employees regularly to re-evaluate skills gaps, refresh goals, and revise upskilling programs.
How Companies Are Upskilling Staff
The competition to hire top talent is fierce, and industry experts do not see an end in sight. Therefore, companies like the following have responded by implementing upskilling initiatives to ensure they always have a talent pool of qualified employees.
- Mastercard: Many financial services companies have overhauled their standard operating procedures. Mastercard management wanted to ensure its 24,000 workers could pivot as needed. So, it implemented an upskilling program that resulted in a $21 million productivity increase, 100,000 hours of gained capacity, and helped jumpstart the creation of a cryptocurrency and NFT (non-fungible token) group.
- Seagate: Seagate is a leading provider of data storage solutions. It launched an upskilling program to ensure employees were trained in emerging technologies and make talent redeployment simpler and scalable worldwide. The program generated $13 million in savings from reduced external hiring costs and $20 million in savings through lower termination costs. Seagate was able to fill 30% of full-time roles internally and avoid layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Unilever: Unilever launched an upskilling program to provide more opportunities to its employees through training, mentorships, and projects aligned with their employees’ personal career goals. It launched FLEX Experiences, an AI-enabled talent marketplace that connected workers with opportunities and created a network of ready talent companywide. It has realized a 41% increase in productivity since implementation, and 70% of assignments are now filled with cross-functional teams.
Get Started With Upskilling Your Employees
Investing in employees’ growth is an investment in the future because your employees are your most valuable asset. Upskilling shows you value their contribution and want to help them develop their careers. The eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM enables you to proactively determine your staff’s skills, identify gaps, and plan for the future.
Do you want to learn how to upskill employees so you can create employee development programs that maximize staff potential? Contact eSkill to request a demo.
