Though the urgency of the challenge is fairly recent, we’ve already heard it a million times: there is an historic need to upskill/reskill the workforce. The good news is most employees are motivated to improve their skills. But that motivation is a double-edged sword. Employees want to work at companies that enable growth but if they don’t sense it will happen with their current employer, they will leave.
In a recent SHRM survey, 76% of employees indicated they would be more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. A PwC survey found that 77% are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain.
For learning professionals, this moment is fraught with both threat and opportunity. If your manager storms into your office, it’s a coin toss as to which question they will ask: Why don’t we have people with these skills? How fast can we upskill/reskill our workforce?
The good news is that research has found that just taking visible action goes a long way toward satisfying employee’s wishes. Start with something, anything, make a splash! But then be prepared to listen and adjust to feedback. Your guiding principles should be relevance, up-to-date information, and delivery via short, targeted lessons.
As you create your learning paths, know that learners want two things: choice and control. They want to feel that they have accessible options among the learning paths offered and that they are free to control their own direction.
Be sure to clearly describe how each path would enhance a learner’s career in your organization. Specifically outline where the new skills could take them. Then, within each path, provide forks in the road where learners may change or adjust course. And perhaps it needn’t be said, but paths should stop short when competence is not keeping up.
The SHRM survey also identified the following areas of learning interest:
Leadership: 54%
Communication and collaboration: 44%
Critical thinking and problem solving: 42%
Time management: 42%
Creativity and innovation: 36%
Assertiveness: 27%
Agility and adaptability: 25%
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): 25%
Empathy: 21%
Weaving into your matrices courses that address these “soft skills” will boost learner motivation and engagement.
Your organizational needs must be considered, too. Your paths need guardrails because your organization has finite needs. Develop a solid assessment of your existing talent pool as well as the talent needed for your future. What skills does your organization have? What skills do you want to have? What roles and tasks do you want to eliminate?
Your ROI will depend most directly on the cost of unfilled positions. Your managers can tell you this. But you should also consider future open positions, too. Survey your industry for resignation rates and toss in a number. This will help you call attention to the situation and its costs.