The last two years have brought about many changes in the world of work, and businesses are finding that meeting the challenge of this disruption requires a new mix of skill sets within their organizations. With an average 5-year lifespan, current skill sets are becoming obsolete faster than before, and companies need to fill their talent pipeline with the newest high-demand skills at an unprecedented rate. ( Future of Work 2020 report ) Filling this skill gap takes a shift from a “hire to fill” to a resilient, agile mindset of honing current employee skills and helping them acquire new proficiencies. This perspective has several impactful benefits, including profitability, employee retention, and organizational readiness for future changes in industry-wide skill base needs.
Agile and Resilient
While companies could fill gaps in talent by hiring, it can be problematic from several standpoints. Hiring new employees has the cost of salary and benefits, the inevitable productivity gap between onboarding and integration, and the institutional knowledge gap. Within the current marketplace, the talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges to this option. In comparison, familiarity is a crucial factor when looking internally. Understanding the culture, organizational structure, and working relationships between managers and team members helps provide agile talent solutions. Being agile includes embracing learning and focusing on transferable skills. With less than half of organizations surveyed by Lee Hecht Harrison for their 2023 report, The Future is Now, engaging in this thinking is a wake-up call.
A clear talent development plan that meets the goals of both the organization and the employees is an initiative that requires knowing where your workforce skill gaps are and misalignment in positions and skills. Providing transparency and feedback loops about the plan’s impact is crucial. To this point, there needs to be more perspective between leaders and employees about the impact of development initiatives. When asked, 26% of employees said they were challenged to learn a new skill, only 15% were encouraged to move to a new role, and unfortunately, only 14% reported that building a new career development plan was a part of their work experience. (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2023) The relevance and impact of the program are significant, and implementation style is critical. Involving employees in their development consistently cultivates a culture of growth and adaptive change recognized at all levels of the organization.
Time to Reeploy
Once the data is in, a plan for the reskilling and upskilling process, also referred to as redeployment can be initiated. There is a specific outcome difference between the redeployment components of reskilling and upskilling. Each plays an essential role in expanding the workforce’s talent scope. It is vital to approach this program with a human-centered strategy that stretches outside the HR department and into all areas of the organization, especially forming a solid partnership with training and development. There is a wealth of information and talent already within the company, and tapping into that from a mentoring and coaching perspective contributes to a collaborative culture that will strengthen relationships, develop succession planning, increase retention, and meet the goal of decreasing the skills gaps.
When speaking to reskilling, this applies to the current employee with a base of transferable skills but who may need more knowledge to adapt them from one specific job to another. This approach is usually focused on building out skills for employees whose current positions are becoming obsolete or less needed because of replacement by technology and other efficiencies within the business. It adds to an employee’s skill sets by introducing a new avenue for growth. Utilizing opportunities that build upon current skills and provide unique learning experiences are the components of reskilling. While recognizing and using transferable skills is a part of this process, the latter is the focus. Draw out specific goals and objectives according to the skill sets and learning outcomes needed. These opportunities are provided by pairing employees with a mentor within the organization, bringing in a subject matter expert, and providing course materials that can be taken online or in person. When choosing courses, it is important to vet the content to be sure it meets the criteria for professional skill levels, and the credentials are on par with the organization’s standards, goals, and objectives.
Addressing a skill gap between what needs to be added within the company and looking at the inevitable replacement of sunsetting employees and those who may leave is essential—upskilling benefits from a growth and succession plan perspective. When considering who in an organization’s talent pool is best suited for this plan, one looks at current employees who are most likely in supervisory, team lead, and middle management levels within an organization who still produce a product or provide a service. Is there room for honing their skills in their current positions and increasing knowledge from the conceptual base of the broader aspects of the company’s structure? This lands the learning opportunities for these employees within a more interpersonal realm, such as coaching and adaptation of soft skills. Providing experiential learning by including this group in projects and meetings they are not currently involved in, such as higher-level decision-making and project initiation discussions, allows employees and those helping with their development to see growth in real time. Of course, this is not to say you would eliminate coursework from this track. Supporting workshops and broader informational sharing platforms with leaders in the industry is a vital part of the upskilling scope.
Make it a Budget Item
Within the environment of an uncertain economy, organizations may need help to see the benefit of investing in developing their talent. Around 19% of businesses said they could not participate in a redeployment initiative due to a lack of budget. (LHH 2022) Forward-thinking leaders, however, lean into the challenge and realize the long-term win of putting time and resources into a redeployment initiative. According to an Adecco Group study, when this agile approach to the skills gap is implemented, there is a possible per-employee savings of $136,000 compared to laying off employees. (Future Proofing the WorkForce, Adecco Group and The Boston Consulting Group, 2018) When employees are invested in and valued, the response is increased productivity and employee loyalty. The argument that upskilling and reskilling are outside the budget, therefore, falls short.
Where to start
Collaboration is the springboard for this ‘futureproofing” endeavor. Utilizing the knowledge and skills of the Human Resources, Finance, and Learning and Development departments is essential. Gathering the needed information and using a cross-departmental approach will allow organizations to meet this challenge head-on. A critical component is employee input and involvement in the process. This talent pool is being developed as subject matter experts who participate directly, resulting in an agile process worth establishing. Organizations that look to the future by redeploying their talent will benefit from both a financial and human-centered perspective.