6 tips to take your upskilling and reskilling strategies to the next level

According to a report from Forbes, upskilling is one of the top priorities for about 62% of CEOs. While organizations are going through changing times and economic downturns, employees are expected to acquire new skills and capabilities as organizations reprioritize their needs. That's why upskilling and reskilling employees is incredibly essential to make your employees more adaptable.

While upskilling aims to help employees gain skills to become more proficient in their current roles, reskilling is aimed at helping employees develop new skills so that they can move into new roles. In addition to helping organizations stay ahead of their competitors and reduce their skill gaps, upskilling and reskilling strategies will also make employees more satisfied, productive, and motivated. If you're a learning and development professional looking to strengthen your upskilling and reskilling skills, here are a few tips to help you get started.

1. Identify skill gaps and future workforce needs

Before starting your upskilling and reskilling programs, gauge the current proficiency level of your employees in different skill sets by conducting skill assessments. Collaborate with team managers because they'll have a better idea about the skills required to make their teams more productive now and in the future based on their roles and day-to-day responsibilities. Analyze your organization's long-term vision, mission, and goals and determine the skills that may be required to achieve them seamlessly. See if there are any new open positions to be filled and identify the skills required to be successful. Conduct employee surveys to understand their expectations and interests in gaining different skills. Encourage your C-level leaders to stay updated on economic forecasts and industry trends to stay ahead of the curve.

2. Develop your upskilling and reskilling program

Based on the insights gathered in the first step, set measurable goals for your training programs. Dwell deep into why you're organizing this in the first place to set better goals. Understanding the why behind the training will motivate more employees to participate. Create separate courses for each of your skill sets so that it's easy for your employees to enroll. Further, break down each course into individual milestones and offer a roadmap that provides employees an idea about what to expect from the courses.

3. Choose the right training delivery methods

Your employees need to be engaged and feel confident throughout the upskilling and reskilling program for it to be successful. Try different learning styles, such as blended learning, self-paced learning, micro-learning, peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, job shadowing, and instructor-led learning so that your employees can choose the one that’s consistent with their learning preferences.

Go for a learning management system (LMS) that helps your employees take their classes, access their learning materials, collaborate with fellow learners, and attend assessments from anywhere, at any time. Mobile learning can also be really useful in this pursuit. When you explore an LMS, make sure it'll integrate with your performance management system seamlessly to identify the skill gaps among your employees.

4. Create customized learning paths

Learning paths can be really helpful in encouraging your learners to take a systematic approach to learning and gaining new skills. You can set an end goal and define the set of courses, assignments, and assessments that learners will have to complete to achieve that particular end goal.

For instance, if the end goal is to help employees become more proficient in leadership skills, then courses on strategic planning, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, and assessments like the Saville Wave and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator can be a part of an employee's learning path. This way, employees will complete their courses step-by-step without skipping any of them.

5. Reward learners who show interest

Rewarding the employees who show interest in learning and reach their learning goals is a surefire way to keep them motivated and encourage more employees to take up your upskilling and reskilling programs. The rewards need not be monetary. Non-monetary rewards, like simple appreciation notes, awards, trophies, appreciation certificates, or a promotion on completion of a set of courses can do wonders for training programs.

6. Track and evaluate regularly

Monitor course reports that come as part of your learning management system to check how your courses are progressing, and which aspects of those courses are working or not working.

For instance, tracking the learner progress report can provide you with a fair idea about which aspects of your training are easily understandable and digestible and which are not. If a good number of learners aren’t able to cross beyond a certain level, it means that it requires corrections. Similarly, if it's on-the-job training, collaborate with managers and evaluate their performance to see if there are any changes in their performance levels. Tracking your upskilling and reskilling programs regularly will help you make them more useful to your employees.

Wrapping up

Making your employees more proficient in new skills will truly help your organization become more resilient during challenging situations while helping your employees climb their career ladder. We hope this blog post gave you a clear idea about the different tips to develop an upskilling and reskilling program.

Source:Forbes