We are living amid the reskilling revolution. The immediate need to accelerate this imperative relies heavily on businesses of all sizes, which should play a central role. The World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that we need to reskill more than 1 billion people globally over the next decade to meet the increasing skills gap being driven by the continued scaling of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, the internet of things (IoT), the Cloud, big data and advanced analytics, just to name a few. This need is further amplified by evolving demographics, societal imperatives like building a more sustainable planet and changing work life priorities from the largest and most diverse workforce in history.

However, many companies have not put in place coordinated learning programs with a focus on developing the new skills needed to meet changing business objectives. One result is the skills gap that will continue to increase, with many leaders not confident they have the right talent to support their business. In fact, the WEF reports that 60% of companies say that skill gaps in the labor market prevent them from successfully implementing the technologies and workplace changes need to meet these shifts.

While academic institutions and the government will continue to play central roles driving the reskilling process, the business sector needs to accelerate its efforts to deliver the right training programs and proactively manage the supply and demand of skills through greater investments in learning.

How Can Companies Meet the Reskilling Moment and Unlock Business Value?

Change the Learning Paradigm

Talent should be front and center at the top of the C-suite agenda, and learning should play a central role as a part of the “build” plan in closing broader skills gaps in the market.  Business Leaders too often resist making the right investments in developing talent, with a generalized view of training as a burden that takes time away from central business activities instead of training as not only an opportunity but a competitive advantage. The result is that prioritization for training and upskilling is marginalized, creating an informal and reactive approach. On average, companies dedicate about 34 hours of training per employee annually. That might initially seem reasonable, however, that is less than 2% of total work time spent on directed learning. To close the increasing skills gap, we see leading organizations expanding up to 20% of time spent on learning through formal, informal and experiential programs.

We need to change the learning and skilling paradigm. The reality is, if done right, training programs should be viewed as a strategic investment with several dividends paid back in the form increases in productivity, profitability, engagement, retention and innovation. Leaders can us a business case driven approach to ensure the right prioritization is in place and the good news is that learning metrics and return on investment (ROI) examples can help build the value case for optimal funding.

This shift puts the emphasis on building a talent-led organization and helps change the narrative on learning from reactive to intentional while building a culture of learning.

Intersect Workforce Planning, Organizational Design and Learning

Talent planning processes, including organizational design, need to form a tighter link with learning programs to drive performance improvement. Strategic workforce planning should be done more frequently with of a focus on mapping future and changing skills profiles to business transformation objectives. As new teams, roles and skills are more clearly defined and connected to changing business objectives, organizations can more effectively design tailored programs in support of that strategy.

Chief people officers in conjunction with learning leaders have an opportunity (if not an outright calling) to lead the change on reskilling. Connecting business leaders and workforce planning teams to adopt Agile principles will help define an accurate, clear definition of employee and job profiles.

Ongoing workforce planning should define target functions, teams and roles to provide a clear guide for learning teams to create learning journeys and meet the skills needs of the business.

And the results of this intentional approach to training can be significant. For example, Panopto research shows that 42% of the skills needed to perform a job are known only by the person currently in that role, according to an HR Daily Adviser article. An intentional approach to learning means developing the training needed to proactively develop employees who can be “on deck” to replace lost workers.

Deliver Personalized Learning Journeys Through Hyper-curation

While shifting the training paradigm and creating a tighter link between workforce planning and learning are critical steps, both efforts will not be successful without a renewed focus on the approach for the training program.

Part of the current challenge we see is overload of training content that has been made available through a combination of mediums for many organizations, often with thousands of courses procured through multiple vendors. Essentially, more content in the ecosystem if not delivered through personalized, curated learning paths doesn’t equate to an effective learning program or deliver the intended outcomes related to new skilling.

What do organizations need to do to move forward and ensure their workforce is receiving the right training? Leveraging the target skills profiles and understanding of skills gaps, the imperative for learning leaders is now to focus on the design and delivery of hyper-curated learning journeys: a skills and capability-led approach that deliver coordinated and relevant programs through a digital, bite-sized pathways. More attention should be spent delivering immersive learning experiences for real business impact and not static training products, moving away from one-and-done strategy and toward a continuous, progressive learning strategy.  And for you learning geeks out there, don’t forget the applications of neuroscience in learning!

Importantly, companies should get experimental to make learning fun, incorporating new learning technologies like virtual and augmented reality (AR and VR), gamification and even the metaverse. Add it all up, and learning teams can drive the overall employee experience, creating a culture of continuous learning.

The reskilling revolution is not only a societal imperative, but also an opportunity for organizations that invest and prioritize learning to continue to gain a competitive advantage through their people. The talent-led organization will be the one that thrives in the human and machine world of work.