How to Upskill Employees: Effective, Actionable Strategies

Upskilling is essential for closing employee skills gaps and boosting employee retention and performance. It helps organizations prepare their workforce for future challenges and ensure their people stay relevant in an ever-evolving job market.

In this article, we’ll explore how to effectively upskill employees. We’ll consider a step-by-step approach for successful upskilling with tips for how to identify skills gaps, prioritize upskilling needs, and tailor upskilling approaches to meet organizational goals.

We’ll also showcase successful upskilling examples and how to create a culture of continuous learning through upskilling.

Step 1: Identify your organizational skills gaps to inform upskilling programs

The first step in successful upskilling is understanding the skills your organization needs now and in the future. Create a targeted and impactful upskilling program by identifying your employee skills gaps in the context of your organization’s strategic goals.

Conducting a skills gap analysis

Begin by using a skills gap analysis to assess the current skills of your workforce. Identify where your people excel and where development is needed. Key steps include:

1. Survey and assess employee skills: Use employee surveys, self-assessments, productivity data, and manager feedback to get a clear picture of your employees’ existing skill sets
2. Define your organization’s future goals and required skills: List your company’s short- and long-term strategic objectives, the critical roles in your organization, and the skills they require
3. Analyze skills gap data: Identify discrepancies between your people’s current skills and those needed for your organization’s goals
4. Prioritize skills based on business goals: Prioritize the skills most aligned to your strategic business goals to ensure your upskilling efforts contribute to organizational growth

Monitoring industry trends

Did you know that companies consider upskilling a top priority in 2024? Or that 4 out of 5 workers want to learn more about AI in their roles? And that organizations concerned about employee retention consider upskilling their top retention strategy? These observations and more are discussed in LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report.

By monitoring industry trends and changing workforce needs, you’ll be better equipped to future-proof your workforce. Do the following:

1. Review expert reports: Consult sources like Gartner, McKinsey, and Deloitte for insights on emerging trends
2. Monitor labor market data: Analyze data from labor departments and forums to help spot shifts in job markets, demand for skills, and emerging skills gaps
3. Participate in industry events: Attend conferences, webinars, and workshops to understand future directions and innovations

Step 2: Align upskilling needs with business goals

Your upskilling program must support your organizational objectives to be effective and to maximize your return on investment in employee development.

Employees who see a clear connection between personal development and company vision are likelier to be engaged, motivated, and stay with an organization. LinkedIn’s research shows that strong learning cultures lead to improved employee retention, internal mobility, and management promotions.

Prioritize skills based on their short- and long-term impact on your business.

For example:

1. If innovation is a strategic objective, focus on upskilling in data analytics and AI
2. If enhancing leadership is an objective, provide training on leadership skills, management techniques, and team-building strategies
3. If improving customer service is critical, develop your people’s communication and conflict-resolution skills

Step 3: Set clear objectives for your upskilling initiatives

Set clear objectives for your upskilling initiatives to keep them focused and effective.

Define measurable goals

Clear, measurable goals are essential for tracking the success of your upskilling efforts.

Identify the specific departments, roles, or employees who will benefit most from upskilling. Define the scope, e.g., improving IT skills, boosting leadership abilities, or enhancing customer service skills, and establish metrics to track progress. Use KPIs such as skill proficiency levels, course completion rates, or improvements in performance metrics to measure success.

Get leadership buy-in

Garner support from leadership and key stakeholders to secure your upskilling program’s success. When executives and managers actively champion a learning initiative, they promote a learning culture and encourage employee participation, observes Oracle’s Amber Biela-Weyenbuerg:

Encourage leadership buy-in by preparing and presenting a business case highlighting how a proposed upskilling initiative aligns with organizational goals, improves productivity, enhances employee retention, or drives innovation. This will help leadership see its value and commit to it.

Step 4: Choose the right methods for your organization and learners

There are several upskilling methods to choose from, including:

• On-the-job training: Providing hands-on experience for employees to learn in their current roles
• E-learning: Offering flexibility and choice, covering a wide range of skills, and being independent of location
• Workshops: Providing an engaging and collaborative learning environment, in-person or virtual
• Mentoring: Whereby experienced mentors share knowledge and offer guidance to less experienced employees

Modern techniques like microlearning—small, bite-sized, digestible content—enhance the effectiveness of upskilling efforts by reinforcing knowledge and improving retention. Such methods particularly suit busy professionals who value flexible learning options.

Other methods like gamification and simulations also engage employees and promote practical learning experiences.

Step 5: Integrate upskilling into daily operations

Create a culture of continuous learning to make upskilling a natural part of your organization’s daily workflow:

1. Discuss upskilling in 1:1s: Check in with employees about their progress and challenges, incorporating learning into routine 1:1 conversations
2. Include upskilling goals in performance reviews: Set specific learning goals during performance assessments to align individual development with company objectives, reinforcing their importance and encouraging continuous improvement
3. Provide access to microlearning resources: Offer short, on-demand learning modules, allowing employees to learn with minimal disruption to their daily routines

Managers can support upskilling by offering guidance, resources, and motivation. They can actively encourage their people to apply new skills on the job and provide relevant opportunities, reinforcing the relevance of their learning and supporting their development.

Step 6: Leverage technology

Leverage technology to make upskilling more efficient and accessible:

Use e-learning platforms and online courses

E-learning platforms provide flexible and accessible learning options for employees. Platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and Udemy provide courses on technical and behavioral skills relevant to most organizations.

E-learning offers on-demand content and self-paced learning, allowing employees to learn at their preferred schedule and pace and integrate learning into their daily routines.

Implement learning management or learning experience systems (LMS/LXP)

Learning management systems (LMS) or Learning experience platforms (LXP) streamline upskilling by centralizing and tracking employee learning. They offer personalized learning paths, allowing employees to focus on the most relevant skills.

LMS and LXPs also help organizations measure learning outcomes, track progress, and ensure upskilling aligns with business goals. This supports a structured and efficient approach to managing employee development.

Explore (generative) AI for personalized learning

AI-driven tools are revolutionizing learning through tailored recommendations for individual skills gaps and career aspirations. Generative AI can analyze employee data to suggest personalized learning paths and identify the courses and content most relevant to each employee.

By facilitating highly relevant and targeted learning approaches, AI helps employees focus on the skills that benefit them and their organizations.

For example, Deel Engage’s AI assistant suggests action items for development plans based on the worker’s career path, competency model, and past feedback.

Step 7: Define success metrics to measure the impact of upskilling

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure upskilling success, such as:

1. Employee engagement: Track participation rates in learning programs and progress through successive courses or learning paths
2. Productivity: Assess employees’ performance improvement after training using measures of periodic output or task efficiencies
3. Retention rates: Measure upskilling’s impact on employee turnover by computing turnover before and after program implementation (controlling for other factors that may affect retention)
4. Internal mobility: Monitor the number of employees promoted or transferred to new roles as a result of upskilling
5. Skill proficiency: Evaluate performance in specific skills through post-training assessments or peer feedback

To assess upskilling success on a skill-specific basis, consider:

• Competency-based performance appraisals: Evaluate your employees’ proficiency in targeted skills through structured competency reviews
• Before-and-after skills assessment: Compare pre- and post-training scores to determine the level of skills improvement
• 360-degree feedback: Gather insights from peers, managers, and direct reports to gauge how effectively employees are applying newly acquired skills in the workplace

Step 8: Collect and analyze feedback

Collect feedback from employees and management to promote continuous improvement of your upskilling programs. Employee feedback provides insights into training effectiveness, learner preferences, and challenges faced, while manager feedback helps assess whether employees are applying their acquired skills on the job.

Gather input regularly to identify areas for improvement and suggest ways to adjust the learning programs for evolving needs.

Consider the following example: you introduce a new technical training program at your organization and conduct surveys to find that your people think its pace is too fast. In response, you could introduce supplemental resources, offer additional support, or adjust the training schedule to help your people get the most out of the training.

Feedback loops like this help fine-tune upskilling efforts, making them more impactful and aligned with employee and business goals.

Step 9: Adapt and upgrade your upskilling strategy

Keep your upskilling programs effective and relevant by continuously adapting and upgrading them based on feedback:

• Simplify content: If employees find training materials hard to understand, break them down into smaller, easier-to-digest microlearning modules
• Adjust timing: If employees struggle with time for learning, offer more flexible schedules or self-paced courses through e-learning platforms
• Incorporate real-time applications: If feedback shows that employees need more practical experience, integrate hands-on projects through work simulations, real-world scenarios, or on-the-job training
• Personalize learning paths: If employees feel that the content isn’t relevant to their roles, tailor learning modules to specific job functions by creating separate tracks for specific skill types, e.g., technical vs. leadership skills, or leveraging AI-based learning
• Align with changing business needs: Review and adjust learning programs to cater to industry changes, e.g., focus on upskilling in AI, automation, or data analytics if your company is moving towards digital transformation

Successful upskilling examples

Let’s now consider five standout examples of organizations that have successfully implemented upskilling strategies:

1. Amazon: Upskilling for in-demand roles

Amazon’s employee upskilling strategy prepares workers for in-demand roles—within or outside of Amazon—through programs like Career Choice, covering tuition costs in IT, healthcare, and other courses.

Career Choice promotes a highly skilled workforce for Amazon, supporting its technological and operational demands by collaborating with over 200 educational content providers.

Amazon’s upskilling strategy is successful due to:

• A commitment to employee growth, promoting carer mobility through skills development and diversification
• Accessibility, being available to a diverse range of workers regardless of seniority, encouraging inclusivity across Amanzon’s workforce

2. PwC: Upskilling employees for digital transformation

PwC’s New World, New Skills program equips employees with digital skills for a rapidly changing business environment. The program features PwC’s Digital Fitness mobile solution, offering self-assessments to identify digital strengths and areas for improvement, followed by tailored learning recommendations.

PwC’s Digital Fitness upskilling strategy is successful due to:

• Global reach, empowering all employees, in-person and remote, to customize and manage their digital learning journeys
• Mobile portability, offering access to learning content quickly and easily without the need for classrooms or trainers
• Accessible learning paths featuring small, bite-sized modules in a wide range of formats, including blogs, podcasts, videos, and articles

3. BCG: Fostering a learning-centric culture

Global consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG) built its upskilling strategy around the concept of a social learning workplace, where employees grow through self-guided learning, peer support, and mentorship. A key feature of BCG’s strategy is its generous tuition reimbursement program, which covers up to two years of graduate study and living expenses.

BCG’s upskilling approach fosters a learning-centric environment that promotes both personal and professional growth, creating a strong culture of career development and employee satisfaction.

BCG’s upskilling strategy is successful due to:

• A focus on continuous, self-directed learning supported by ample resources
• A culture of mentorship that encourages knowledge-sharing and talent development

4. ConnectWise: Upskilling on the go

IT solutions provider ConnectWise developed an upskilling program for its employees to learn in the flow of work, minimizing time taken away from vital tasks while filling crucial skills gaps. The program features centralized learning materials, mobile access, and micro-courses.

The company’s L&D team also leveraged technology to deliver “just in time” training, reducing the time needed for course creation and delivery from two months to two weeks.

5. Supportworks: Developing future leaders

Home services company Supportworks focused on leadership development through its ManagementU program, blending synchronous and asynchronous training to upskill its future leaders.

Supportworks built ManagementU collaboratively, using in-house experts, leaders, and the L&D team. The program’s success comes from its diverse content covering soft and technical skills, focused on preparing employees for future leadership.

Budget-friendly ways to upskill employees

What if your organization is a startup, a small company, or has limited resources for learning programs? In these cases, consider cost-effective approaches like the following:

Online courses

Offer low-cost and accessible ways to upskill employees through flexible, on-demand learning platforms like Coursera or Udemy. Employees can learn from a wide range of topic areas at their own pace. A small IT firm could use online courses to train employees in data analytics, AI, and cloud computing without needing expensive workshops or external trainers.

Mentorship

Pair less experienced employees with seasoned professionals to foster knowledge transfer by leveraging internal resources to facilitate upskilling. This is highly cost-effective and provides personalized, hands-on training. A startup could use senior developers to mentor junior hires, helping them quickly gain technical expertise.

Job rotations

Upskill employees by allowing them to switch roles and work in different areas, such as rotating marketing and sales employees in a startup. It’s a cost-effective way of promoting a deep understanding of a business without external resources.

Webinars and podcasts

Provide access to industry experts and thought leaders for free or at minimal cost, delivering insights quickly while staying updated on industry trends.

Social learning

Facilitate knowledge sharing through informal groups in which employees collaborate and engage in peer-to-peer learning.

Future-proof your business by upskilling your people with Deel Engage

Deel Engage offers a comprehensive solution to help organizations upskill their people and retain top talent by closing skills gaps, enhancing individuals’ capabilities, and driving continuous growth.

Seamlessly integrate upskilling into your daily operations with Deel Engage, using features like:

1. Personalized learning paths
2. External learning library with thousands of resources curated from top providers
3. Feedback loops and skills and competency assessments
4. Performance and goal tracking

Unlock your people’s potential through tailored content and real-time feedback, while enhancing their performance and fine-tuning their development through data-driven upskilling.

Request a demo to discover how our solutions can help you implement an effective and innovative upskilling solution for your organization.