Whether you see upskilling as a boardroom buzzword or business imperative probably depends a lot on your lived experience.
But if you believe employees are a company’s #1 asset, the need to learn new skills has never been higher, and employers *and* employees need to address skill gaps in order to stay competitive…you’ve come to the right place.
This guide covers:
What’s woven throughout? A compelling case for building your own bench of talent.
Upskilling and reskilling often get lumped together in conversations about capacity building and continuous learning. (Looking for a casual conversation starter for your next dinner party? Look no further. 🤓)
If we lost you at capacity building—think of everything that goes into developing the skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources needed to thrive in a world changing really, really fast.
Upskilling and reskilling certainly fit into that category. And they’re both on the rise, with 42% of companies increasing their upskilling and reskilling programs since COVID-19 hit. But they shouldn’t be used interchangeably.
Here’s a quick breakdown to help you distinguish between the two. 👇
We’ve talked about knowledge gaps before—and how normal they are. We’ve also talked about skill gaps—and how important it is to get good at learning on the job. (👋, Tango!)
What we haven’t talked much about are performance gaps. Or what to do when expectations don’t meet reality.
But upskilling isn’t just a last ditch effort for underperformers. (Far from it.) It’s an equally smart activity for top talent, and anyone who wants to proactively develop the skills that will make themselves—and the companies they work for—ready for the future.
According to The World Economic Forum:
Whether you’re managing a team, concentrating on your own skill development, or both, there are lots of reasons to prioritize a focus on upskilling.
Since upskilling requires a commitment from both employees AND employers, let’s take a look at what companies stand to gain from an upskilled workforce.
Needless to say, the list of pros is long, with customers standing to benefit just as much as anyone.
The biggest drawback to upskilling is the time and effort required. But think about it this way: the time is going to pass anyway. And new competition is likely to crop up. To avoid being leapfrogged by well-funded, buzzy new brands (and losing your best people), it may make sense to go all in on leveling up your existing bench of talent.
If you need more convincing—there’s still time to get a head start. According to PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022, only 40% of employees said their company is actively helping workers upskill.
There’s a tried-and-true way to turn upskilling from a goal into a game plan, and it’s called a skill gap analysis.
If that sounds like something that can only be conducted by a Chief Human Resources Officer, don’t worry.
There is:
First things first. A skill gap analysis is an assessment to identify if, where, and why skill gaps are present.
The initial goal? To surface the delta between existing skills and desired skills. The ultimate aim? To identify the training and development needed to meet core business objectives.
A skill gap analysis can be run by:
What does a skill gap analysis have to do with upskilling? It’s hard to know where to start without knowing where you’re falling short.
Before we get into how to perform a skills gap analysis, let’s specify what we’ll be looking at. In other words—hard skills and soft skills.
Most job descriptions will list a combination of both. You could have all the hard skills in the world, but if you aren’t emotionally intelligent, good at developing relationships, and great at persuading others and resolving conflict, it’s tough to get to the next level.
Disclaimer: You can carry out a skills gap analysis with little more than a spreadsheet and a series of semi-intelligent questions.
BUT, there are a few steps you can take to ensure your final output is well-informed, actionable, and scalable.
These are those. 👇
Identify why you’re conducting a skills gap analysis, as an individual contributor, manager, department head, or executive. A couple to consider: identifying areas for improvement, optimizing training programs, planning for workforce development, or building a learning culture.
If you’re an individual contributor go ahead and swap this step for “create a list of desired skills.” If you’re assessing needs for a team, department, or company, get everyone in a room to do a preliminary brainstorm.
In the process, you may hear feedback like “we just need an in-house web developer,” or “it’d make all the difference if we had a dedicated knowledge manager.” Remember the most cost effective solution may be to leverage your existing staff to bridge skill gaps through upskilling. To do that, encourage everyone to think first in terms of skills needed (vs. jobs to fill).
This is the step many overlook—and the one that directly impacts how successfully you navigate change (at every level).
It pays to do your research while you create a skills matrix. For example, here’s a list of the 10 most in-demand hard skills for Information Technology (IT) roles:
This one is self-explanatory—and a critical part of the equation.
In order to move onto the next step, you need a baseline skills assessment in hand.
Benchmarking may not be easy—but surveys, performance reviews, and conversations with managers and mentors can help.
To figure out the gaps to address, compare all the skills you need against all the skills you have.
There are a variety of ways to do this (with and without sophisticated tools). If “scrappy” feels more your speed, you can create an Excel spreadsheet that looks something like this:
The “TBD” column in the graphic above may be the most important. How will you begin bridging the skill gaps you’ve surfaced?
If you’re an individual contributor, you might propose:
If you’re a company lead, you might consider:
You may not have all the information you need to fill out every column in your spreadsheet, or all the answers you need to field every question coming your way. That’s okay (and to be expected!).
Start small. Document everything. Share progress. Ask for feedback. Adjust as needed.
How much do things change in a month, in your role/company/industry/market? 🤯
Doing a skill gap analysis every 2-3 years probably isn’t going to cut it—or keep you on the cutting edge.
You’ve already done a lot of the legwork by assessing your existing workforce’s skills, surfacing your knowledge gaps, prioritizing your upskilling goals, and selecting the people most capable of helping you achieve them.
What’s left? Setting everyone up for success with multiple ways to upskill.
We’ll leave you with two final tips.
Looking for budget-friendly ways to encourage employee development? Check out:
Looking for the most efficient way to help people capture, acquire, and apply new knowledge? Flatten the learning curve with Tango.
With just a few clicks of a button, you can deliver a 🌟 how-to guide that:
What’s the TL;DR? Upskilling may be the epitome of a win-win for employees and employers.
As competition heats up across industries and it becomes more challenging to 1) delight customers and 2) retain employees, it makes sense for employers to look internally and build their own bench of talent using a skills-based approach.
There’s no shortage of options to help people learn different types of skills. The trick is to:
We'll never show up
empty-handed (how rude!).
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