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You need talent with the right mix of skills to address business challenges and opportunities, but the right people are notoriously hard to come by. Most candidates won’t have all the competencies and personal attributes desired for a given role. And even if you find an ideal match, the skills they’ll need to succeed in their role will likely change over time. 

It’s no surprise then that LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report identified upskilling employees as a top focus area for L&D in 2023.

What is upskilling?

Upskilling is the process of helping your team members develop new or advanced skills so they can improve their job performance and pursue career growth opportunities. This kind of employee development allows your organization to remain innovative and relevant in an increasingly competitive market.

Upskilling can involve a variety of formats, including formal education, online learning, mentoring, and stretch assignments, and typically includes learning both hard and soft skills.

The benefits of upskilling

LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends found that opportunities for upskilling and career advancement are among people’s top workplace priorities right now. Talented professionals are motivated to learn so they can progress toward their career goals and stay up-to-date in their fields.

A robust upskilling program offers many benefits to your organization as well.

1. Close the skills gap

Skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015 and this number is expected to double by 2027. This is creating a sizable skills gap, with 75% of employers reporting that they can’t find talent with the right blend of technical and soft skills.

Upskilling will help your team members learn the in-demand and emerging skills your organization needs now — and in the future. In fact, 89% of L&D pros agree that proactively building employee skills will help navigate the evolving future of work.

2. Reduce talent acquisition and headcount costs

Building — rather than buying — talent allows you to strategically redeploy your team members to fill open roles and close skills gaps. This can help you save on talent acquisition costs, as 79% of L&D professionals agree it’s less expensive to reskill a current employee than it is to hire a new one. 

Upskilling may also help your team achieve more with lower headcount, as it enables employees to adapt to changing roles and responsibilities. This may be particularly important amid looming economic uncertainty, as companies freeze hiring or reduce their workforce to decrease spending. 

3. Attract and engage candidates

Highly skilled talent will always be in high demand and upskilling can help you attract and engage these coveted job candidates. 

Nearly 9 out of 10 job seekers want to see a skills development program (87%), clear career paths (87%), and career advancement opportunities (88%) when they’re considering a new job role. Highlight these opportunities for career growth in your job postings, in employer branding materials, and throughout the recruitment process so candidates know you offer them.

4. Boost employee retention

Most organizations (93%) are concerned about employee retention. Turnover is costly, both in terms of the cost to backfill a position and the lost opportunity cost that accompanies a vacancy. “Providing learning opportunities” is the No. 1 thing employers are doing to reduce voluntary employee turnover.

Upskilling employees enables career growth and internal mobility — both of which can help bolster retention. In fact, 75% of employees who receive promotions will stay with the company for at least three years, as will 62% of workers who make lateral moves. Simply altering a team members’ responsibilities increases the likelihood of retaining high-potential employees and top performers by over 20%.

5. Improve your work culture

Upskilling contributes to a healthy company culture that supports employee engagement and satisfaction. 

In fact, LinkedIn’s 2022 Skills Advantage Report found that having opportunities to learn and grow is the top driver of a great work culture. And employees of organizations with highly rated cultures are 31% more likely to recommend working for their organization and 25% more likely to report being happy at work.

Your company culture plays an important role in your ability to attract, engage, and retain talent, further demonstrating the impact upskilling can have on your other talent programs.

How to implement an employee upskilling program at your organization

Despite the many benefits of upskilling, only 26% of employees say their organization has challenged them to learn a new skill. 

Here’s how you can get started with upskilling at your organization.

1. Match company needs to employee career goals

Employees’ top motivation to learn is progress toward career goals. Finding the intersection between those goals and your organization’s needs will keep your team members engaged in your employee upskilling program.

Managers should have regular conversations with their team members to learn about each person’s career aspirations, professional growth goals, and skills they’d like to master. Then managers should offer possible career paths and upskilling opportunities that align with the organization’s needs and goals.

2. Create an employee development plan

Once you’ve identified an appealing career path and upskilling opportunities for each team member, build an employee development plan to help them learn each new skill. Include both hard and soft skills, and take individual learning preferences into consideration. For example, a visual learner may retain more information via online learning, while a kinesthetic learner may prefer a stretch assignment.

Try to be specific about how to access relevant learning opportunities. When it comes to online learning, for example, 78% of learners expressed the need for course recommendations based on their individual career goals and skills gaps. Doing so can yield enormous benefits, as companies that recommend courses on LinkedIn Learning see 69% more hours watched per learner.

3. Reward team members for upskilling

Rewarding your team members for learning new skills can help improve employee morale and motivation, ensuring your program’s success and leading to more positive outcomes.

Provide your team members with encouragement, recognition, and incentives as they learn new skills and competencies. For example, a leaderboard, an all-hands meeting shout-out, or a simple acknowledgement from the employee’s manager can each help people feel appreciated for their discretionary efforts.

You may also award pay increases and promotions to align with your compensation strategy as team members upskill. This is considered a best practice if you award skills-based compensation and if new competencies or responsibilities would bump an employee into another job level. 

4. Measure your program’s success

Tracking your upskilling program’s progress and measuring your success can guide opportunities for improvement and help ensure continued investment. 

A major L&D trend this year is to align learning programs to business goals. This may include tracking metrics such as improved performance reviews, employee productivity, and employee retention. Demonstrating measurable change in these strategic areas can help quantify the value of your upskilling program.

Qualitative data in the form of employee feedback can be useful for optimizing your program over time and removing barriers to its success. For example, you may find that you have low adoption rates because your team members can’t find the time to learn. In that case, you may introduce microlearning so your employees can develop their skill sets in smaller windows of time.

5. Revisit skills gaps and career development plans regularly

Employee career goals change and company needs shift as people join and leave your team.

Your regular performance review cycles are a great time to revisit internal skills gaps, employee career goals, and development plans on a macro level. This will help ensure your upskilling program continues to meet your organization’s — and your team members’ — needs. 

Of course, these discussions should also take place throughout the year so microadjustments can be made as new skill development needs are identified.

Final thoughts: Upskilling is a necessity in our ever-evolving world of work

As the world around us continues to change, so will the skills needed to thrive in it. Upskilling enables you to build a talented team that can help your organization attain your business goals and remain relevant in the future.

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