It’s not your imagination. Our current pace of change isn’t just taking off, it’s spiraling into the stratosphere. A recent Harvard Business Review article describes how we’re living in an unprecedented reality where change is increasingly perpetual, pervasive, and exponential. Change that used to take place over years and decades is now taking place in weeks or days.

We humans have never experienced anything like it before.

When faced with a challenge, we’re wired to think linearly and locally. This used to be an effective problem-solving framework- way back in the days when our world was relatively stable, generally predictable, and change was incremental.

But today, change is relentlessly occurring across multiple domains, at the same time, all the time. It’s overwhelming. Twenty tabs are open on our desktop, and we’re not sure where the music is coming from. 63% of jobs done in 2018 didn’t exist in 1940. 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet.

Leaders must adapt to this new reality of exponential change by equipping their people to keep pace with the changes. A solid first step is to incorporate upskilling opportunities into your Learning & Development initiatives.

What it is:

Upskilling is teaching new skills to help your workers perform their job better.

In today’s world, today’s competitive advantage is tomorrow’s obsolete skill set. An estimated 58% of the workforce needs new skill sets just to keep up with the job they’re already doing. According to Tigran Sloyan, CEO of CodeSignal, “Technology’s rate of change is rapidly outpacing that of our current educational system- and at most tech companies, recruiters and engineers alike are forced to learn critical skills on the job.”

Upskilling keeps everyone up to date with hard skills, soft skills, leadership/management skills, and cross-functional skills.

Why it’s essential:

One of the concerns that’s frequently brought up with upskilling is whether your employees will leave the company for a better opportunity, after you’ve provided them with excellent professional training. But the data doesn’t support this concern. On the contrary, workers are more likely to be loyal to a company that chooses to invest in their personal development.                                                                            

Providing learning opportunities improves employee retention. 93% of organizations are concerned about this because of the time and resources involved in the hiring process. It can take up to six months or more for a business to break even on its investment in a new hire. It’s smarter to invest in the employees that you already have. This communicates that you value them- that they’re worth investing in.

Today’s workers are looking for career development opportunities. 77% of workers are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain. And 80% are confident they can adapt to new technologies  The investment in your employee’s education develops agility, relevance, and job satisfaction. It helps them understand how their skillset contributes to the company’s mission, as well as to their career goals. They’re motivated to stick around because they see a future for themselves within the company.

Upskilling addresses any skill gaps in your workers. It ensures that everyone is up to speed with industry changes in rules/regulations, security, safety, technologies, and systems/methods.

An educated workforce enables a company to survive and thrive in unpredictable economies by increasing productivity, innovation, collaboration, flexibility, and resilience.

How to incorporate upskilling:

Right off the bat, be sure to hire the right people. It does you no good to offer ongoing training resources if your new recruits aren’t interested in self-improvement. On the other hand, when you prioritize learning as a company value, you’ll attract the top talent with strong cognitive ability, organizational skills, conscientiousness, and AQ (adversity quotient).

Cultivate a culture of learning within the company. It begins with onboarding. Incentivize professional learning by rewarding workers that choose to invest in their skill building. Model teachability from the top down- as a leader, never stop investing in your own professional development.

Decide how to offer ongoing training. There’s no shortage of options, and leaders can tailor their programs to fit the individual needs of their employees. Solid learning experiences offer self-paced, level-specific content and exercises that measure progress.

A strong Learning & Development foundation will offer content through a structured learning environment, such as an online training class, bootcamp, certification program, or college class. It will also include personal resources, such as a mentor, coach, and peer-to-peer interaction.

Lightspeed changes are here to stay. We can’t treat ongoing education as an optional, one-time event- it’s a lifestyle we infuse into our company’s culture. Upskilling is the first step to harness the changes to launch our companies to infinity and beyond.

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash