Transform skills into commercial advantage
Earlier this year, we asked our L&D community how the update really went in their organizations. More than 1,100 learning professionals have responded and the results Inside the state of the update were an alarm clock (but the right kind).
TLDR: Upskilling is officially the absolute priority for L&D teams. This is the good news. The news not so good? Most teams are always stuck to understand how to do it.
Here, we dive into the place where the teams are in difficulty, which actually works and how to pass good intentions to a real impact.
Disconnecting the update
44% of survey respondents said their organization offered an increase in the first day, but less than 10% do it when a new business needs.
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If you do this for too long, your learning programs will become in the process of synchronizing with the company they are supposed to support (if they have not already done so).
And the biggest blockers in programs reduction programs? Limited people or budgetary resources and difficulty finding the right tools.
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So if you feel stuck, you are not alone. We have some advice on how you can fill the gap between the knowledge that the implementation of questions and the way you will implement programs that stimulate measurable results.
Upskilling cannot be a shared responsibility
A collaborative approach to organizational problems is great. But it also creates a lot of gray space and cracks for good intentions. If something is everyone's problem, this is also the responsibility of anyone.
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It's time to dust off this old RACI table, because there should only be one owner. The teams can be trapped by debating the skills of the word, but it is really the work that must be done. Define this work? It is on the commercial unit. Helping people to do work and science in the way of developing skills is what lives with people and learning functions.
People -based learning is not the priority
Mentorship is one of the most impacting means to build culture, keep talents and accelerate learning. Despite its impact, 43.6% of organizations do not use coaching, mentoring or peer learning – and do not intend to do so. It's a huge gap. Because Upskilling is not only a matter of content, it is a connection.
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If an employee expresses his interest in developing a specific competence, he must be combined with courses, peers or relevant mentors which can guide them in this area. But one of the biggest obstacles to the scaling of mentoring is to make people effectively match people. The complexity of the alignment of skills, objectives and preferences for each person makes the process ineffective and subject to discrepancies.
To make social learning a viable option, you must build it to be sustainable and scalable.
The implementation must be measurable
The update should have an impact, from retention to income.
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But without visibility, leadership will not see the value. You might believe in the impact, but proving it (and putting it on the scale) requires better tools, a clearer and more visibility strategy.
This is why the next step is to link learning data to commercial results and plead in the event of continuous investment.
Instead of following the learning metrics such as program participation or complements of learning paths, think of the commercial objective for which you work with Upskilling:
- Attrition of employees – Reduce voluntary rolling by providing training in the fields where employees feel sub-prepares or disengaged. Follow the attrition rates before and after the implementation of this type of Upskilling program.
- Employee performance notes – Improve individual and team performance by identifying correlation skills with high performance and design training around them. Compare the pre- and post-training performance notes.
- Employee productivity – Increase production and efficiency with microlearning or demand resources that solve the challenges in real time. Use KPIs such as employee outing, the completion time for tasks or quality measurements.
- Use promotions or internal mobility – Increase internal hiring and career growth with skills frameworks for higher roles and associate employees up with open roles. Follow internal promotion rates and lateral movements.
- Employee retention – Keep the best talents committed by recognizing learning achievements. Use surveys to assess how learning has an impact on commitment and intention to stay. Compare retention rates among employees who participate in the increase in relation to those who do not.
What the best teams do differently
They go from content first to the strategy first. This means:
- Use of data to discover skills gaps
- Personalize learning paths
- Link training to commercial results
- Scaling with systems that bend according to needs change
And yes, AI plays a big role: automating occupied work, facing ideas and helping teams pass from reagent to proactive. So, the question becomes: what work remains for people? What are the new role structures? What skills are necessary to collaborate with AI agents?
You cannot outsource for these skills at the moment; You must build them internally. And this puts L&D in the driver's seat.
Take the team to Atlassian. They knew that the adoption of AI was not going to occur miraculously overnight. And they have seen that when business needs require a strategy, implementation is often the best answer. They have therefore created specialized courses to increase awareness and use of AI tools for sales and customer experience teams.
Atlassian experienced incredible growth by linking commercial results to learning:
- 330% increase in the use of AI tools among teams intended for customers during the launch month, with a sustained commitment after launch.
- Improvement of 20.7% of EA promotion efficiency scores, improving the quality of customer communications.
- 19% increase in the daily adoption of AI tools, which leads to coherent improvements in productivity through Salesforce.
Learn How Atlassian uses absorb LMS.
How to close the disconnection of your organization
Start small. Choose a commercial problem, determine the skills necessary to solve it and build from there. Whether you are developed a handful of CIs to be future leaders or a department on a new skill or new technology, do not wait for the perfect plan, get something measurable in motion. Use what you learn to refine your approach, create a dynamic and prove the value.
Treat up a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it is. And remember, the objective is not only learning, these are better results. The gap between intention and impact is real. But with the right objective, the L&D teams are the best to close it.
And the teams that discover it first? They will not just follow, they will lead.
Absorb
A learning management platform fueled by AI for companies and organizations of all industries to allow, to educate, on board and UPSKIL, customers, partners and members all over the world.