Why upskilling/reskilling is essential

The World Economic Forum analyzed in 2017 that the half-life of a skill* is 5 years. The rapid digitization that occurred in 2020 is now 4 years. That means, every 4 years, our skills will be half as valuable as they are now. Therefore, without upskilling or reskilling, there will not be enough skilled people to do the existing jobs. (Even less than we have right now!)

In order to ensure that everyone has the ability to upskill and reskill so their skills don’t degrade over time, they need:

·        Awareness of the job requirements (current or future)

·        Analysis of whether they meet those requirements

·        Action toward closing any skill gaps

Imagine that only a subset of the people in your organization were provided with the ability to become aware of their requirements, analyze whether they meet those requirements, and be provided with personalized, competency-based learning to close any gaps. What would you say? “That’s not fair!”

Of course, it’s not fair. While education can be the great equalizer in terms of socio-economic status given equal access to educational resources, the same can be said for the workplace. There’s a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots with respect to the right skills for today’s work (Manpower Group: The Skills Revolution: Digitization and Why Skills and Talent Matter). Those with the right skills will be able to increasingly control their destiny, choosing how, where, and when they work, while those without the required skills will not be able to envision how their circumstances will improve. We saw this play out during the pandemic. And the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is getting worse.

How organizational infrastructure contributes to the disparity 

Many organizations provide a content library in a Learning Management System, enabling access to a wide variety of skill development resources. But without personalization, the overwhelming nature of these resources aren’t well utilized and therefore do little to help the have-nots. Plus, this content library represents the “10” (formal learning) in the 70-20-10 learning framework. That means they’re getting access to content representing 10% of how people learn. 90% of how we really learn (experiential and collaborative) is omitted from their access.

These same organizations have a personalized strategy for “high potentials”. These are people who are identified as future leaders. They get considerable assessment, guidance, personalized training, and experiences across the 70-20-10 spectrum. This is basically a way of providing some people with access to more growth opportunities than others – specifically the ones that most contribute to growth. High potentials represent about 5% of the organization. So the “haves” get exclusive access to what they need, but 95% of the organization does not.

Do you think that in some organizations, historically underrepresented groups may be underrepresented in high potentials? They are. The high potential selection process is subjective and open to bias. Diverse employees are more likely to be part of the 95% without access to the best growth opportunities.

In other words, organizations with this “70-20-10 personalized learning for few”, and “content landfill of limited formal learning for the rest” are ensuring disparity between haves and have-nots. That’s not equity.**

Those that justify this strategy claim it’s not possible to scale personalization and access to 70-20-10 resources. We disagree.

Scaling learning to create equity for all 

If you truly want to promote organizational equity, provide everyone with the opportunity to grow at their own pace.

You can’t do personalization without technology.

• A system like the Self-Directed Learning Engine™ allows every person to have access to detailed role requirements – not a job description, but the actual tasks and skills required along with rich behavioral examples of what great looks like.

• Each person can assess themselves against their own role or any other role to see how they compare.

• And as a result of that assessment, they are presented with personalized learning opportunities across the 70-20-10 model.

  • Experiential learning is the most powerful because one can apply it in the flow of work and get immediate feedback enabling them to adapt. Other systems don’t easily support these types of activities, making them accessible to the entire organization.

  • Collaborative learning enables connection between those who are strong in a task with those who need to grow. That develops the skills of both people. In a large organization, you can’t do that without a system that makes such connections easy. It also makes it easy to recognize and reward those who take advantage of it so that you build a collaborative culture.

  • The traditional formal learning (classroom, eLearning) are still supported, even if they are in multiple different siloed systems, but may also be enhanced into experiential learning.

• Each person can own and easily track their development history across 70-20-10 activities, including documenting everyday learning. Not only does this provide them with opportunities to grow at their own pace, it also provides them with better ways to use this data for their career, such as evidence for new projects and promotions.

While not everyone may take advantage of these opportunities, equity isn’t about making everyone do something, but rather, providing them with the access and option to do so.

It’s time to eliminate the disparity between haves and have-nots with respect to the right skills for today’s work. If you want to ensure upskilling/reskilling equity for all, leverage technology like the Self-Directed Learning Engine™ to provide everyone with the opportunity to grow at their own pace.

*See also an excellent article on The Half-Life of Skills with a practical example.

**See also the HBR article “Leadership Training Shouldn’t Just Be for Top Performers”. Authors conclude that, “Amid this war for talent that currently has no geographical limitations and is showing no signs of stopping, investing in the “rest” ensures you have a strong bench and protects you from flight risk in the Great Resignation.”