Things move fast in modern organizations. If you and your team don’t keep up, you fall behind. That’s why employee training is key.
Upskilling is an effective way for ensuring your employees stay on top of their game. When employees sharpen existing skills and develop new ones, they become key contributors to company success. But that can only happen if you offer your utmost support.
Want to know how you can facilitate your team's workforce upskilling? This piece will outline what you can do for them.
Leverage an LMS for Upskilling
Upskilling and other employee development opportunities are strategic initiatives for your workforce.
Consider investing in a learning management system (LMS). These systems allow you to organize and personalize training content. Besides that, you can track learners' progress and streamline the learning process for your team. Leveraging a comprehensive yet user-friendly tool helps your team absorb new knowledge and put it into practice.
Choose a reputable LMS platform that offers scalable, flexible, and intuitive features. It should allow you to easily sign up, assign training, and launch programs without delays or complications. Leveraging AI course creators can further enhance your training by helping you build more effective learning paths. Bonus points if well-known companies have used the platform to upskill their teams. That’s a strong indicator it’s worth trying yourself.
Understand Your Employees' Needs
Before you start customizing your LMS, it's best to get to know your team more. What skills are they lacking or falling behind on? Developing a tailored approach to train each employee requires understanding their current skills.
No team has every skill covered—and that’s okay. That's why 87% of organizations know they have skill gaps or will have one in a few years. However, only 40% of workers reveal that their company is upskilling. If you know that your team needs to improve, you must prioritize workforce upskilling to address it.
You can identify skills gaps among your employees through several methods:
- One-on-one conversations
- Surveys
- Weekly or monthly check-ins
- Performance data
Listen intently to your team. The more they feel heard on their challenges, the more likely they'll participate in upskilling. And when the training program is tied directly to their goals or current role, learning feels more like a fantastic growth opportunity.
Align Upskilling With Business Goals
It’s not enough for your team to gain new skills without purpose. Effective workforce upskilling means aligning those skills with your company’s overall strategy. For instance, if your goal is digital transformation, help employees improve their technical skills. If you want to expand to international markets, your team might need language or cultural training. When training is connected to employees’ real needs, it becomes more motivating and meaningful. It won’t feel like a one-off task, but rather a valuable step in their long-term career growth.
Offer Diverse Learning Opportunities
People learn in different ways. Some grasp knowledge better through hands-on training, while others do better with visual materials. Offer a combination of formats to cater to individual employees' learning styles. These can include webinars, in-house training workshops, short online courses, or mentorships.
Don't underestimate the power of informal learning in workforce upskilling either. Motivate your employees to gain new skills, regardless of whether they're related to their job roles. Shadowing, cross-training, and project-based learning build practical hard and soft skills.
Measure Progress and Adjust Programs
Training effectiveness should continually be assessed and measured at the end of the day. It's not a scheduled activity you do on a Tuesday and forget the rest of the week. You want to make sure your employees truly understand what they learned and know how to apply their additional skills.
Keep an eye on metrics like course completion rates, employee engagement, and performance changes. Is your team working better now or the same as before? Are they more willing to try new projects? An employee tracking software could gather data on staff behavior. Also, ask for your team's feedback to identify what they liked or didn't like in the training.
You might have to adjust your programs if you observe little to no change. Base your adjustments on team feedback and the data gathered during and after training. Maybe the course needs to be more hands-on. Shorter courses might also be the solution.
To Conclude
As a business owner or team leader, you should fully support workforce upskilling. Observe what your current employees lack and address it through thorough training programs. Create courses with an LMS platform based on your team's needs and your business's goals.
Don't stop there. Encourage continuous learning through shorter, informal learning opportunities. Equipping your team with new skills and knowledge boosts their confidence and empowers them to tackle future challenges head-on.
