The role of leaders in the reskilling era

We have entered what is known in many quarters as ‘the reskilling era’. In a move accelerated in part by COVID-19, organizations are waking up to the need to map out clear career progressions through reskilling programs.

If you don’t invest in your people, it’s very clear that they will leave. And one of the main ways to provide the necessary investment is by reskilling employees. They’ll thank you for it too, trust us.

In this article, we’ll dig into the reskilling era in more detail, including a few examples and strategies.

What exactly is the reskilling era and why do leaders need to care?

If the years 2000-2010 can be broadly characterized as an early tech but expansionist era for L&D (learning and development), the decade that followed saw L&D departments hamstrung by ever-tighter budgets brought on by the financial crash of 2008. ‘Doing more with less’ was very much the neverending mantra.

This mode of thinking lasted pretty much the decade, until COVID-19 provided yet another global upset and has led to the unexpected phenomenon of the ‘Great Resignation‘. With the ball now firmly in the employees’ court, the reskilling era has begun. It’s the era of learning and innovation, and of course AI (artificial intelligence).

Businesses are undergoing a sustained double-whammy of AI disrupting talent flow and the supply chain, plus the employee-led exodus due to unacceptable working conditions, personal growth projects, ideological differences, and other less decipherable motivations. It’s tough out there for leadership teams.

But leaders can do what they often do best, which is to seize the initiative to navigate through this time by investing in their people. There’s no ignoring the reskilling era, only the embracing of it. And if this is the case, what kind of leader do you need to be in this new age of skills development?

How to be a strong leader in the reskilling era

It’s a sub-head that may raise a few eyebrows, but we don’t mean ‘strong’ in the authoritarian sense. Strength, when it comes to leadership in the era of reskilling means clear vision, conviction, and faith. Sometimes, strength comes from sticking with what you believe in, and in this case that’s a redeploying of your talent to other roles, in service of the strategic direction of the business.

The role of leaders is to:

• Support staff through change – you’ll be repaid with loyalty.
• Identify opportunities for growth – both the employee and employer will thrive.
• Align the reskilling strategy with the new needs of the business – it’s the best way to prepare for future shocks.
• Communicate your team plans to other areas of the organization – joined-up communication promotes transparency, which improves workplace culture.

Here’s a case study: A national restaurant chain closed its doors during the pandemic, putting its 5,000 staff at risk of losing their jobs. They could have utilized government support and stuck to their same business model guns but instead, they retrained many of their service staff for home delivery. The business is thriving, bar a few people ready to move on everyone has stayed employed, and 70% of their staff have learned a whole new skillset. A win for employability.

And now to the numbers – by some estimates you could save almost $70,000 per employee by reskilling rather than hiring in, and then there’s the costs of improved morale, nurturing of a learning culture, further reduction of churn through increased employee trust. The list goes on.

How will the reskilling era continue to evolve in the future

Moving to an era where, rather than hiring new talent, existing employees are invested in without a second thought requires an industry-wide change of mindset, and the signs are good: buy-in to this idea looks to be proliferating globally.

Let’s not mess around – AI will be part of the future of every aspect of business, such is its power and breadth of application. The AI engine in your HRMS is already finding those gaps in your skillset and starting to plug them before you realized you had the need.

But – no real progress can be made without reskilling HR itself too. The business unit responsible for rolling out talent development and skills training programs needs, itself, to be remade in the image of modern business. In other words, walking the talk. HR teams need to look at their own skills gaps, look to shift their mindsets and prepare for a world where change anticipated and managed rather than reacted to.

The move from administrators and order takers to facilitators and pathfinders is well underway. This is the reskilling era.