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How do you retrain staff for new roles?
Does your company re-train people to teach them new skills? What about mindset skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking? What's worked -- and what doesn't?
I'm writing an article on how to do effectively re-train workers, and I'd like to hear from you (particularly if you have a management or HR background). I might like to quote you, but I certainly would like your input even if that isn't possible.
Companies have always needed to ensure their employee learn new tools (such as replacing OldProgrammingLanguage with NewLanguage) or entirely new skill sets (e.g. for those whose jobs are replaced by automation). But the rate at which old skills perish and new ones have to be learned is increasing.
If we assume that technology changes jobs rather than destroys them, what does that mean for companies in practice?
So: What has been your experience? What worked, what failed, what advice would you offer someone (particularly in larger organizations) who wants to take care of their people _and_ move the company forward?
Note that I'm thinking less in terms of training an individual with a new skill (PhotoShop) than skills for a different career (a move to the Accounting department). And please leave out the "I trained myself!" stories; they're a tangent that doesn't help me. And yes, I know plenty of companies just lay people off rather than retrain them; we can leave those out of the discussion, too. This is meant to be a useful how-to to guide companies that want to do it _right_, so I am interested in practical advice.
We can take this to a private discussion if that's easier.
6 Comments
Ken FarerTransformation | Strategy | Operations | Lean
48
11/10/20 at 11:29PM UTC
in
During a conference, one of the speakers shared an example that may be helpful to you: Her company installed an IT system, which would allow the accounting department to operate with one less employee.
The manager asked about her interests and developed a list of potential options -- wait and see if another facility had an accounting opening, transition to another area of the firm, or leave the company.
She expressed an interest in HR, used the IT implementation period to network with the HR team, and completed an HR certification.
She successfully moved to an HRBP role at the same location where she had been working.
I think she was successful because 1) the company gave her time to find an internal position, 2) her manager coached and supported her, 3) she developed relationships by networking, and 4) she demonstrated an interest in the new area.
Anonymous
11/11/20 at 1:47PM UTC
in
We all need to stay nimble to changing business trends. Communication and planning are the top 2 ways to succeed or fail. The company I work for went from experience to experience plus sales. We needed to teach people how to sell, as many of them did not have that experience. It took time and also required we change how we hire.
Some of the original people left as they found the change was not what they wanted.
Keeping a company's culture alive is also key. That requires everyone to participate--not just the leaders.
The road is sometimes bumpy, yet the vision is clear.
As long as everyone allows themselves to be open to the changes and be ok with some level of frustration during the growth (as long as you don't stay in that space!) it may just take a little longer and be completely worth it.
Anonymous
11/13/20 at 3:25PM UTC
in
Totally agree with the previous comment. Change is difficult, but in this time it is a necessity. You, as the trainer also need to be honest with yourself. You need to believe in the training of the new skills as well, and feel the change is necessary for your company to move forward. This will ensure communication is transparent, and honest. Believe me, if you, yourself do not believe in the new training, it will be apparent to your team.
Diana SparacinVP/Sr. Dir Solution Architecture, Services
51
11/13/20 at 8:45PM UTC
in
Treat this like any other change effort. Begin with building a compelling story for the change, how it aligns with your corporate, division, or other goals and objectives. Develop a vision, understand the various stakeholders and their needs, wants, desires. Create a guiding coalition from the affected areas to help you understand the obstacles, develop criteria, evaluate various options, and help you communicate across the org what is going on & why, what to expect. Have them identify the various options. And then sample course(s). Communication for any change effort will be key. No big bang. Instead, phased rollout over time, pilot projects using the new skills, tech, etc. demonstrate progress, get feedback & learn before you scale to the entire org. Develop measures to demonstrate progress. And please do think about incentives. People will do what they are incentivized to do. Reward the new behaviors/skills you want.
Teresa Washburn
11
11/18/20 at 9:49PM UTC
in
This is such a great topic! Regardless of where we are in our career, learning new skills as a way of getting to that next stage in your career is so important.
As a User Experience Design leader, I help people on my team identify skills they would like to develop - including skills that might have them move to another team. This investment in their career roadmap pays back ten-fold to the company - I love it when I can help someone grow their career with the company instead of seeing the only path to growth as leaving. Investment in our people is how we get to an engaged workforce.
Lisa StriteProduct leader in Southwest Florida
38
11/20/20 at 1:39PM UTC
in
What a wonderful question — congratulations to you for helping others invest in our future workforce and taking care of our incredibly valuable people resources.
To start, it’s important to clarify the difference between upskilling and reskilling.
* Upskilling is what you’ve noted in your first example: learning a new skill to level ‘up’ in an existing career path
* Reskilling is your second example: learning an entirely new set of skills to re-direct into a new job or re-path into a new career.
They’re both challenging, but certainly reskilling is tougher because it generally requires both broader and deeper skill acquisition for an employee.
In your article, you have a chance to explore so many angles on how to create an environment for success -- both from the employer and employee. From my experience, key success ingredients include:
1. A strong business case on why reskilling benefits the company (financial, knowledge retention, corporate principles, brand strength, and so on).
2. Executive teams who are willing to invest, because they understand the returns. See point 1. :)
3. Clear management support for the learners. Managers need to be willing to support flexible scheduling and creating space for learning in the workplace.
4. Well-defined “from x to y” learning paths. In every case, of you can’t clearly articulate a student's previous knowledge and the knowledge, skills, and abilities she or he will need after the training, you can’t measure progress, outcomes or success. This doesn’t have to happen on a student-level basis; it’s probably easier to make role maps to new role maps -- e.g. a Customer Service I has this set of skills and, to reskill them to make them a Data Analyst, we will need to teach them this set of new skills. From there, you can start to create learning paths.
5. External support. All too many companies try to do this on their own, but it’s not realistic for firms to create, manage, deliver, and maintain a wide array of training materials. Establishing all of the above will help with an RFP process to bring in a third-party or vendor who can help take off some of the workload from internal teams.
I just tripped over this great resource from Udemy that has some stats you can quote as well:
https://business.udemy.com/resources/2021-workplace-learning-trends-report/
Good luck!
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