Executive Summary for the Master’s Thesis The Future of Workplace Education: Trends in Reskilling and Upskilling the Workforce
The changing world of work, driven by digitalization and increased technology use, requires workers with a new set of skills. Due to the rapid pace and acceleration of this shift, it is necessary for workers to develop new skills to meet this need rather than relying solely on incoming talent from future generations. Particularly in technology and internet-based companies, advances in technology require adaptation of the workforce through upskilling, reskilling, and continuous learning. Previous research on workplace skills has focused on high-level executives and CEOs, rather than on the teams responsible for employee training and development - human resource development or learning and development (L&D) teams.
Previous research has not investigated the skills and competencies required in the future of work and how organizations can support employees´ continuous development from the perspective of learning and development professionals. Based on existing research citing the impact of learning and development departments, this study expanded on the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs survey (World Economic Forum, 2020) by conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants working in the field of learning and development to gain further insight into how organizations can support employees’ continued development and what skills are emerging as key for the future of work. This study addressed the following research questions: (1) What are the most important competencies/skills for future employees? (2) Which approaches to reskilling, upskilling, and continuous learning are currently in use? (3) How can organizations foster a learning culture?
Using qualitative analysis and the tool MAXQDA, the interview data from 11 learning and development professionals were analyzed revealing adaptability, defined as the ability to handle workplace changes flexibly, communication, referring to specific communication techniques and skills needed in the new way of working, and emotional regulation/resilience as the most important skills for future employees.
Reskilling measures identified were primarily internally facilitated with mostly remote/hybrid synchronous setups. Reskilling targeted team or seniority-based groups, initiated by feedback, request, and pain points within the organization resulting from process changes, organizational shifts, and external circumstances. Exceptionally, one interviewee described their company’s use of data to drive learning strategy. Upskilling was described by participants as processed-based, including development talks, feedback cycles, and performance reviews, with mixed employee/manager initiation. Additional processes that appeared less frequently in the data were competency frameworks, promotion criteria, career pathing, mentorship, and coaching. Continuous learning in organizations was described as facilitated through learning budgets, learning paths, and peer learning or knowledge exchange. Four critical aspects emerged from the data regarding how organizations can foster a learning culture including management buy-in, workload management, growth mindset and psychological safety, and intrinsic motivation.
The most innovative company leveraged data in a way that was not described by any other participant. The company used data to identify and drive impactful learning initiatives. The interviewee described how their company identifies and maps out the skills needed to be successful in each role using an online tool and how during the review cycles, the individual, their manager, and their peers provide the employee with a rating for each skill. The company’s learning and development department is then able to aggregate the data across different roles and departments to determine where, and in what subjects, there is the most need for training. This enables the company to proactively identify impactful training topics and focus areas rather than responding reactively to employee feedback and identified pain points.
Another company that stood out for its approach to reskilling, upskilling, and continuous learning had not only a comprehensive offering for employees but also had initiatives in place that reflected management buy-in and the company’s commitment to learning. This company had implemented “Focus Fridays” with the expressed goal to free up time for learning. This company took a drastic step to combat the lack of time dedicated to learning described by many learning and development professionals, showing their commitment to learning and also management’s buy-in and understanding of the importance of this topic, further highlighting the importance of management buy-in to combat barriers to organizational learning.
This research can serve to inform human resource development and learning and development professionals’ daily work, particularly in regard to driving organizations’ learning agendas. Learning and development professionals can use insights from the most innovative companies to inform their practice. Additionally, learning and development departments can seek to strengthen their organizations’ learning culture by focusing on increasing management buy-in, managing employee workload, fostering a growth mindset and psychological safety, and activating employees' intrinsic motivation.
Future research should focus on how skills like adaptability, communication, and emotional regulation/resilience can be most effectively taught in the workplace. Additionally, further research is needed to understand current barriers to management buy-in at tech and internet-based companies, collecting and evaluating strategies used by learning and development practitioners to get manager buy-in, manage workload, facilitate growth mindset/psychological safety, and increase intrinsic motivation for learning. Findings from this study support literature citing learning and development teams as impact drivers within organizations and provide argumentation for increasing the size and budget of learning and development teams.
The present study is not without limitations. Of note is the large size discrepancy in organization size ranking. It is likely that organizations with 450 employees are structured differently and have different resources available than organizations with 100,000 employees, as research has already demonstrated that this difference exists between organizations belonging to different business size groups. Future studies should seek to understand how organization size impacts workplace education measures.
This study contributes to the fields of human resource development, adult education, and organization and strategy by providing insight into relevant skills for employees at tech and internet-based companies and a further understanding of how organizations can foster a learning culture, adding to the limited research available from a learning and development perspective.
With the expense of hiring new employees and the changes that we continue to see in the global landscape (ie. economic downturn, mass layoffs), understanding skill needs and how organizations and learning and development departments can upskill and reskill the workforce will continue to increase in relevance.
Key References
Ellström, P. E., & Kock, H. (2008). Competence development in the workplace: Concepts, strategies and effects. Asia Pacific Education Review, 9(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03025821
Mikołajczyk, K. (2021). Changes in the approach to employee development in organisations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Training and Development. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-12-2020-0171
Oladele, K. O., Lisoyi, E. O., & Abe, E. N. (2020). Reskilling and upskilling to develop global relevance in the fourth industrial revolution. In E. N. Abe (Eds.), Future of work, work-family satisfaction, and employee well-being in the fourth industrial revolution (pp. 246-258). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3347-5.ch017
World Economic Forum. (2020). The future of jobs report 2020. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf