In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, upskilling isn’t just an advantage — it’s a necessity. Employees who learn new skills are more engaged, productive, and prepared for the future of work. It’s one of the best ways for an organization to invest in its people — and its future success.
World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report predicts six in 10 workers will need to be upskilled over the next five years. The upskilling imperative becomes even more pressing with the mainstream arrival of AI in the workplace. Gartner finds 76% of HR leaders believe that, if their organization does not adopt AI solutions in the next 12 to 24 months, they will trail those companies that do.
AI and upskilling are inherently linked — but with research showing that the majority of employees (63%, by Workhuman’s count) are unfamiliar with AI, organizations have work to do.
The simple fact of the matter is that upskilling often takes second place to competing priorities in the workplace. And the implications are serious:
- In Workhuman’s annual report on the state of the workplace, only 21% of those who have never learned a new skill can see a path to growth at their organization, as compared to 60% who have learned a new skill in the last six months.
- Only 26% of survey respondents in a similar Gallup report say they strongly agree that their organization encourages them to learn new skills.
“When organizations do not create or promote opportunities for their workforce to develop,” Gallup notes, “they sabotage their own growth and agility. Performance across the organization may become stagnant, and employees are more likely to become complacent and more inclined to maintain their current way of working.”
So how can companies elevate talent to thrive in the modern workplace? Let’s explore some key considerations for upskilling and discuss what your company can do to get started today.
Leverage strategic recognition to encourage upskilling and development
Encouraging employees to upskill is not an insurmountable goal. Gallup and Workhuman find that strategic recognition is an influential tool that can strengthen workplace cultures and communicate priorities by positively reinforcing behaviors considered central to driving an organization’s success — including upskilling.
Let’s unpack that a little bit:
When employees feel good about what they do and who they work with, they’re better collaborators, problem solvers, and communicators. They’re more resilient and more agile in a world that is constantly changing around them. When an entire organization of employees feels that way, the chemistry of the workplace evolves.
That’s what we mean when we say “strategic recognition” —– i.e., an entire organization of employees is empowered to give and receive recognition, building a culture of recognition where one good turn leads to another.
At Workhuman, we call this recognition done right. And it’s what we believe builds a force for good, where everyone feels seen, valued, and appreciated for who they are as people, as well as what they bring to the organization.
So, let’s bring this all together: Leaders and managers looking to modernize their workforce have a simple solution at their fingertips — recognize employees for upskilling.
Recognizing employees for learning a new skill creates a culture that fosters learning and growth. But upskilling is not a one-and-done task. Growth comes with learning curves. Leaders help employees and the broader organization when they prioritize the time and resources necessary to learn and reinforce the value by acknowledging and celebrating that growth.
In addition to recognizing upskilling, leaders should have regular, healthy check-ins with their employees to encourage upskilling. These conversations can spur action about where and how to upskill as well as help keep track of progress, set expectations, and ensure that people keep developing according to their abilities.
Lean into the transformative power of AI and recognition together
Let’s face it: For already overworked employees, it can be challenging to find the time and mental energy to upskill.
But there’s a solution for that — and it may be easier than you think.
One of the primary benefits of having a company-wide recognition program is having a rich repository of employee and cultural data at the ready. Leaders can get a good sense of employee strengths and skills sets based on what they have been recognized for, and they can also get a full picture of which departments are collaborating well cross-functionally.
But the key is to leverage these insights for action — for example, the data may uncover a “rising star” across the organization and the employee’s manager could select that individual to lead a major departmental initiative.
But, as with anything else in a dynamic workplace environment with many competing priorities, time is in short supply. Until now, leaders have needed time to analyze the recognition data and derive insights and actions that help them further their people strategy.
Put plainly, Human Intelligence is the output of recognition data and AI. It’s an entire ecosystem of game-changing, AI-powered innovations that work together to achieve two main goals:
- Promote meaningful recognition across the organization, and
- Unlock employee and organizational insights.
Let’s say, for example, a people manager needed to upskill a team of junior employees to prepare for an upcoming product launch. The team showed promise but hadn’t yet been exposed to a project of this magnitude.
Using the Skills feature in the AI-powered Workhuman iQ, the people manager could get a baseline understanding of the most common skills the team had been recognized for — as well as what they had not been recognized for — based on the recognition messages they had received. Instead of going through the manual effort of filtering through the messages, this information could be delivered to the people manager within mere seconds. That’s the power of AI.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With this information in hand, the people manager could upskill the team in the areas where they had not been recognized in the past.
The AI Assistant, the core feature within Workhuman iQ that’s, built like a chatbot to understand and generate human-like text, could quickly and easily identify mentors across the organization to help with upskilling the team.
A simple prompt like “I would like to identify a mentor for my team who regularly displays leadership and coaching qualities and who has deep experience with product launches” would generate a list of potential candidates, some of whom might be obvious to the people manager, some of whom may not.
This is where the transformative impact of the AI Assistant comes into play. In this example, the AI Assistant knew more than any employee would about potential candidates for mentorship — even more than the collective knowledge of the organization — because it had been trained to interpret the recognition data. At Workhuman, we call this type of recognition data “human data” because it reproduces human knowledge.
With these insights in hand, the people manager could focus on positive reinforcement of the new skills the team needed to work on. With Recognition Advisor, an intuitive AI tool that guides and coaches employees on ways to make recognition more meaningful and impactful, the people manager could ensure that upskilling efforts were being called out frequently and consistently — not just by the manager, but by peers across the team.
And, with Workhuman iQ Snapshots, which embeds Workhuman iQ insights directly into the recognition experience, both the people manager and the team at large could tailor recognition messages specifically to the individual being recognized in the award. Workhuman iQ Snapshots also provide people managers in particular with visibility into developing skills — they can see for themselves, in other words, which skills their team is being recognized for, providing reassurance that upskilling is occurring.
All of these new, AI-powered innovations come together in the Culture Hub, a personalized recognition experience that showcases examples of recognition done right. Tailored to each employee based on who they collaborate with most frequently, the Culture Hub surfaces content that’s uniquely relevant to the employee. Recognition isn’t an abstract concept — it’s a one-stop shop delivered right to the employee, where the individual can draft, view, and add congratulations to award messages most meaningful to them.
That’s the power of Human Intelligence — an entire suite of AI-powered innovations that blend recognition and AI to build workplace cultures the inspire, motivate, and celebrate employees, the brains and passion of any organization.
And it’s what can empower your organization to upskill your workforce today.
Final Thoughts
When employees upskill, it does more than protect organizations from current and future skills gaps. It keeps employees invested in and committed to growing within the organization. What’s more, it signals to employees that they matter, that their individual efforts are part of the larger success of the organization.
To effectively upskill employees, organizations must recognize and reward employees for their efforts. The impact is extraordinary: Workhuman iQ research shows 72% of employees surveyed in our annual report can see a path to growth in the organization when they receive recognition for upskilling.
But recognition is only part of the equation. The true power of effective upskilling comes from recognition and AI together. With Human Intelligence from Workhuman, people leaders and employees alike are empowered with transformative insights into skills, performance, and overall culture.
The end result?
Employees who don’t just keep up with the change happening around them — they thrive in it.
Post Views: 262
