Bridging the Gap: Elevating Upskilling to CEO Agenda

In today’s fast-evolving corporate landscape, the urgency to close the skills gap is palpable among CEOs, with over 80% recognizing it as crucial for their organization's success. Yet, startlingly, more than 75% are dissatisfied with their current upskilling outcomes or do not track them at all (BCG data). Last week, I spoke at a panel on the topic of elevating upskilling to CEO's agenda and shared my experience building the talent strategy in global companies. I believe the path forward involves a strategic reshaping of our approach to talent development.

1. Defining Outcomes Based on Talent Philosophy

Upskilling isn't a one-size-fits-all strategy. It can range from efficiency improvements through centralization to fostering a continuous learning culture that enhances workforce wellbeing and overall organizational agility. The outcome of upskilling initiatives should be aligned with the company’s overarching talent philosophy.

For companies viewing talent as a utility (small 't'), the focus is efficiency and effectiveness—improving the quality and relevance of learning materials and streamlining access to these resources. On the other hand, companies that view talent as a key component of the employee experience (big 'T') aim for deeper, more transformative outcomes. These include fostering a collaborative workplace and enhancing professional and personal growth, which in turn improves engagement and retention in the long run.

2. Addressing the Time Gap

One of the main challenges in upskilling is the time gap between learning activities and their impact, especially those that affect broader company culture and team interaction. To address this, it's crucial to define different time horizons for return of investment and set clear expectations with the C-suite. Learning initiatives should be treated as strategic investments, similar to other financial investments in terms of time and cost evaluations.

During my tenure as the Global Head of Learning at Aon, we tackled this by initiating a learning measurement project with Metrics that Matter, now part of Explorance. I realized in my first few weeks in the role that we needed to educate internally and increase literacy on running learning as a business. Initially there lacked an alignment even within my own team when we asked the question, 'Why do we offer learning?' We set out to figure out the connection between accessible, personalized learning experience and on-the-job performance through a logic model, and eventually changed the configuration in Aon's CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to quantify the long term impact on business results, such as deal size and pipeline revenue.

3. Beyond Business Partnering: Becoming Strategic Advisors

I'm a firm believer that Learning and Development (L&D) must evolve from being mere business partners to becoming strategic advisors. This involves anticipating skills requirements through predictive analysis, understanding market demands, and connecting upskilling initiatives to talent mobility and career experiences.

Post-pandemic, employees prioritize continuous learning and growth opportunities when they evaluate new jobs and decide whether to stay in their current company. At LinkedIn, when I led the Talent Development function, we focused on creating tangible mobility outcomes through training, shadowing, performance coaching, and mentoring. We measured success through metrics like internal mobility rates and manager effectiveness scores, and never took our eyes off those prizes. This created a compelling change narrative 'what's in it for me' and ultimately strong adoption when we launched new learning initiatives.

In conclusion, transforming upskilling into a strategic lever requires a holistic approach. By defining clear outcomes, addressing the time gap in realizing these outcomes, and evolving L&D into a strategic advisory role, companies can not only bridge the skills gap but also enhance their competitive edge and employee satisfaction.

As Talent and Learning leaders, we all have the responsibility to lean into a strategic dialogue at the executive level and lead our organizations with a growth mindset in this age of perpetual change.

#Leadership #TalentDevelopment #Upskilling #StrategicLearning #HumanResources #workforceoffuture