Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2024 - 57

WHAT'S NEXT
IN TECH
DR. NABEEL
AHMAD
USE AN UPSKILLING FRAMEWORK
BEFORE TECHNOLOGY
We are
living
claim
to
in an ever-changing
labor market with many technologies
that
solve
your
upskilling
challenges. It's time-consuming
to figure out what is best for your
organization. While it's tempting
to start by assessing technology
platforms, consider focusing first on
the outcomes you want to achieve.
Learn how you can approach upskilling
(and reskilling) in the age of artificial
intelligence (AI).
WHO HAS IN-DEMAND SKILLS?
UPSKILL PEOPLE YOU CAN KEEP
Assess your organization's willingness
and readiness to change. Evaluate
the current state of skills your
organization has today. Then work
towards understanding what skills
your organization will need in the
future. Identify the people best suited
to develop those skills. Organizations
that plan and take part in upskilling
initiatives are better suited to deal with
the outcomes of rapid change, as well
as reap their benefits.
Tech Tip: Consider using an external
tool to build a skills inventory that
uses industry benchmarks and maps
to your organization's competency
framework. This helps you understand
how skills in your workforce compare
to the market.
UPSKILL PEOPLE YOU CAN'T KEEP
Not everyone in an organization can be
upskilled and retained. Identify the most
at-risk people affected by upcoming
changes and develop a transition plan.
Those who develop future-focused
skills can remain competitive, even if
at another organization, allowing them
greater flexibility and increased options.
Tech Tip: Connect
for
opportunities.
transitioning
employees to job marketplaces that
map their current skills to labor market
insight
can
provide an outgoing employee with
a data export of their skills, how they
are valued in the market, how they
compare to others
upskill to be competitive.
FOCUS FORWARD WITH FEEDBACK
AT SCALE
As part of your upskilling and reskilling
plan, identify roles and individuals to
get feedback from, such as people
who find new roles, people who don't,
managers with new employees and
organizational leaders. Get qualitative
and quantitative feedback from those
transitioning to a new role or whose
role has been eliminated. Before
the move, gather sentiment about
the transition. After the move, track
employee engagement and debrief
about the
transition.
Ensure
the
feedback influences communications
and decision-making. Implement
feedback systems at scale to help your
organization understand employee
interests and desires.
Tech Tip: Use natural language
processing, a form of AI and machine
learning, for sentiment analysis to
gather qualitative insight at scale in the
form of employee listening. Balance
solicited feedback from surveys
with observational and behavioral
feedback from systems employees
already use to do work, such as task
management, messaging and customer
relationship tools.
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - WINTER 2024 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
the best outplacement
Organizations
and where to
This also improves your organization's
reputation in the job market.
A POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Measure internal and external brand
reputation, as well as how your
organization is perceived, to measure
the success of your upskilling strategy.
Your organization's reputation is
greatly affected by current and former
employees. For transitioning employees,
a smooth offboarding process can have
a significant impact on recruiting and
customer perception.
Tech Tip: Use eNPS (employee net
promoter score) to better understand
employee satisfaction in your organization.
Use eNPS with other employee
engagement metrics, such as employee
performance and customer happiness,
to get a comprehensive view of your
organization's employee experience.
MORE WAYS TO USE AI
It's becoming common to use AI for
researching in-demand skills, summarizing
meetings and generating images.
Organizations can boost their upskilling
efforts with AI by leveraging chatbots to
provide career coaching guidance and
create tailored learning paths for every
employee. The best use of technology
combines personalization and scalability.
As AI is increasingly used in the
workplace, it's rarely an out-of-the-box
solution. AI needs to be configured
and adapted to the upskilling needs of
an organization. Only then can its true
power be unleashed.
Dr. Nabeel Ahmad is an authority on
learning sciences and technology. He
leads the People & Organization practice
at changeforce.ai, authors the Four
Minute University and teaches at
Columbia University. Email Nabeel.
57
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Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2024

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