Upskilling and reskilling: The blueprint for success in a competitive hiring market
Offering employees the chance to learn something fresh and access new opportunities can be precisely what they need to stay.
The Great Resignation has changed everything. Not only have workers been quitting at record levels, but they have also updated their priorities, desires and demands. As it stands, they have the upper hand, and are asking employers, “What can you do for me?”
This shift in the conversation has left many companies unsure of how to best meet worker needs. What will be enough to keep employees in a red-hot hiring market? What are the ways to stand out and attract new workers? What is the path to establishing an exceptional workplace with the right benefits?
Related: Reassessing employee benefits: 3 key trends
From new perks to higher salaries, hiring managers and people leaders are hard at work figuring out the best ways to keep their employees – and prospective employees – happy. As it turns out, the answer is leaning into their desire for change by offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
Understanding the hiring market
The best way to mitigate attrition is to first understand why it’s happening. What is pushing workers away? While research has shown a wide range of reasons people move on to new jobs – from low pay, to feeling disrespected at work – something that employees consistently report is a lack of career growth. In a 2022 Pew study, the firm found that 63% of workers who quit a job in 2021 did so because of no opportunities for advancement.
Even further, a Cengage survey found that, nearly 4 in 5 of those who resigned have taken online training courses or certificate programs, 45% at the time of the survey and 33% had already completed one. And at Booz Allen, we have seen a rise in the number of employees participating in similar opportunities since the pandemic began. These numbers point to something many employers may not expect. Workers are not looking for higher pay (singularly, at least). A lot of the time, they are looking for something to help them to change and grow.
Upskilling and reskilling opportunities can mitigate these issues. After two years of pandemic-based stagnation, offering employees the chance to learn something fresh and access new opportunities can be precisely what they need to stay. Having next career steps ahead and defined goals to meet can help workers to feel like they are moving forward – and that they do not need to look elsewhere.
Meeting expectations for post-pandemic benefits
Something we are hearing in droves across the hiring landscape is that workers want flexibility, and if they do not get it, they are likely to find new employment. Many leaders are hung up on the definition of flexibility: is it flexible hours? Flexible location? But something to keep in mind when it comes to attracting new talent is creating a sense of career flexibility.
When employees are given the chance to upskill and move up from their position, or reskill and change positions entirely, they are empowered to build their own non-linear career paths. At Booz Allen, we call this the Talent Marketplace. This has long been supported by initiatives like the Accelerator program, which fosters mobility by matching individuals with Accelerator agents to find their next client-facing roles, identify skill gaps and develop and expand their capabilities through training. Last year, 1,400+ employees were successfully placed through this program.
Strategies like this help employees to evaluate their current skill sets and understand how to progress. It also establishes a culture of flexibility where employees are supported in stepping into new roles. This type of employee experience makes it clear that their employers are helping them to set up for long-term careers.
Creating a fulfilling model for upskilling/reskilling
Upskilling and reskilling opportunities can come in many forms. One way to start is by providing funding for continued education, such as annual tuition reimbursement funds. In 2021, Booz Allen supported 7,200 employees with $19M in funds for continued education, and as it currently stands, 41% of Booz Allen employees hold advanced degrees, including 950+ doctorates in fields from data science to analytics. This is a simple way to encourage employees to stay at the company, continue to learn and bring entirely new skill sets to the business.
This is also applicable for quickly growing fields such as tech, in which there is a major talent gap. As opposed to outsourcing talent, companies can encourage employees to fill these gaps through reskilling programs. Certification programs can help them to gain those skills and take the first steps toward integrating themselves into the tech market. Companies that offer tech industry certifications should lean into options that go beyond just staring at a screen – for example, invest in instructor-led, synchronous and virtual options so employees can pick the learning style that works for them.
These certifications have made way for digital badges to recognize technical skill building, with which employees can demonstrate and verify to their job managers when being selected for projects. These could be skill badges showing proficiency in things like JavaScript, Python, React, or even full role-based badges indicating proficiency in multiple areas. These badges are a representation of everything employees have learned, and something they can look forward to collecting as they build their careers.
Along with this, the new hybrid way of work has opened the door for more peer-to-peer upskilling opportunities. Employees with varying ranges of experience and skillsets are just a message away, and enabling connections between technical experts and those looking to learn is a great way to kick this off. You can support these connections by launching Technical Experience Groups to help build up these skill-based communities and encourage better networking across roles and teams.
Giving workers what they need
Whatever the programs your organization puts in place, there must be a concerted effort put into letting employees know that their future is best spent at the company. Behind any successful upskill/reskill program? Transparency and space.
Oftentimes, employees don’t feel encouraged to pursue new roles. Or they rarely feel empowered to discuss internal opportunities with their managers. These are major issues, considering 67% of employees would leave an organization that didn’t allow for internal mobility. Leaders need to emphasize the chances they offer to upskill/reskill and then give employees the opportunity to actually apply what they have learned. It is not as simple as just ensuring they know who to speak to about internal mobility opportunities, but rather giving them the space to test out new skills in an expanded role or project.
In today’s market, talent attraction and retention needs to be refocused on the employee experience, and give them the reins to make changes they need to build the careers they want. For many, upskilling and reskilling opportunities are the most important starting point.
Jim Hemgen is a principal and director with Booz Allen Hamilton and a recognized strategic leader who bridges the gap between business and talent development. John Grumbine is a senior leader at Booz Allen with diverse experience delivering strategy consulting, applied analytics, and transformation and change.
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