How to Upskill Your Workforce to Keep Ahead of Future Talent Shortages

Today, companies are constantly battling the growing challenge of talent shortages and the global skills crisis. Not only are they competing with one another, but they are also striving to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology and evolving market demands, or they risk falling behind. To remain competitive and to future-proof your workforce, upskilling is no longer optional—it’s essential. 

According to a report by Korn Ferry, the world could face a talent shortage of more than 85 million people by 2030, leading to a potential loss of trillions (approximately $8.5) in unrealised revenue. This global skills crisis is attributed to AI and Automation, demand for specialist talent, and worldwide demographic shifts. For example, many European countries, and most prominent in Japan, have been experiencing low birth rates for years. This decline, combined with the retirement of baby boomers and AI development, has led to many high-skilled jobs being vacant or filled by unsuitable people.

So, how do businesses overcome this?

To upskill your workforce and meet these challenges head-on, you must prioritise learning and development (L&D), support employees, and allow them to flourish in their profession. Prioritising your employees’ skills can also help to improve engagement, increase retention rates, and foster a culture of continuous learning, all of which will contribute to the longevity and success of your business.

Here is how you can upskill your workforce and build a resilient and adaptable talent pool:

Assess Your Organisation’s Skills Gap

Before you implement upskilling initiatives, you must understand your business's current skills landscape and the industry market. This process involves a comprehensive skills gap analysis, which will help you identify the additional skills required to meet your business objectives and inform employee L&D and hiring programmes.

• Identify Current Skill Levels: Understanding your business's existing skills is the first step towards addressing talent shortages. You can thoroughly assess your workforce’s capabilities by introducing surveys and assessments, skills audits, and performance reviews to provide a baseline for your upskilling strategy.
• Forecast Future Skill Requirements: The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, half of all employees worldwide will need upskilling or reskilling to stay ahead of market shifts and adapt to the changing job landscape. By staying informed about industry trends and technological advancements, you can prepare your workforce accordingly, adopting skills that will be most valuable in the coming years.
• Analyse the Skills Gap: Once you have identified the current skills and future requirements, the next step is to analyse the gap between them. To do this, you should determine which critical skills are lacking within your workforce and prioritise them based on business needs. Research by McKinsey shows that in many organisations, up to 30% of high-value roles are not filled by the most appropriate people. Conducting an analysis can help you address and avoid talent issues like this, enabling you to tackle your skill gaps proactively and allocate resources effectively.

Develop a Comprehensive Upskilling Strategy

A well-defined upskilling strategy will help you navigate the complexities of your workforce. Your plan should align with your business's long-term goals to future-proof you against talent shortages.

• Set Clear Objectives: It is vital to set clear and measurable upskilling goals directly tied to your business outcomes. These objectives should be specific, achievable, and aligned with your organisation's strategy. For instance, if your company focuses on digital transformation, your upskilling initiatives will likely prioritise digital dexterity, data analysis, software management, etc. This relevancy will maximise the return on investment in employee development.
• Create Individual Learning Paths: It’s important to note that a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective, as every employee is different. Developing individual learning paths improves knowledge retention and engagement and allows employees to build skills directly applicable to their roles. These personalised learning journeys can include formal training, on-the-job training, upskilling of hard and soft skills, and mentoring.

Implement Effective Training Programmes

To successfully upskill your workforce, you should implement flexible training programs to encourage employee growth and support long-term business goals.

• Blended Learning Approaches: Blended learning combines online and in-person training and has become an increasingly popular approach for businesses wanting to tackle the global skills crisis. This method allows employees to learn independently while benefiting from face-to-face interactions and collaborative aspects of classroom training.
• Technology-Enabled Learning: Organisations are integrating digital learning into modern upskilling strategies to optimise corporate learning management. A recent analysis shows that the global Learning Management System (LMS) market is projected to grow from $23.35 billion in 2024 to $82 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 17%. This forecast underscores the growing demand for smart learning platforms – they increase engagement in training, provide valuable data for tracking progress, and improve learning efficacies. Some learning resources include:

1. E-learning platforms and virtual classrooms
2. Mobile-responsive content for on-the-go learning
3. Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personalised learning
4. Augmented and Virtual reality (AR & VR) collaborative learning methods

• Encourage Continuous Learning: Organisations should cultivate a culture of continuous learning to address the skills gap, encouraging employees to take ownership of their professional development. Continuous learning is essential for building a resilient and adaptable workforce, and employees are aware of this, with 77% ready to adapt to new ways of working (PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024).

Measure and Optimise Upskilling Efforts

You should monitor your upskilling initiatives like any other business process to ensure their effectiveness. This will allow you to measure their impact and adjust where necessary.

• Track Key Performance Indicators: Regularly monitoring KPIs will provide valuable insights into the success of your upskilling efforts and highlight areas for improvement. These may include employee productivity, retention rates, and skill acquisition. Research shows that data-driven companies are 58% more likely to achieve and exceed their revenue goals compared to non-data-driven companies.
• Gather Employee Feedback: Soliciting employee input helps you understand their learning experiences, the relevance and quality of training, and any challenges they have faced. You can gather this feedback through surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one discussions. While feedback is primarily used to improve upskilling programs, it also aids in retaining talent by ensuring L&D objectives are personalised to your workforce. LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report found that 90% of organisations are concerned about employee retention, and providing learning programs is their number one retention strategy. Gathering feedback is essential for this.
• Iterate and Improve: Upskilling is an ongoing process requiring constant iteration and improvement to keep up with workforce expansion and market changes. Reassessing your strategy will help your company remain agile and responsive to evolving skill demands. This may involve updating course content, implementing new learning platforms, or offering additional employee support.

With talent shortages projected to intensify in the coming years, companies must proactively bridge the gap between current capabilities and future needs. By acknowledging current skills, forecasting future demands, and introducing new learning platforms, companies can position themselves for long-term success.

NES Advantage – Your Trusted Talent Consultancy Partner

Whether you’re planning to upskill your workforce or have already begun implementing a strategy, navigating the process alone can be challenging. By partnering with NES Advantage, you gain access to a team of experts who can streamline your talent development processes, leaving you to focus on your core business responsibilities. We bring industry-specific knowledge and a deep understanding of workforce dynamics to provide talent solutions that align with your industry sector, culture, and systems – we’ve got your talent strategy covered.

Contact us today to discover how we can support your workforce needs.