What do you think of when you hear “benefits?”

Probably health, retirement accounts, and (of course!) pet benefits.

But one of today’s most important benefits has no deductibles. Learning and Development isn’t new, but upskilling is becoming ever more crucial to businesses and their employees.

Why the need to upskill?

Three converging factors are pushing the urgency of upskilling:

1. Aging workforce – The Baby Boomers are retiring, taking with them years of management and leadership experience. Younger employees need the skills and training to step into those roles.

2. Technology – As many as 120 million workers in the world’s 12 biggest economies may need new skills to keep up with advances in AI and automation, says a 2019 IBM study. And technology training is never done since yesterday’s skills may be obsolete tomorrow.

3. COVID – Sorry, we just can’t get away from this one. A completely changed work dynamic forced millions of employees and employers to learn and teach new skills.

Forward-thinking businesses are creating solutions and programs to address the issue. Let’s look at four real-life examples and the takeaways from each one.

1. Looking beyond technology

LinkedIn Learning is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. It offers an on-demand library of instructional videos.

A year ago, LinkedIn Learning noticed a dramatic spike in employee upskilling. From Jan/Feb 2020 to March/April 2020, they saw:

• 346% increase in course recommendations that LinkedIn Learning admins shared with employees.
• 130% increase in time enterprise employees spent learning on the LinkedIn Learning platform.

LinkedIn responded by rapidly creating more courses. Currently, LinkedIn Learning says it adds 50 new courses a week in seven languages for a total of 16,000 courses. That’s a lot of learning!

But what sets LinkedIn apart, besides sheer volume, is its commitment to “soft skills.” Yes, you’ll find courses on everything from marketing to using a green screen to soldering. But you can also learn about:

• Strategic thinking
• What to do when there’s too much to do
• Building resilience as a leader
• Good communication
• 6 Morning habits of high performers

Those courses are just as popular, if not more so, than the “hard skills” courses.

Takeaway: When looking to upskill your employees, think out of the digital box. Soft skills like time and stress management are also crucial for employee success.

2. Investing in Education

Chipotle Mexican Grill is known for helping its employees complete their education.

In 2016, Chipotle offered $5,000 tuition reimbursements to employees who attended college.

Three years later, they expanded to offering a debt-free college benefit. Chipotle employees can earn a FREE degree from 75 different business or tech programs at six different colleges. Employees who want to attend a college or earn a degree that’s not in the debt-free program can still qualify for the $5000 tuition assistance.

Then, in February 2021, Chipotle offered full-time employees free access to online learning on Udemy for Business.

Chipotle’s programs are an educational lifeline to their employees, many of whom are minorities or otherwise disadvantaged. A large percentage of those who enroll in college become first-generation graduates.

Chipotle says their education benefits are boosting their retention and advancement rates. Employees in the college benefits program are:

• 350% more likely to stay with the company
• 700% more likely to rise to a managerial position

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid that by upskilling your workers, you’re giving them the ticket to leave your company. Just the opposite. Your employees will pay back your investment in higher-level skills, leadership, and competitive advantage. Investing in existing staff is always more cost-effective than bringing in outside talent.

3. On time

PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC, says their upskilling program “builds digital fitness.” By 2018 they already had a comprehensive program in place. Its goal is to give employees the broad-based technological skills necessary for 21st-century business success.

The learning takes place on exclusive PwC podcasts, games, quizzes, and multimedia content. PwC even built a Digital Fitness app. The app assesses each employee’s technological level and then recommends appropriate learning resources.

An important aspect of their program was choosing 1000 pre-qualified “Digital Accelerators.” After a rigorous qualification process, these employees immersed themselves in digital learning. PwC released them from their regular job responsibilities so they could go all in.

The Digital Accelerators are now a community of technologically advanced employees within PwC. They’re developing solutions that benefit the entire company.

Takeaway: The Accelerators advanced because PwC cleared their schedules to focus on upskilling. Any upskilling requires time. Providing the “what” of learning opportunities without giving the “when” is doomed to failure.

4. Visible growth

At PBS, we prioritize upskilling, offering individualized opportunities to employees. For example, PBS enabled Chaya Nochomovitz, a Project Manager, to get her Property & Casualty insurance license. “This expanded my opportunities within the company to get more involved with insurance-related projects and gave me lots of important and useful knowledge,” says Chaya.

Company-wide, we use Service Skills, an “eLearning choice for when organizations want to improve their customer service skills, elevate teamwork, and build a culture of respect at their organization.”

Amanda Mulligan, our Service Skills coordinator, is enthusiastic about the program, “Company-wide training has been a great resource for our employees. Everyone is involved in the learning process, so we’re all on the same page and can hold ourselves to the same standards. Starting a training program allowed us to define success within our organization. Over time we’ve tracked improvement in customer service and sales, increased customer satisfaction, and a boost to our bottom line.”

Takeaway: Upskilling isn’t a goal in and of itself. Employees’ satisfaction comes from seeing growth opportunities as a direct consequence of their new training.

Upskilling comes in all shapes and forms. What’s the common denominator? The benefits it brings employees, employers, and—don’t forget—clients, too. At PBS, we see firsthand that a highly trained, engaged staff brings customers stellar service and commitment.