Reskilling Your Workforce for the Future: An HR’s Guide
90% percent of HR leaders forecast that as much as half of their workforce will need reskilling in the next five years, yet 45% of them admitted they had no plans to prepare employees for these changing skills. But reskilling is imperative to ensure your organization isn’t left behind.
Findings from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Work Report suggest that 59% of employees will need reskilling or other types of work training by 2030. Ensuring your workforce has the right skills to thrive in their roles and preparing them to transition into emerging roles enables your organization to stay productive, innovative, and profitable.
In this article, we explore what reskilling is, how it differs from upskilling, why reskilling employees matters, and how to successfully reskill your workforce as jobs continue to be disrupted by market forces and evolving technology trends.
Contents
What is reskilling?
What are the benefits of reskilling your employees?
Why are companies failing at reskilling?
Reskilling examples
How can your organization build a successful reskilling program?
FAQ
What is reskilling?
Reskilling is the process of employees learning new skills to transition into a different job or career, typically in response to changes in the job market or workplace needs. Unlike upskilling, which builds on existing skills for career advancement, reskilling prepares employees for roles that may be in entirely different fields—frequently in emerging areas like AI, cybersecurity, or renewable energy.
For example, a retail sales associate who trains in logistics to shift into supply chain management, or a factory worker who learns machine learning fundamentals to move into an AI-driven quality control role.
Research by the University of Queensland estimates that people entering the workforce today will take on between 16 and 17 jobs over five to seven different careers, with each career change potentially requiring employees to build a new skill set. Therefore, it’s essential that employers prepare for the future world of work now and create and implement training programs to successfully reskill their employees.
Although the process of reskilling can appear daunting, rapid advances in artificial intelligence and generative AI are making (and will continue to make) many roles and responsibilities redundant. Businesses must align with these changing demands and help employees remain relevant and useful in their careers.
Reskilling vs upskilling
The terms “reskilling” and “upskilling” are sometimes used interchangeably as there is a lot of crossover between these two concepts. However, there is one primary difference.
Reskilling is the process of training employees in new skills and capabilities to help them transition into a different role, either within the same organization or in a new industry. Upskilling, on the other hand, focuses on developing employees’ existing skills to help them adapt to changes in their current role or advance within their field.
- Example of upskilling: An HR professional completes a course in digital HR and automation to help analyze, optimize, and automate HR processes in their organization to increase efficiency and reduce errors.
- Example of reskilling: A school teacher trains in instructional design and corporate learning strategies to transition into a role as a corporate trainer, delivering professional development programs for businesses.
Employees can upskill through various forms of training and education, such as online courses, webinars, workshops, seminars, professional certifications, and industry publications. They may also pursue formal education by earning a degree or diploma, enrolling in intensive boot camps or training programs, or gaining hands-on experience through internships or part-time work.
Reskilling, which involves learning entirely new skills for a different role or industry, often requires more in-depth training. This can include structured programs such as career transition courses, employer-sponsored retraining initiatives, apprenticeships, or immersive boot camps. While the methods for upskilling and reskilling are often similar, upskilling is typically easier to do on the job, as it builds on existing skills rather than requiring a complete career shift.
Organizations often use both reskilling and upskilling strategies to support internal mobility and equip their workforce with the skills needed for the future.
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What are the benefits of reskilling your employees?
The rapid growth and adoption of technology have significantly changed how businesses operate, and the future of work is hard to predict. As the use of generative AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, machine learning, natural language processing, and automation increases, some roles will become obsolete, but this will give way to new occupations with a larger focus on human-centered skills such as creativity, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence.
According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, as many as 375 million workers may need to switch occupational categories by 2030, hence why reskilling programs must be taken seriously by organizations and rolled out sooner rather than later. Reskilling helps manage change and navigate future workforce planning efforts by retraining your workforce for what lies ahead and putting employees’ talents to use in crucial new roles.
Reskilling has benefits for both the organization and its employees. Let’s take a look at these in more detail.
Improves employee retention
The current job market is highly competitive, and job-hopping is a widely acceptable way to advance a career. The opportunity to learn and grow in a position helps employees stay focused on their current employer instead of contemplating new prospects.
Investing in skills training shows workers they have present and future value within the company. Employers need to provide ample development opportunities to attract and retain top talent.
Reduces the cost of filling new roles
Recruiting expenses and lost productivity affect your company’s bottom line. Filling openings internally helps reduce these costs.
Reskilling increases employees’ value by preparing them for an alternative role within your organization. When a new position opens up, someone in your workforce will have the skills needed to step in and keep operations running smoothly.
Drives productivity and profitability
According to a report by TalentLMS, businesses with a healthy training ecosystem are 52% more productive, 92% more innovative, and 17% more profitable than competitors. The message? When employees receive effective training they are hungry for, they are more effective in their jobs and contribute more to business objectives.
Attracts new talent with a growth mindset
A Gallup report revealed that 59% of millennials rank learning and growth opportunities as extremely important to them when looking for a job. Your organization’s dedication to improving employees’ skills can be an advantage when sourcing and hiring motivated applicants.
Your current employees who appreciate the benefit of a learning culture will also fortify your employee brand when they speak highly of their experience. Their positive feedback can result in desirable candidates applying for your open positions.
Supports employee engagement
When employees feel overlooked or disconnected from the organization, they become disengaged from their work. Providing opportunities for skill development helps them expand their expertise, collaborate with other departments, and feel more integrated into the company.
What’s more, gaining insight into different roles fosters empathy and camaraderie, reducing siloed thinking and an “us versus them” mindset.
Gives employees a vision for advancing with you
Reskilling opportunities are steps forward on a career path and provide your workforce with new talents they can utilize in emerging roles. You’re giving employees a clear vision for growing and advancing within your organization, which is a priority to many, and building a strong internal pipeline for promotions and lateral moves.
Boosts employees’ confidence and morale
Employees who are confident in their skills and abilities are more likely to be proactive, voice new ideas, and devise creative solutions to problems. A study showed that 80% of employees believe their confidence had improved from reskilling training.
Building confidence in certain employees can also tap into underutilized talent. Introverts, or those who fall into underrepresented groups, may be overlooked but will often have much to offer when they feel assured in their abilities.
Increases employability
BCG data shows that 68% of workers are already aware of the looming disruptions in their respective fields and are willing to reskill to remain valuable and competitively employed. Reskilling helps employees stay current in their industry, boosts their value to employers, and allows them to become increasingly flexible, which is a valuable skill.
Reskilling employees will help increase their employability now and in the future.
Satisfies employees’ desire to learn and grow
71% percent of employees want to update their skills more frequently, while 80% think their employers should increase their investment in reskilling and upskilling. The majority of the workforce is eager to learn and grow, and providing reskilling opportunities meets this desire while future-proofing the organization for changes and disruptions to roles.
Discover the nine steps to take to reskill your workforce for the future in this Learning Bite!
Why are companies failing at reskilling?
A report by TalentLMS found that organizations tend to be better at upskilling than reskilling, with employee satisfaction levels at 73% when receiving upskilling versus 62% for those who participated in reskilling initiatives.
This suggests that while roles (and the skills needed for them) are evolving, many organizations are not yet taking steps — or are struggling — to transition employees into new roles. Let’s explore some of the challenges businesses face when reskilling the workforce.
Poor change management
Some businesses fail to effectively plan, implement, manage and communicate the changes they face as a result of the market and advancing technology. They don’t take proactive steps to prepare for the future world of work and don’t adequately support employees through these uncertain times and changes, which can have a catastrophic effect on a business.
Misunderstood skills gaps and training needs
Addressing skills gaps requires a strategic approach to pinpoint the most essential skills that are lacking, then create a targeted training program to bridge these gaps. For example, many employees lack skills like digital literacy, AI, data analysis and soft skills that are becoming increasingly important.
Lack of learning culture
One of the biggest reasons companies struggle with reskilling is the absence of a strong learning and growth culture. When organizations don’t prioritize continuous employee development, workers may not see opportunities to expand their skills or advance in their careers. Personal and organizational growth are closely linked, and a workplace that fosters learning ensures both employees and the company evolve together.
To make reskilling successful, organizations should create a culture where continuous learning is the norm, with clear development plans that align individual growth with business goals.
Limited resources
Another core challenge businesses face is a lack of time for reskilling programs, as employees also have their daily responsibilities to manage. Additionally, rapid market changes can create a sense of urgency around reskilling and put pressure on employees and employers.
There are also costs to consider aside from training materials and new technology, including the time employees take away from their existing tasks. HR plays a key role in justifying these costs by demonstrating the return on investment to business leaders.
Cultural resistance
Finally, employees (and employers) are often resistant to change, which can make reskilling difficult. Employees have an existing skill set that is in their comfort zone, and significant effort is required to gain new skills and pivot into a new role. The way to overcome this hurdle is by fostering a supportive environment where employees are encouraged to grow and the benefits of reskilling are clearly communicated.
Reskilling examples
Example 1: AT&T
Amid rapid technological advancements, AT&T faced a critical challenge: a large portion of its workforce had skills tied to outdated technologies, putting both employees and the company’s future at risk. Instead of relying solely on external hiring, AT&T launched Workforce 2020, a $1 billion reskilling initiative aimed at transitioning employees into high-demand roles.
Through online courses, collaborations with universities, and internal training programs, employees were reskilled from legacy roles in hardware maintenance and landline operations into fields like cloud computing, data science, and cybersecurity. By 2018, more than 50% of AT&T’s workforce had moved into new tech-focused positions, proving that large-scale reskilling isn’t just possible — it’s a strategic necessity in a fast-changing job market.
The initiative has since been rebranded to “Future Ready”, and AT&T continues to invest in reskilling the workforce.
Example 2: Zurich UK
Using the AI analytics platform Faethm, Zurich UK, a branch of the global insurance company, identified specific skills that would be more in demand in the future due to technological advances, along with as many as 270 roles that would go unfilled in the next five years within data, robotics, and cyber sectors.
As a result, the company developed learning academies in key areas, including data, automation, leadership, and innovation, to reskill employees to take on these roles where talent (internal and external) is scarce. The company estimates that the long-term reskilling and upskilling of talent will save £1 million in recruitment and redundancy costs.
Example 3: Siemens
Having faced skills shortages in technical fields, Siemens launched their SiTecSkills Academy in 2022 to bridge the gap between their workforce’s skillsets and the needs of the industry.
Employees in production, service, and sales are targeted to build future competencies within the sectors of IoT, AI, robotics, and sustainability. The academy offers a mix of reskilling and upskilling opportunities through a variety of formats including brief digital learning “nuggets” (that are also available for free to people outside of the company) through to certification programs.
Since its launch, the Academy has reached more than 24,000 people with a primary focus on building digital and green skills essential for Siemens. Post-training reviews after six months show almost a 100% success rate in reskilling programs. Approximately 40% of participants are women, demonstrating Siemens’ commitment to gender inclusivity in traditionally male-dominated fields.
How can your organization build a successful reskilling program?
A strong reskilling program closes skills gaps to support your workforce and the organization, and it often integrates with an upskilling program. Usually, it is a company-wide effort in which HR plays a key role.
You can use the following steps to build and maximize the effectiveness of your reskilling program.
Let’s break it down.
1. Make reskilling a strategic necessity across the business
In many businesses, HR owns the reskilling agenda, with 65% of organizations viewing reskilling primarily as an HR function.
This suggests there is much room to make reskilling a more collaborative, company-wide approach where reskilling is embraced across the leadership team. The most successful reskilling programs require commitment from HR and the wider organization, which is why this is key.
HR has a responsibility to demonstrate the need for reskilling and tie this to business objectives to gain buy-in from stakeholders.
2. Uncover skills gaps
Once you map out your organization’s long-term goals and what it takes to achieve them, you need to assess how well your current roles and workforce are equipped to support these objectives. This means identifying any gaps between the skills employees have and the skills their roles require.
An updated skills inventory of what your employees have to offer can reveal secondary and tertiary skills. You can use it in conjunction with a skills gap analysis to help you determine the specific skills and knowledge your workforce is missing.
3. Look for skill adjacencies
Once you have identified the critical skills needed, look for adjacent abilities, or “skills closely matched to those in demand,” to make the task of reskilling a little easier. Employees with related competencies may already have the right attributes, or can quickly learn what they need to for a new role.
For example, someone with customer/client service experience can make a smooth transition into sales because they have strong communication skills and first-hand knowledge of your product or service.
With the growing popularity of online banking, banks in Singapore are reskilling their frontline staff to be able to work in customer contact centers.
4. Organize specific skills training
Once you understand which skills in which departments you need to develop, you can determine the exact training required for your employees to develop these skills.
Since there will be variance within your employees’ skill sets, trainings must be somewhat personalized to meet different learning needs. Offering an assortment of training methods is ideal. Your current learning platform may not be sufficient for certain types of reskilling, so it could be time to invest in other resources.
Internal company bootcamps are an example of how organizations frequently reskill employees from nontech roles to technical ones. These employees are then equipped to tackle company-specific challenges.
5. Combine a variety of reskilling methods
You should have several education delivery techniques in place to ensure flexibility and options that work best for different learning styles and the type of skill gap you aim to address. The more training occasions and methods you offer, the higher participation will be.
Examples of these methods include:
- On-the-job training: Employees can have real-world exposure to the tasks of a new role by taking on small projects for another team or through a mentoring relationship.
- Online learning: Online courses are beneficial because they are accessible anytime and anywhere to speed up the learning process. Bite-sized learning is advantageous as it concentrates on the specific information needed to achieve a learning objective. It’s also easy for all types of learners to grasp.
- Blended learning: Combining online learning with classroom training assures all material is covered. It also provides the opportunity for learners to ask questions and interact with an instructor.
- Peer learning: Employees can learn from each other when they collaborate and reflect on real-world scenarios or hands-on practice of new tasks.
If your organization has remote or hybrid employees, remember to apply remote training methods to reskill this sector of your workforce.
Invest time in understanding how your employees learn best, their preferences for reskilling, and potential benefits.
6. Make reskilling programs attractive
32% percent of businesses face challenges in convincing employees to apply for and complete reskilling programs, which is why it’s crucial that your reskilling programs are desirable.
It’s important that reskilling is presented as a choice and not a requirement, However, to increase participation, organizations must highlight to employees the benefits and shared value of reskilling. It’s also important to offer training during work hours — 64% of businesses who do so entirely within paid work hours almost eliminate one of the biggest hurdles to participation. It demonstrates that your organization values employees’ time and your commitment to continuous growth.
You may also want to consider incentives to reward those willing to learn and grow, and make it clear that reskilling is linked to new prospects or advancement within the company. This way, your employees will be more motivated to participate.
7. Promote job shadowing
Job shadowing is an excellent way for employees to familiarize themselves with a new role within or across departments. Following and observing an experienced employee throughout their day gives an accurate portrayal of the job requirements.
In essence, job shadowing helps better prepare someone to take on a new position. Plus, it is a great reskilling method if you’re on a tighter budget.
8. Focus on digital skills
Companies that were forced to have employees work from home during the pandemic quickly learned how integral technology was to business and how vital adequate digital skills were. Digital advancement is an ongoing reality, so businesses must prepare their employees to adapt to new technologies.
Reskilling in the age of AI is vital as more repetitive, admin-based tasks become automated and certain roles become obsolete. More roles focusing on managing AI technologies and analyzing data will emerge, as well as roles that primarily utilize human-centered skills such as creativity, empathy, and leadership.
Effectively training the workforce in digital literacy and preparing them to use new tools will help organizations close the digital skills gap. Your reskilling program should prepare your workforce for the age of AI so that no one gets left behind.
9. Measure and evaluate success
Research shows that just 33% of companies measure their reskilling programs’ impact on business or HR-related outcomes, and although 42% report a positive ROI, 56% did not calculate or could not identify the ROI of their reskilling initiatives.
Are your employees applying the new skills they’ve learned? Are they able to smoothly transition into new roles and perform at high levels? What is the return on investment of your reskilling programs, and do they make business sense?
Measuring training effectiveness is essential and begins with determining relevant KPIs, collecting data from various sources (including surveys, discussions, and post-training assessments), and regularly assessing the data using an evaluation model.
The well-known Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model uses learners’ reactions and responses, knowledge and skills obtained, behavioral changes made, and the impact on business goals to measure the extent of a training program’s influence.
By measuring and evaluating your reskilling program, you can improve what’s not working, and determine if you have achieved your strategic objectives.
10. Encourage lifelong learning
Reskilling is an ongoing process, so your organization needs to foster a continuous learning culture. You can instill a knowledge-seeking mindset in your employees by encouraging them to embrace reskilling opportunities and showing them why this matters and how it benefits them and their careers.
Managers must buy into the value of reskilling, and they should actively participate in their own trainings. Make sure leadership understands the importance of developing their staff, so they will wholeheartedly promote your reskilling endeavors.
11. Don’t neglect your own skills
HR is changing rapidly too, so new skills are required to stay current. As an HR professional, you need to prioritize your own development, and embarking on a reskilling (and upskilling) program in your department is a great place to start.
Upgrading your abilities with advanced HR technologies, people analytics, data literacy, and business acumen will future-proof your skills, give you a competitive edge, and set you and your organization up for long-term success.
A final word
Reskilling is an essential strategy to bridge skills gaps and ensure your employees are well-equipped to contribute to your organization’s goals and mission today and in the future.
Understanding where your company is headed, the skills required as technology transforms the world of work, and acquiring new skills that make your employees more valuable prospects are all key to building an effective reskilling program that equips and empowers your workforce and organization to thrive in uncertain times.
FAQ
Reskilling is the process of employees building new skills with the aim of transitioning into a new role, industry, or career path.
Reskilling is important because it benefits employees and the wider organization. Reskilling initiatives can improve retention rates, reduce the cost of filling new roles, drive productivity and profitability, support employee engagement, and help companies attract talent with a growth mindset. From the employee’s perspective, reskilling satisfies an employee’s desire to learn and develop new skills, improves their confidence, and increases their employability.
The key difference between reskilling and upskilling is that reskilling helps employees build new skills so they can transition into a different role or career path, whereas upskilling helps employees build on and develop existing skills to help them perform better in their existing role or career path.
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