Enable ‘right skilling’ to add business value

Right skilling is not just another term in the L&D buzzword bingo. It’s about giving employees the skills they need to add business value, rather than simply notching up more hours of learning.

In the recent webinar How to make L&D a strategic enabler, industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal what right skilling looks like, the business benefits, and how you can you make it happen in your organisation.

What is right skilling?

Don’t confuse right skilling with reskilling, a term associated with helping employees whose jobs become redundant to ‘pivot’ and take on a different role within the company.

With right skilling, employees learn new competencies to upgrade their current performance; competencies that convert into productive business results.

Who needs right skilling?

For L&D to cement its position as a value-add function, it must develop the knack of spotting strategic skills gaps. Look at what your organisation needs and what the market needs from a business perspective. Focus on the big-hitters: risk, safety, compliance and revenue, and be strategic about allocating resources.

Target the training at the right people who can apply the new skills in the job they’re doing, or who are in your immediate talent pipeline. Fail to do that, and your people will be investing their time in something they won’t be able to apply and that your organisation doesn’t need.

What are the business benefits?

Right skilling current employees is a smarter investment than hiring new workers. As you right skill your staff, you increase your workforce’s effectiveness and boost business value. These are improvements that can be measured in direct monetary terms. For example, increased sales, decreased employee turnover, or better rates of customer retention as a result of improved service. 

How does L&D make it happen?

Right skilling doesn’t have to be complicated. Like anything worthwhile, it will take some effort. But this will soon pay off.

Start by designing a portfolio of initiatives that deliver engaging learning experiences. You’ll need content that offers sufficient breadth of style, format and delivery to suit your various employees.

It’s a big ask, but before you consign right skilling to the ‘too hard’ pile, remember you don’t have to tackle the content alone.

An online L&D marketplace such as Go1 can provide a window to a huge range of training providers. And rather than managing multiple companies – and multiple fees – a one-stop shop like Go1 gives you an access-all-areas pass that lets you cherry-pick content from various providers while only dealing with one supplier. That way, you can save L&D time and budget.

For L&D professionals today, it’s not enough to just talk about adding business value. Now is the time to put a right skilling strategy in place to show your organisation that L&D can make an impact. Are you in?

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