The difference between upskilling and reskilling

Learn why a culture of employee learning is one of the most powerful levers for workforce optimization and agility

Today’s employees expect to be engaged, acknowledged, and challenged in their job roles. This stems from a cultural and generational shift towards non-linear career paths, career growth opportunities, and the rise of casual learning. And people are no longer afraid to jump ship, and search for a job where their talents and curiosities are sated and appreciated.

Employers also have long emphasized the importance of an engaged workforce, knowing that engaged individuals are more productive, demonstrate higher levels of organizational commitment, bring more innovative ideas, and help contribute to a more financially successful organization. It’s clear that we collectively want to feel a level of purpose and passion that drives the discretionary effort to do more innovative, effective and efficient work. Industry experts and academics have long touted the benefits of both upskilling and reskilling as a clear pathway to engagement and win-win for employees and employers.

Two-thirds of Gen Z workers believe hard skills are changing faster than ever. And nearly 60% percent don’t think their job will exist in the same form 20 years from now. 

When evaluating upskilling and reskilling as strategies and deciding if they are right for your people and organization, the following questions may come to mind: 

• What are upskilling and reskilling? 
• How do upskilling and reskilling differ from one another and what does each bring to the table in terms of employee engagement and the future of work?
• How can we understand the big picture of organizations that prepare for the future by embracing change and embody a love of learning?

Understanding Reskilling

The ultimate goal of reskilling employees is to equip your current population with skills that they are both interested and passionate about learning and in consideration of organizational needs and future objectives. There is a delicate balance for organizational leaders and people management to understand who is ready for a new challenge – much less how to pair the right people with the right learning opportunities and how to balance learning new skills with their current workload, both transitioning individuals away slowly from some of their current job functions, while preparing them for new job functions. Reskilling is that the individual is being prepared for a different role than the one they currently occupy – in mindset, skillset and experience – and are learning to slowly transition to that role. 

According to McKinsey, reskilling is a key necessity to keep up with a quickly-changing technological landscape. Rather than cycling out employees who have the capacity and passion to learn, they can be trained to adapt to emerging technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. When you think of reskilling, imagine leveling up your current workplace population, and helping them (and your organization) prepare for the future with as-you-go training opportunities that can be both formalized (such as certificate programs) or casual (lunch and learns in the office or on Zoom). 

Exploring Upskilling

Like reskilling, upskilling requires learning and leveling up an individual’s overall skillset. But unlike reskilling, upskilling is specifically to help individuals learn more, gain more skills, and be more effective within their current role. Upskilling happens all the time, like when a marketing department leader decides that everyone on the team needs to become certified in Google Analytics. It also happens by design, like when an organization transitions to a new project management software and everyone has to learn it.

But upskilling can also be proactive (rather than reactive) and strategic. The status quo has often been that a change must be made, and then the organization reacts to the change by learning the necessary skills to respond accordingly to the change. For example, in the 1990’s this occurred with the switch to digital technologies. Consumers expected digital options, email was becoming the norm, and if organizations wanted to remain competitive, the onus was on them to comply.

Upskilling empowers business leaders to plan for change before the change has arrived on the doorstep of the organization. By aligning business development, financial projections, market trends, and human resources, organizations can anticipate the changes they need to make in the next, year, five years, or even decade, and begin actively working towards these goals. Further, they can turn towards their current employees, rather than spending the time (and cost) of hiring in the skills they need, to achieve long term workforce optimization.

A Culture That Embraces Change and Loves Learning

In many ways, reskilling and upskilling are two sides of the same coin in that they both help organizations “cash in” on the same currency: long term learning. Learning may seem like an obvious necessity of any career path, and it stands to reason that organizations must increase their embedded knowledge over time, but learning as a workplace norm has other implications. Organizations that embrace learning also inherently embrace change. The last fifteen years have taught businesses that one thing is constant: nothing! From the Recession of 2006, to the pandemic, to current tech layoffs, quiet quitting, and the Great Resignation, we now know that the way we work (including where and how) is subject to change and that relative technological homeostasis is a thing of the past and the we can anticipate continuous and rapid changes as we look forward towards the future of work.

Both upskilling and reskilling embrace change because they help to create a culture of learning within your organization. The power of a learning culture is that it is resilient, adaptable, and flexible. Additionally, a culture of learning lends itself to another growing area of people management, and that is the power of recognition. When your people are learning, gaining new skills, using those skills, or transitioning to new positions and departments, the opportunity to recognize, praise, and support those individuals is at an all-time high. Providing recognition is important, as 40 percent of employees report feeling under-recognized or undervalued in their current roles. The future of organizational mobility and nimbleness relies on making learning part of everyday professional life at work. Once this culture is achieved, making changes to protocol, procedure, and “what work looks like” will not bring about the same levels of stress or anxiety as they once did, because individuals will understand that change is a part of work, and that it can be successfully navigated, and that they have trust in your organization to help see them through.

All of this being understood, what concrete steps can organizations move towards a culture of change and learning? Here are three steps your organization can take today as well as a bigger goal in the future.

1. Meet with your leadership to understand the current upskilling and reskilling that may be happening casually or without recognition. This is an opportunity to understand how a culture of learning may already exist for your organization, and that leadership might not even see from that perspective. This is a great opportunity to hear about learning initiatives that departments have taken, and how they may already be preparing for the future.
   
   
2. Highlight, communicate, and promote current learning efforts. In order to create a culture of learning, your workforce needs to understand that learning is encouraged, appreciated, and recognized. One way to do this is through intentional internal communication that highlights efforts and wins in the way of learning (whether that be upskilling or reskilling) that are already taking place. This will show your people that learning is encouraged, and rewarded.
   
   
3. Connect employees to current learning opportunities. Research shows that employees are often overwhelmed with their benefits, and it’s possible that you have tons of learning resources available for your people that they have either forgotten about or never knew about in the first place. This might mean everything from free resources (like Youtube playlists or certain Coursera courses), employee-specific benefits that require a login, or training that was made in-house. Reminding your people that these opportunities exist helps to show that learning is a part of working in the organization, and encourages them to feel empowered by learning something new.

While these are three tasks your organization can take on today, creating a culture of learning, reskilling and upskilling, and embracing change are ongoing endeavors. Your organization should consider prioritizing a dynamic approach to understanding the current skillset within its workforce, prioritizing which skills are needed for the future of the business, and identifying the right employees who are primed for a new challenge. 

This is an all-hands-on-deck initiative, but does not have to be overwhelming – particularly when supported by a workforce intelligence platform and vendor partner.

Download the Better, Faster, Smarter: Your Guide for Creating the Workforce of the Future to learn how you can build a resilient and flexible organization to overcome turbulence, embrace change, and grow.