Um diese Fragen zu beantworten und eine effizientere Skillentwicklung zu erreichen, müssen L&D- und HR-Verantwortliche an drei Punkten ansetzen:

1. Erwartungen an jede einzelne Rolle klar definieren
2. Diese Erwartungen vermitteln
3. Informationen bereitstellen, die Mitarbeitende zum Schließen etwaiger Lücken benötigen

Genau dabei unterstützt Sie Degreed. Sie bekommen neue Funktionen an die Hand, mit denen Sie Mitarbeitende bei der Entwicklung der Skills anleiten können, die sie zum Erfolg in ihrer Rolle benötigen. 

So verhelfen Rollenerwartungen Mitarbeitenden zu besserer Skillentwicklung

Wir veranschaulichen dies am Beispiel von Cynthia, einer fiktiven Software-Entwicklerin: Cynthia tritt gerade einen neuen Job bei Acme Inc. an. In ihrem vorherigen Unternehmen war sie in einer ähnlichen Rolle als Entwicklerin tätig. Nun fragt sie sich, inwieweit die Erwartungen an sie bei Acme anders gelagert sind. 

Nach ihrer Anmeldung bei Degreed werden in ihrem Profil automatisch die Skills angezeigt, die Acme für ihre Rolle priorisiert hat – inklusive des Kompetenzlevels, das in diesen Skills jeweils zu erzielen ist. Zudem enthalten die einzelnen Skills und Kompetenzlevel eine Beschreibung, anhand derer sie nachvollziehen kann, wie sie vorgehen muss, um diese Ziele zu erreichen. Mithilfe dieser Informationen und einem Maestro Skill Review Coach kann sie nun ihr aktuelles Kompetenzlevel ermitteln und in ihrem Profil festhalten. 

Damit erhält Cynthia die nötige Ausgangsbasis, um ihre Entwicklung darauf auszurichten, bestehende Lücken zu schließen. Degreed erleichtert dies durch die Erstellung dynamischer Skillpläne. Diese sind automatisch mit den Lerninhalten gefüllt, die auf Cynthias Skill-Lücken bei den für sie priorisierten Skills ausgelegt sind. Dieser Skillplan ist individuell auf ihre aktuellen Leistungsniveaus zugeschnitten und umfasst Inhalte, die ihr dabei helfen, auf das nächste Skill-Level hinzuarbeiten.  

Möchte sie dabei nach zusätzlichen Ressourcen suchen, muss sie sich nicht mit Inhalten aufhalten, die zu allgemein gehalten oder zu fortgeschritten sind. Stattdessen findet sie schnell die Inhalte, die zu ihrem individuellen Kompetenzlevel und dem aktuellen Stand ihrer Skillentwicklung passen. 

Cynthia weiß jetzt genau, welche Skills von ihr erwartet werden, in welchen Bereichen sie sich verbessern muss und welche Ressourcen ihr die Skills vermitteln können, die am wichtigsten sind. Diese Klarheit sowie der Zugang zu maßgeschneiderten Ressourcen für ihre Weiterbildung ermöglichen ihr eine schnellere Entwicklung ihrer Skills und motivieren sie zusätzlich. 

So können Admins den Prozess skalierbar automatisieren

Bislang erfolgte die Personalisierung von Lernerlebnissen ausschließlich manuell. Dieser Prozess war viel zu zeitaufwändig und nicht skalierbar. Diese manuelle Arbeit kann nun jedoch KI übernehmen. L&D- und HR-Verantwortlichen bleibt also mehr Zeit für strategisch Wichtigeres wie das Definieren von Skills, die je nach Rolle benötigt werden, um geschäftliche Ziele zu erreichen.

In Degreed Learning können Admins eine Liste organisationsspezifischer Rollen hochladen, einschließlich Zuordnung der zugehörigen Skills und Ziel-Leistungsniveaus. Dabei lassen sich auch die Prioritäts-Skills festlegen, die im Profil der Mitarbeitenden angezeigt werden sollen. Dies sorgt für eine gezieltere Skillentwicklung.

Degreed Skills+ gibt Admins eine KI an die Hand, die den Effekt der Zuordnung von Skills zu Rollen noch zusätzlich verstärkt. Ein Beispiel hierfür sind von der KI generierte Beschreibungen zu Kompetenzlevel für die einzelnen Skills, die klar ersichtlich machen, was auf welchem Kompetenzlevel erwartet wird. Dies vermittelt Mitarbeitenden Orientierung bei der Beurteilung ihrer Skills, sodass sie das passende Kompetenzlevel gemäß Definition der Organisation auswählen können. 

Admins können Inhalte in ihrem Katalog zudem per KI automatisch mit Tags für Leistungsniveaus versehen. Prüfen und bestätigen lassen sich diese Tags ebenfalls, damit Mitarbeitende genau die richtigen Inhalte für ihr jeweiliges Skill-Level erhalten.

Geschäftlicher Wert des Skill-Rollen-Workflows und -Tagging-Features

Effiziente Administration und personalisierte Lernerlebnisse lassen sich direkt in skalierbare Anwendungsfälle mit Potenzial für größeren geschäftlichen Wert umsetzen. Zu den wichtigsten davon gehören die folgenden:

• Strategisches Ressourcenmanagement: Lücken können aufgedeckt und redundante oder veraltete Ressourcen ausrangiert werden.
• Onboarding: Neuzugängen können automatisch Lerninhalte bereitgestellt werden, die auf deren spezifisches Kompetenzlevel bei erforderlichen Skills zugeschnitten sind. Dies verkürzt ihre Einarbeitungszeit.
• Inhaltssuche und -entdeckung: Mitarbeitende erhalten personalisierte Suchergebnisse entsprechend ihren Anforderungen und Skill-Levels.
• Karrierepfade und interne Mobilität: Welche Skills für den Aufstieg in einer Rolle oder den Wechsel in andere Abteilungen erforderlich sind, lässt sich klar abstecken – ein Gewinn für Mitarbeitende und Unternehmen gleichermaßen. 

Einbindung von KI in die Mitarbeiterentwicklung

Versprechen dazu, wie KI das Lernerlebnis verbessern und den administrativen Aufwand reduzieren wird, gibt es viele. Degreed Skills+ bietet künstliche Intelligenz, die beides erfüllt. 

Mit dem Rollen-Skill-Workflow, dynamischen Skillplänen und automatischem Tagging von Inhalten versetzen wir Organisationen nun in die Lage, hochgradig personalisierte und zielführende Weiterbildungsangebote in großem Umfang bereitzustellen – ganz ohne Mehraufwand. Klarere Erwartungen an Rollen und präziseres Tracking bedeuten für Unternehmen: Sie können Skills schneller entwickeln und mit dem Tempo des Wandels leichter Schritt halten.

* Die in diesem Blog-Beitrag beschriebenen Funktionen sollen im April 2026 allgemein verfügbar sein.

The post Schnellere Skillentwicklung durch klare Erwartungen an Rollen appeared first on Degreed.

Degreed Maestro wurde speziell konzipiert, um diese Lücke zu schließen. Hierdurch werden intelligente, personalisierte und skalierbare Lernerlebnisse umsetzbar, die das Potenzial generativer KI in Produktivitätsgewinne, Innovation und Wettbewerbsvorteile übersetzen. Beschreiben lässt es sich als eine KI, die es ermöglicht, KI-Skills zu erlernen.

Das Konzept:

Maestro sorgt für Präzision im großen Maßstab.

• Generiert automatisch personalisierte Lernpfade, die exakt auf Jobrollen, Skills und Geschäftsanforderungen zugeschnitten sind
• Verknüpft Ziele für GenAI-Kompetenz mit Lernmomenten und unterstützt so Rollen wie KI-Trainer:innen, Prompt-Engineers und KI-Analyst:innen

Maestro vermittelt Sicherheit durch personalisiertes Coaching.

• Hilft durch KI-gestützte Coaching-Prompts und rollenspezifische Simulationen beim Aufbau von KI-Kompetenz
• Stärkt Sicherheit und Selbstvertrauen durch Unterstützung und Feedback im Kontext – ein zentraler Faktor für nachhaltige Verhaltensänderungen

Maestro integriert Lernen in den Arbeitsfluss.

• Orchestriert Lernmomente basierend auf individuellen Benutzeraktionen, -rollen und -präferenzen
• Fördert eine Routine fortlaufenden Lernens durch Lernempfehlungen und -anstöße im Arbeitsalltag

Maestro wirkt sich messbar auf Skillentwicklung und Geschäftsergebnisse aus.

• Erfasst Entwicklung von Selbstvertrauen, Skill-Leistungsniveau und Lernverhalten im Zeitverlauf
• Liefert durch Integration mit Degreed Skills+ Echtzeitanalysen und verknüpft GenAI-spezifisches Lernen mit Geschäftsstrategien

Strategische Ergebnisse

• Schnellere Entwicklung von GenAI-Kompetenz in der gesamten Belegschaft
• Förderung von Motivation, Mitarbeiterbindung und interner Mobilität
• Verkürzte Zeit bis zur wirksamen Umsetzung von GenAI-Anwendungsfällen
• Abstimmung von Lerninvestitionen auf Ziele zur Transformation der Belegschaft und geschäftliche Leistungskennzahlen

Ihr nächster Schritt

Lassen Sie uns gemeinsam erörtern, wie Ihr Unternehmen neue Lernstrategien für GenAI entwickeln kann, um schnellere Innovation, intelligentere Abläufe und nachhaltige Geschäftsvorteile umzusetzen.

Vereinbaren Sie einen persönlichen Beratungstermin – das Degreed-Expertenteam steht Ihnen jederzeit gern zur Verfügung.

The post KI-Skills durch KI: Schneller zu GenAI-Kompetenz mit Degreed Maestro appeared first on Degreed.

Was geschieht, wenn eines der weltweit renommiertesten Finanzinstitute beschließt, dass es an der Zeit ist, die Skill-Entwicklungsstrategie neu auszurichten?

Bei State Street fiel die Antwort eindeutig aus: Der Aufbau einer unternehmensweiten, datengesteuerten und von den Führungskräften unterstützten Grundlage für die Flexibilität der Mitarbeitenden und die interne Mobilität – fest verankert in der jährlichen Geschäftsstrategie und den Personal-Aktionsplänen des Unternehmens.

Mit mehr als 50.000 Mitarbeitenden weltweit und rund 11 % des globalen Finanzvermögens, das täglich durch die Systeme von State Street fließt, benötigte das Unternehmen einen strategischen Ansatz für die Skillentwicklung, um mit den sich wandelnden Geschäftsanforderungen und den Erwartungen der Mitarbeitenden Schritt zu halten.

„Das Unternehmen kam zu uns und sagte: Wir haben keine Möglichkeit festzustellen, welche Skills unsere Mitarbeitenden haben. „Wir haben keine Möglichkeit zu erkennen, wo unsere Skill-Lücken liegen, in welchen Bereichen wir Weiterbildungen benötigen und wo Umschulungen erforderlich sind“, so Laura Sullivan, Vice President, Talent Development.

Diese Herausforderung gab den Anstoß zur Gründung von SkillsFIRST. Es ist mehr als nur eine HR-Initiative – es ist ein entscheidender Hebel, der Skills in den Fokus von Leistung, Mitarbeiterbindung und beruflicher Entwicklung rückt. SkillsFIRST, powered by Degreed und in Workday integriert, unterstützt Führungskräfte dabei, das vorhandene Personal mit den geschäftskritischen Anforderungen in Einklang zu bringen und befähigt Mitarbeitende, eigenverantwortlich ihre Skill-Entwicklung voranzutreiben.

Von begrenzter Einsicht zu vernetzter Fähigkeit

Before launching SkillsFIRST, State Street lacked a unified view of its workforce capabilities, while employees sought greater clarity around growth paths and more targeted development support.

Statt teure Inferenz-Tools zu lizenzieren, nutzte State Street Degreed und Workday, um eine eigene Skill-Bibliothek zu entwickeln, die mithilfe einer Kombination aus Branchen-Benchmarks und internem Fachwissen individuell angepasst wurde. In Zusammenarbeit mit Fachexpert:innen definierten die Lernteams sieben zentrale Skills für jede Rolle und entwickelten in Degreed individuell zugeschnittene Rollenpläne.

So funktioniert die Degreed-Workday-Integration bei State Street

Bei State Street bildet die Integration von Degreed und Workday das Rückgrat der Skills-First-Strategie des Unternehmens, welche die Mitarbeiterentwicklung mit der strategischen Personalplanung verknüpft.

Der Prozess beginnt in Degreed, wenn Mitarbeitende kuratierte Lerninhalte erkunden und sich mit den personalisierten Rollenplänen beschäftigen. Die Mitarbeitenden werden dazu angeregt, ihre Kompetenzen anhand der Acht-Punkte-Skala von Degreed einzuschätzen und anschließend strukturierte Gespräche über ihre Kariereentwicklung zu führen. Dabei bitten sie ihre Führungskräfte um Rückmeldung zu ihrer Selbsteinschätzung.

Die erfassten Skills werden anschließend in Workday übertragen, um verschiedene wichtige HR-Funktionen zu unterstützen – darunter die passgenaue Zuordnung von Skills zu offenen Stellen, interne Jobempfehlungen sowie die strategische Personalplanung. Grundlage dafür sind die aktuellen Nachweise zu den Fähigkeiten aus Degreed.

Durch diese Integration wird gewährleistet, dass berufliche Weiterentwicklung nicht nur angestrebt, sondern auch operativ umgesetzt, messbar gestaltet und eng mit den Unternehmenszielen verbunden wird.

Strategische Wirkung mit Skalierbarkeit

Bereits im ersten Jahr der Umsetzung konnte State Street beachtliche Ergebnisse erzielen:

• Einsparungen in Millionenhöhe durch den Verzicht auf teure Drittanbieter-Tools zur Skill-Inferenz und für Personal-Marktplätze.
• Für 50 % der Mitarbeitenden erfolgte das Onboarding mittels SkillsFIRST
• 1.200 zusätzliche interne Beförderungen in sechs Monaten
• 11%ige Steigerung des Mitarbeiterengagements in Verbindung mit der Karriereentwicklung
• 34 % der internen Einstellungen werden durch SkillsFIRST-Daten unterstützt, wodurch die Kosten für externe Einstellungen vermieden werden
• Über 21.000 monatliche Skill-Ratings liefern wertvolle Einblicke für die Personalplanung und gezielte Lernangebote

Diese Ergebnisse zeugen nicht nur von einem technologischen Wandel, sondern auch von einem kulturellen Bekenntnis zu Transparenz, persönlicher Weiterentwicklung und Mobilität.

Zentrale Erkenntnisse für Personalverantwortliche

Für HR-, Personal- und L&D-Führungskräfte, die ihre Skills gezielt in die Praxis umsetzen möchten, bietet State Street erprobte Strategien:

• Der Ausgangspunkt sollten klare geschäftliche Ziele sein, nicht bloß technische Systemfunktionen.
• Schaffen Sie eine gemeinsame Sprache durch eine einheitliche Skill-Bibliothek und standardisierte Rollenpläne.
• Nutzen Sie Plattformen, um Skilldaten effektiv in wertvolle Personalinformationen zu überführen.
• Ermöglichen Sie Ihren Mitarbeitenden, aktiv am Prozess teilzunehmen und davon zu profitieren.

Mit der Ausrichtung auf Skills als Brücke zwischen Leistung, Planung und Entwicklung zeigt State Street, wie ein komplexes globales Unternehmen Potenziale freisetzen und langfristig erfolgreich bleiben kann.

Jetzt mehr erfahren

SkillsFIRST hat bei State Street nicht nur das Lernen verändert, sondern auch die Mitarbeiterbindung gestärkt, das Engagement gesteigert, interne Mobilität gefördert und messbare Kosteneinsparungen erzielt.

Finden Sie heraus, wie ein ähnlicher Ansatz die Ergebnisse in Ihrer Organisation beschleunigen könnte. Lassen Sie uns darüber sprechen.

The post Skill-Entwicklung in großem Maßstab: Was State Street anders macht appeared first on Degreed.

Ihr Produkt-Team steckt ein Jahr Entwicklungszeit in eine neue Plattform. In intensiver Kleinarbeit hat es eine Lösung für entscheidende Probleme erarbeitet, die den Markt bewegen. Ihr Marketing-Team plant eine Kreativkampagne zur Einführung eines Produktes mit starken Botschaften, E-Mail-Versand, digitalen Werbeanzeigen und Beiträgen in sozialen Medien. Eine treffsichere Vermarktungsstrategie entsteht, inklusive Bestimmung wichtiger Zielkund:innen und klar definierter Käufergruppen.

Zur Markteinführung dürfen also getrost die Korken knallen.

Nun, vielleicht nicht ganz. Ist Ihr Vertrieb schon auf Kurs? Weiß das Team womöglich weniger über das Produkt als Ihre potenziellen Kund:innen?

Damit die Markteinführung ein Erfolg wird, muss Ihr Vertriebsteam das Produkt verstehen: Es muss den Sales-Pitch üben, sich also darauf vorbereiten, das Produkt überzeugend zu präsentieren. Hierzu muss es schnelle Antworten auf zentrale Fragen zu Funktionsweise und Zweck des Produkts parat haben. Es muss in der Lage sein, den Wert im Kontext spezifischer Kundenanforderungen zu vermitteln.

Und all dies muss es sich schnell aneignen – in einer Weise, die sich flexibel in einen vollen Terminkalender integrieren lässt.

Coaches so individuell wie Ihre Geschäftsanforderungen

Vorkonfigurierte KI-Coaches können zwar einiges leisten, doch mit den Möglichkeiten, die Degreed Maestro zur individuellen Anpassung bietet, lässt sich die Performance noch weiter verbessern.

Mit Degreed Maestro können Sie KI-Coaches auf die Prioritäten, Inhalte, Richtlinien und Markensprache sowie die kulturelle Ausrichtung Ihres Unternehmens zuschneiden. Durch diesen Kontext gewinnt die Interaktion mit den Coaches an Relevanz: Sie sind in der Lage, die richtigen Botschaften präzise zu vermitteln und für zielgenaues Lernen zu sorgen. 

Dies wiederum bedeutet: Mit Degreed Maestro lassen sich Aktivitäten wie individuelles Feedback oder Vertriebscoachings, die bislang auf die Kapazitäten menschlicher Interaktion beschränkt waren, in großem Umfang zu skalieren. Die möglichen Anwendungen sind zahlreich, aber lassen Sie uns ein Beispiel herausgreifen: die Einrichtung eines individuellen Coaches zur Vorbereitung des Vertriebsteams auf die Einführung eines neuen Produkts.

Degreed Maestro in Aktion: Einrichtung eines Coaches zur Vertriebsförderung

In unserem vorherigen Beitrag hat Mark, unser fiktiver Protagonist dieser Blog-Reihe, den Skill-Review-Coach von Degreed Maestro genutzt, um sich in seine Rolle als Vertriebsleiter einzuarbeiten. Dabei hat er Lücken in seinem Skill-Set identifiziert und einen personalisierten Lernpfad erstellt, um sie zu schließen. 

Im vorliegenden Szenario nutzt das Management-Team Degreed Maestro, um einen speziellen Coach einzurichten, der Mark und sein Team auf den praktischen Einsatz vorbereitet.

Dass es bei der Einführung eines neuen Produkts gerne einmal chaotisch zugehen kann, dürfte kein Geheimnis sein: Wichtiges Feedback trifft in letzter Minute ein, Strategien werden angepasst, Features nachgeschoben, Botschaften überarbeitet. Und das Vertriebsteam bräuchte das Begleitmaterial am besten schon gestern. 

Was aber, wenn es nicht um die Einführung eines beliebigen Produkts geht?

Das Management sieht in dem Produkt einen entscheidenden Differenzierungsfaktor im Wettbewerb. Umso mehr ist daher darauf zu achten, wer welche Informationen erhält und wann.

Eben dieses Szenario – eine Strategie, bei der Ziele fließend sind und der Kreis der Eingeweihten erst sukzessive erweitert wird – ist ein so hinlänglich bekanntes wie konkretes Dilemma, wenn es um die praktische Vorbereitung des Vertriebs geht. Nicht nur, dass damit bislang immer enormer Stress verbunden war, die Vorbereitung war auch wenig effektiv. Mit Degreed Maestro ist es jedoch möglich, einen Coach so mühelos und effektiv darauf zuzuschneiden, dass der Aufwand erheblich geringer ausfällt. So können Sie sich etwa davon verabschieden, Termine für eine interne Webinar-Serie koordinieren zu müssen. Besser noch: Sie können alle Informationen, die das Vertriebsteam benötigt, jederzeit in den Coach hochladen – selbst am Tag der Markteinführung.

Hinzu kommt, dass mit Degreed Maestro erstellte Coaches personalisiert sind. Sämtliche Mitarbeitenden erhalten also exakt die Vorbereitung, die sie benötigen, genau zum passenden Zeitpunkt. 

So etwa eine Vertriebsleiterin, die sich in Vorbereitung auf ein wichtiges Meeting in einen individuellen Sales-Pitch einarbeiten möchte: Hierzu kann ein Coach schnell nützliches Feedback auf Grundlage der hochgeladenen Ressourcen geben.

Ebenso wäre es möglich, dass ein regionaler VP das ideale Kundenprofil ermitteln möchte, um Zielkund:innen zu bestimmen und Prognosen zum Verkaufspotenzial anzustellen. Dazu gibt er einfach seine Frage ein und schon liefert der Coach die Antwort.

Vielleicht benötigt aber auch eine Mitarbeiterin aus dem Vertrieb schnell eine Antwort auf häufige Kundenfragen, doch die Produktmanagerin ist den ganzen Tag in Meetings eingespannt. Mit Degreed Maestro kann sie dafür einfach beim Coach nachfragen.

Krampfhaft Programme zur Vertriebsförderung zu erstellen, die schnell überholt sind, ist damit passé. Gleiches gilt für Last-Minute-Änderungen, die nun nicht mehr ganze Pläne ruinieren. Auch Brandherde werden Sie niemals wieder löschen müssen.

Falls es aber sein muss, können Sie den Pitch selbst kurz vor der Produkteinführung noch anpassen.

Alles ganz einfach mit Degreed Maestro an Ihrer Seite.

Coaching zur Vertriebsförderung aus Sicht des Vertriebsteams

Wir wissen nun, wie sich ein individueller Coach zur Vertriebsförderung einrichten lässt. Doch wie gestaltet sich das Erlebnis für das Vertriebsteam? Wie ist der Coach beim Team angekommen und wie hat es ihn genutzt?

Kommen wir dazu auf Mark zurück, der den Coach nutzt, um ein Geschäft erfolgreich zum Abschluss zu bringen. 

Bereits bei der Demo, die zur Vorstellung des Coaches abgehalten wurde, war Mark davon beeindruckt, Antworten auf Fragen erhalten zu können, für die er sich bislang an die Produktmanagerin aus der Entwicklung wenden musste. Umso motivierter war er, es selbst auszuprobieren. 

Der Coach wurde in den Lernpfad zum neuen Produkt integriert, daher kann Mark beim Lernen nahtlos auf ihn zugreifen. 

Da Mark wichtige Fragen zum Produkt hat, wendet er sich an den Coach, um sie durchzugehen. Dabei erhält er vom Coach zudem wichtige Ratschläge, wie er seinen Sales-Pitch passgenau zuschneiden kann. 

Drei Tage später kommt Mark auf einer Fachmesse mit einer Kundin ins Gespräch. Sie hat über eine Pressemitteilung von dem neuen Produkt erfahren und möchte im Verlauf des Tages noch eingehender darüber sprechen. Auf der Messe herrscht eine starke Geräuschkulisse, daher startet Mark eine textbasierte Konversation mit dem Coach. Der wiederum gibt ihm direkt Empfehlungen, wie Mark seinen Pitch spezifisch an die Anforderungen dieser Kundin anpassen kann. Und nicht nur das: Er kann den Pitch auch üben und erhält dabei konstruktives Feedback zu wichtigen Punkten, die verbessert werden können.

Als später das Meeting mit der Kundin ansteht, setzt Mark die Ratschläge von Degreed Maestro um. Bei der Kundin weckt dies noch mehr Begeisterung, und so vereinbaren die beiden eine Telefonkonferenz mit weiteren Mitgliedern ihres Teams. Hierdurch gelingt es Mark letzten Endes, den ersten Verkauf des Produkts erfolgreich zu begleiten.

Das Potenzial von skalierbarem, personalisiertem Coaching

Für Mark erwies sich der maßgeschneiderte Coach als unerlässlich. Die individuelle Unterstützung, die er Mark bot, war genau das, was er für den Verkauf des neuen Produkts benötigte. Der Coach war jedoch nicht nur für Mark eine große Hilfe, sondern vielmehr für das gesamte Vertriebsteam.

Durch die Anpassung des personalisierten Supports an das einzigartige neue Produkt sowie die Zielsetzungen und Anforderungen des Unternehmens konnte Degreed Maestro das gesamte Vertriebsteam weiterbilden und alle Mitglieder mit dem nötigen Rüstzeug ausstatten, um das Wachstum des Unternehmens voranzutreiben. 

Die Produkteinführung war ein voller Erfolg – und die Korken konnten endlich knallen.

Mehr zum Thema

Vereinbaren Sie einen persönlichen Beratungstermin – unser Expertenteam steht Ihnen jederzeit gern zur Verfügung.

* Die individuelle Anpassung von Coaches in Degreed Maestro befindet sich derzeit in der Entwicklung.

The post Degreed Maestro: KI-Coaches zur Vertriebsförderung neuer Produkte appeared first on Degreed.

This becomes easier with the right tools, integrated to meet your needs. Take Degreed and Workday. Together, Degreed and Workday create a unified skills ecosystem that turns insight into action. The integration helps you close skill gaps faster, adapt to change, and align development directly with business priorities.

Turn Skill Gaps into Growth Opportunities

In many organizations, skill data is scattered across multiple platforms. That slows workforce planning and creates a mismatch between talent and business needs. The Workday and Degreed integration solves that by connecting skill data in both directions, creating a single, reliable source of truth.

It also replaces generic, one-size-fits-all learning with highly personalized experiences. By combining Workday’s role and performance insights with Degreed’s AI-powered curation, personalized experiences, and 80+ content providers, employees get the right learning at the right time.

Whenever the market shifts, agility becomes a competitive advantage. Shared taxonomies, labor market intelligence, and real-time skill validation make it possible to pivot quickly and confidently. Most importantly, every learning activity can be tied directly to measurable outcomes—linking Degreed activity with business targets in Workday, like retention, productivity, and promotion rates—so you can prove ROI, not just report on activity.

Proof in Action: State Street

State Street uses Degreed to assess and grow skills, then syncs validated skills to Workday only when proficiency is met. The results:

• Employees who spend 5–10 hours/month learning in Degreed report higher engagement.
• 300K+ Validated Skill Ratings powering internal mobility
• 97% User Activation, driven by integration into internal mobility
• 72% Monthly Active Use (and growing)

Your Advantage

Our Skills and Learning integrations have a Workday Design Approved badge. That means they are reviewed and approved by Workday, built in close collaboration with the Workday Product team, and guided by real client use cases. Together, we deliver one source of truth for HR and L&D, a connected and personalized employee experience, and the agility to pivot quickly, measure impact, and invest in what works.

Don’t wait for skill gaps to slow your growth. Discover how Workday + Degreed can help you close them. Imagine the impact you could see in just 90 days.

The post Use Workday and Degreed Data to Fill Your Skill Gaps appeared first on Degreed.

This is the second post in a series on building skills for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI). See the first.

DEI skills—such as critical thinking, cultural intelligence, and psychological safety—are no longer optional; they’re essential to a thriving, resilient organization that can adapt to rapid change.

By developing DEI skills, leaders and employees can create inclusive environments where diverse perspectives thrive, fostering a culture of belonging that boosts resilience, engagement, and innovation. Key DEI skills bridge the gap between rapid technological advancements and the human connection needed for collaboration—and they might just prove essential in helping your organization meet its most important objectives. 

Organizations looking to navigate periods of significant change need DEI skills to remain agile and resilient. Navigating change means more than responding to technology shifts; it’s about ensuring your people are equipped to thrive in an inclusive, fast-paced environment.

As periods of change become the norm, prioritizing DEI skills is key for organizations to stay competitive and agile. Whether it’s enhancing knowledge sharing or building resilient teams, focusing on DEI skills is the path to a truly adaptive, inclusive, and thriving workplace.

The Leader’s Role in DEI Skill Development

Leaders in particular play a crucial role in championing DEI skills. Why? Leaders empower individuals and managers to support inclusive practices and create a culture of belonging that drives engagement, grit, and resilience at a time when people need it most. Executive Leaders can prioritize DEI skills to foster an environment where psychological safety and diverse perspectives drive growth.

Engaging managers and leaders in DEI skill conversations begins with equipping them to act as skill coaches, fostering open dialogue and modeling inclusive behaviors. This process involves providing targeted training and tools to help leaders recognize and mitigate bias, facilitate psychological safety, and encourage diverse perspectives within their teams.

By embedding DEI into regular performance discussions and aligning it with business goals, managers can actively support their teams‘ growth while driving a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Choosing DEI Skills to Prioritize at Your Organization

As you assess which DEI skills need attention at your organization, let’s explore a few examples to get you started.

Remember that skills should be measurable and developable.

You might be tempted to choose skills like compassion or empathy. These are important, but under scrutiny they’re revealed as inherent human traits. In other words, how can an employee get better at empathy? On the contrary, DEI skills allow for the evaluation of proficiency and improvement over time. To find out more on this, take a deeper dive into skills vs. competencies.  

Key DEI skills and the benefits they offer include:

• Critical Thinking. This helps employees recognize and address biases, question assumptions, and make fair, reasoned decisions that align with inclusive values. It helps them understand how best to utilize and evaluate AI tools. It’s not only about problem-solving; it’s essential for uncovering and addressing unconscious biases in decision-making and enabling fairer, more inclusive practices.

• Psychological Safety. This is about creating an environment where individuals feel secure sharing ideas without fear of judgment, and it’s vital to inclusion. Psychological safety builds trust and encourages diverse perspectives, allowing innovation to flourish while creating a foundation of trust and respect. Psychological safety is pertinent to all levels of an organization.

• Resilience. This is the ability to adapt to challenges and recover from setbacks. It supports employees as they navigate change, including shifts toward greater equity and inclusion. Resilience is about equipping teams to thrive even during difficult times, which is essential for fostering a workforce that remains engaged and supportive.

• Cross-Cultural Agility.  This is about understanding and adapting to diverse perspectives in a way that drives better team collaboration. It helps individuals work productively across different backgrounds, enhancing communication and collaboration.

• Inclusive Communication. This involves learning techniques to actively listen, mitigate biases, and foster open dialogue. Inclusive communication allows for better understanding among team members and creates an environment where all voices are heard and valued.

• Equitable Decision-Making. This involves systematically ensuring fairness in processes like hiring or promotions through choices that are both inclusive and unbiased. Equitable decision-making lays the groundwork for fair practices that help attract and retain a diverse workforce.

Each of these skills is developable, actionable, and measurable. The important action is identifying skills to develop that are essential to DEI  as well as accomplishing your company’s goals.

How to Develop DEI Skills Aligned with Company Goals

Rather than viewing DEI as a standalone initiative, savvy organizations will recognize that DEI skills are directly tied to broader business objectives—for example, boosting innovation, increasing employee engagement, or improving customer satisfaction.

Step No. 1: Identify DEI skills that align with business goals.

Start by identifying a few essential DEI skills that align with your company’s strategic objectives. For example, if your goal is to foster innovation, focus on skills like creativity and cultural awareness, which support diverse thinking and collaboration. If the goal is to improve team resilience during times of change, prioritize skills like psychological safety and adaptability.

Step No. 2: Define clear outcomes for skill development.

It’s essential to clearly define what success looks like. Do you need employees to gain deep proficiency in one area, or is a broader understanding of multiple skills more valuable? Asking for both breadth and depth can lead to burnout, so keep the focus on a few key skills and make sure progress is measurable. This specificity will also help you track progress and make adjustments as needed.

Step No. 3: Take action with small, scalable steps.

Don’t wait for perfect data or a lengthy approval process to get started. Quick wins like engaging employees in discussions about skills or launching targeted training programs can build momentum. Analyzing employee skill profiles, for instance—to identify gaps in psychological safety or cultural awareness—might quickly help you pinpoint where to start. This in turn could help make your overall implementation process more responsive and agile.

Step No. 4: Provide targeted resources and training.

Asking employees to develop DEI skills without adequate resources is a recipe for failure. Ensure they have access to workshops, peer-to-peer learning groups, stretch assignments, and learning content that supports their growth. Be wary of blanket training programs, as these often lack the focus necessary to address specific skill gaps. Instead, opt for tailored learning experiences that address your organization’s unique needs.

A Note About Creating Lasting, Measurable Mentorship Programs

A mentorship program is a wonderful tool in the DEI toolbox. But if it’s your only tool, you’ve made a mistake. While many mentorship programs created during the DEI push of 2020 had good intentions, they often lacked long-term sustainability. To create lasting impact, mentorship initiatives must have clear goals and ongoing support. 

Leaders should be accountable for fostering inclusive cultures and providing mentorship aligned with measurable outcomes. Specific skills tied to a program can help define clear goals. By establishing structured, goal-oriented mentorship that complements other DEI initiatives, organizations can sustain DEI momentum and build a stronger, more inclusive talent pipeline.

The Measurable Impact of DEI Skills

Organizations that invest in DEI skills are building a foundation for sustained performance and adaptability, creating a workforce that’s not only more diverse but also more agile, innovative, and resilient. Integrating DEI skills into company strategy isn’t just about “checking a box.” It’s about making an investment in the long-term health and competitiveness of your organization. 

With the right DEI skills in place, your organization is better equipped to navigate change, embrace diverse perspectives, and drive lasting progress.

Degreed Professional Services

Hali Linn is a Learning Strategy Consultant on the Degreed Professional Services team.

Degreed Professional Services partners with business leaders and learning pros to explore learning strategies, technology goals, and questions. Book a free and private consultation.

The post DEI Skills in Action: A Step-by-Step Guide to Driving Change appeared first on Degreed.

Perfect—you’re exactly who I wanted to talk to. 

I want to chat with the fairly large population of L&D pros out there who either shy away from or tune out skills. I get it. Skills is sucking up a lot of oxygen in our profession right now. Colleagues, leadership, industry leaders, and even vendors pressure you to get on board. 

I promise that the purpose of this article isn’t to convert you to join a skills-based organization (SBO) club. But while you don’t need to hitch a ride on the fast-paced, all-or-nothing express, it will help if you and your L&D team take at least a few steps down the skills path. 

Let’s take a look at the most common reasons L&D professionals either ignore or delay progress on skills. After that, I’ll offer advice so it’s easier for you and your team to start taking small steps toward skill development. 

No 1. “Skills? They’re not our responsibility.” 

A lot of skills wallflowers are holding back out there. When skill development discussions ignite, some may fade into the background. It’s a comfortable position to take. In many companies, talent management and L&D teams are often organized under the HR, Talent, or another department. 

If your company assigns talent and career development to other departments outside L&D, it’s natural for you to focus on the more tried and true elements of the job like learning engagement, learning culture, or cohort-based learning. It’s easy to think you can relax because someone else has “skills” covered.

But this thinking will become increasingly problematic. Holding on to divisions between HR, Talent, L&D, and other departments runs the risk of skills falling into a corporate no-man’s land. Corporate skill strategies often fail because there is confusion about who owns skills and or agreeing on a definition.

L&D pros can’t afford to be skills wallflowers. 

L&D professionals, you may feel comfortable with how your company has organized learning, talent acquisition, and career development positions. However, these old divisions of labor responsibilities do not address rapidly growing skills gaps. The truth is that no department can afford to be a skills wallflower any longer. 

A skills initiative is too big of a challenge and project for one or two departments to own. Skills is a vertical, horizontal, top-down, and bottom-up initiative. It’s all-inclusive. And it certainly calls for responsibility and ownership from a department that helps employees learn and develop.

No 2. “Skills? They’re not in our DNA.”

Another common reason to wave the skill development bandwagon on by is ontological. Many learning pros believe L&D exists to champion competencies—not skills. This is understandable because the building blocks for Talent and L&D has been competencies. 

Over the past few decades, L&D professionals were trained to use competency models, and these models have grown strong roots in organizations. We’ve been trained to develop competencies: the complex mixtures of behaviors, abilities, knowledge, and skills that are tied to specific job roles. 

Why would we abandon the competency model we know and love for a skills model that may end the role of jobs? From this perspective, skills aren’t just different but almost antithetical to rock solid L&D structures.  

But here’s the thing: defining learning and development solely with competencies is problematic.

Focus on the overall mission of L&D—not competencies.

I know we’re comfortable with competencies, but we must see the bigger picture. This brings me to an important question: What is the purpose and function of L&D? 

No matter where someone falls on the skills or competencies scale, the answer to that question, at least in my experience, is fairly universal. The function of L&D is to help people do new things or do current things better than before. 

And if we can agree that this is our mission, then skills have a role in our mission. Skills are defined as learning that can be applied. Skills are learned and developed—they’re what we do. We can’t help people do new things without skills entering the equation. 

No 3. “Skills? They’re too hard to switch to.” 

You might not have anything against skill development, but you still might not feel ready to jump on the bandwagon. The vehicle is moving fast, and getting yourself on board seems to require some expert stunt double maneuvers. You’ve got to move from your solid competencies platform and leap onto the fast-paced skills train. 

To start making the move from what they know—competencies—to where they need to get—skills—lots of professionals define and compare the two models. They assume that if they compare the two long enough, they’ll find the magic key to get from here to there. But this definitional approach isn’t the answer. 

Stop fixating on skills vs. competencies.

We’ve all seen the hype around skills vs. competencies. I’ve seen it in LinkedIn posts and comments, on webinars, at conferences, and during client discussions. Avoid getting sucked into it. While it may seem like a way to make the transition easier, it just psyches you out and makes something simple appear hard. 

You don’t need a complex way to translate competencies into skills. Why? Because the skills are already there. Competencies are made up of skills. You just need to identify the skills in the competencies you’ve worked on for decades. 

Once you identify the skills that make up competencies, focus on how you can better help employees to develop and practice them. Additionally, you may want to consider adding new ones. Skills change quickly, so keeping your eye on the skills needed to get work done is important.

No. 4 “Skills? They’re just too complex.”

Nothing scares L&D professionals off the skills path more than complexity. I’ll be honest with you: if you look at them holistically, skills are complex. From a numbers perspective alone, there are far more of them to track than competencies. Many companies that create a skills taxonomy have hundreds or even thousands of skills.

L&D pros are also scared by what they perceive as a steep learning curve. Many approach me holding a long laundry list of questions:

• How should we define skills?
• How do we get the whole company to agree on a single definition?
• How do you validate skills?
• What assessment model should we use?
• What technology platform is the best for capturing skill data?

And the list goes on and on. While questions in general are critical to learning and solving complex problems, you need to ask the right questions in the right order. This will vary from organization to organization, but let’s take a closer look.

You don’t need all the skills answers to get started. 

Many L&D professionals believe they must know everything about skills before they can begin. While doing preliminary research is a tried-and-true strategy, the questions should enable you to act and not falter. 

People always want to know the WHY in things before they change or adopt something new first. WIth this in mind, consider making your first step answering the why question.

Start with answering the WHY skills development question.

To better understand why, think about your company’s goals and plans. Show leaders how improving skills can help them reach these goals more quickly and efficiently. This discussion will help you determine what you need to do. 

Perhaps leaders want to identify your company’s most critical skill gaps. Or perhaps they know which skills gap to tackle, and they need you to help them fill that gap. Ask questions about these specific action-focused items. Ask questions that lead to actions that will make a difference.  

Skill Development—take it one step at a time. 

While you may not realize it, you’re probably further down the skill development path than you think. Just look at the Learning Continuum grid above to see where you fall. If you see your organization as being anywhere on the continuum, guess what—you’ve already started your journey!

And keep in mind that you don’t have to jump on that fast-paced SBO bandwagon. You just need to start discussing skills and begin walking down the skill development path. For more help to start your skills journey, download a free copy of The Ultimate Guide to a Skills-First Future.  

The post 4 Ways L&D Dodges Skill Development & Why It’s a Mistake appeared first on Degreed.

In light of this year’s challenges and changes, Degreed has continued to help L&D with innovative ideas, research, and solutions. Particularly this year, we’ve studied and discussed the most pressing topics in L&D—whether they were time-sensitive, technical, foundational, or forward-looking, we’ve covered them all. 

And everyone likes a present—wrapped or unwrapped. So we’ve compiled some of the big 2023 L&D headlines, research, and strategies for you to unwrap as the year comes to a close.

A Timely Kit For Overcoming Economic Uncertainty

At Degreed, we’re always playing the long game. But early in 2023, Degreed quickly realized the colossal impact shrinking budgets were having on L&D departments. 

L&D teams around the world needed to address the economic issues—quickly. Learning leaders faced dramatic budget cuts, and many were put in the stressful position of convincing their C-suites of the value of learning during an economic downturn. As usual—albeit more urgently—learning leaders needed to get more done with less, and we showed them how in our Recession Survival Kit for L&D Leaders. 

3 Must-Reads for Working With a Tight L&D Budget

While concern of a recession has faded from the news cycle, L&D teams at many organizations are still feeling the squeeze. If you’re anticipating a reduced budget for 2024, we’ve got resources for you. And if you’re still trying to convince senior leaders why they should invest more in learning, our thought leaders have written some excellent articles to help you. 

• “Speaking the Language of Your Peers Through the Right Metrics”

Annee Bayeux’s CLO article shares how to use your learning metrics to convince internal leaders that downturns are actually the best time to invest in upskilling your people. 

• Learning Spend & Impact Scorecard

When money is tight, best to double-check that your spending accomplishes what you’re paying it to do. To help with your learning budget audit, we created an easy and helpful scorecard of common L&D-related investments and their impacts. 

• “Safeguarding Your Workforce During a Downturn”

Degreed’s own Janice Burns wrote on HR.com compelling research that proves how investing in your people sets you up to come out stronger on the other side.

A Technical Guide for Navigating A Crowded Learning Tech Market

As an L&D professional, your main driver is your people’s learning, but it’s not always as simple as that. With tech advancements come more nuances for L&D pros to consider and navigate. It’s a crowded and confusing market, and this requires L&D leaders to have more and more technical know-how. 

Specifically, the C-suite is asking L&D leaders to solve more and more problems, which often requires additional technology. We’re seeing L&D leaders both consolidate their technology to save money and add new technology to address emerging learning problems. This turns their learning tech ecosystems into wild, disorganized messes characterized by gaps, lost information, and more.

Seeing L&D leaders struggle with this issue, we created helpful resources for evaluating, simplifying, and improving any learning tech stack. If your ecosystem is like the Wild West and you don’t know how to tame it, check out the Degreed whitepaper Building Your Learning Tech Ecosystem.

Top Content for Learning Ecosystems

A Foundational Study to Understand How Your Employees Learn 

While there are always technical topics to explore, smart L&D teams consistently take the pulse of learning. They keep current with how employees prefer to learn. They stay up to date with new concepts and skill-building strategies. In other words, they don’t forget the fundamentals.

Degreed prizes itself in putting the learner experience at the center of our platform. This is the reason we spend hundreds of hours gathering, analyzing, and presenting fresh insights into how the workforce learns bi-annually. 

To understand what your employees need to learn effectively, check out our 2023 report on How the Workforce Learns. 

Additional Insights Into How Your Workforce Learns

A Forward-Looking Introduction to Win the Skills-First Future

To recap: in 2023 we’ve covered timely, technical, and foundational topics. What’s left? The future. We’re always thinking about the future, and that future revolves around skills. The World Economic Forum estimates that, amid the lightning-fast pace of technological change, businesses worldwide will need to upskill approximately one billion workers in the next few years. 

The way to fill that skills gap? Help employees learn skills—fast. Of course, L&D will play a critical role in the new skills economy because it provides people with the learning they need for skill development. In many ways, L&D can lead the charge by preparing companies for the quickly approaching future. 

To learn more about a skills-first future and the role L&D will play, check out our quick 15-minute introduction to Embrace the Skills-First Future.

3 Resources to Dig Into The Skills-First Future

After Reflection Comes Ambition and Innovation 

It’s been a turbulent year, and we’ve felt it. But more than ever, Degreed is here to help L&D navigate this tumultuous and exciting time in the world of work. 

• If there is a time-sensitive issue, like an uncertain economy, we’re committed to providing you with resources to help you persevere.

• If you’re getting stuck in the technical elements of your L&D role, we’ll break down those technicalities for you. 

• If you need fundamental information about the state of learning in your workforce, we’ll provide the raw data.

• If you need help seeing the future of L&D, we’ll let you borrow our chic Degreed wayfarers to see what’s on the horizon.

In many ways, Degreed is one of the best in the business at figuring out the complexities coming your way and innovating accordingly. And after reflecting on the challenges of 2023 and our skills future ahead, Degreed has built a product plan that anticipates and innovates. 

In other words—bring it, 2024! We’re ready for you.

The post 2023 Unwrapped: Big Headlines, New Research, and Emerging Strategies appeared first on Degreed.

This means that any L&D and HR leader worried about the talent shortage — essentially everyone — should invest some time and effort in learning about and leveraging academies to close the skills gap.

Whether you’re in the process of building your own academy or you just heard the word mentioned at the L&D and HR water cooler, this article will tell you everything you need to know — from the basics like definitions and use cases to more practical how-to’s designed to help you build or improve your own internal academies. 

Table of Contents

• What are learning academies?
• What major problems do learning academies solve?
• Why are learning academies a good solution for deep upskilling? 
• Who can (and should) build learning academies?
• What are some additional benefits of building learning academies?
• What are some basic tips to build your own learning academies?

What are learning academies?

A learning academy is a collaborative place where employees develop deep skills that align with business needs. 

It’s possible you’ve already heard about learning academies.  The idea appeared on the radar of HR & L&D leaders a few years ago, when Bersin used the term to describe “an emerging zeitgeist in corporate learning and development (L&D).” 

While the idea itself isn’t new, it signifies a “new breed of platforms“ in the learning tech marketplace. In fact, these platforms are so new that the nomenclature of “learning academies” isn’t even fully baked. The “academies” part remains constant but, depending on who’s using the term, a different modifier can wind up at the front of it: learning academies, capability academies, training academies, skills academies or talent academies. Whatever word someone places in front of it, the basic concept driving learning academies — a collaborative place to develop skills that align with business needs — remains the same. 

Okay, enough with semantics. Now let’s discuss why academies are so damn important. 

What major problems do learning academies solve? 

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the learning academy definition: a collaborative place where employees develop deep skills that align with business needs. This definition disrupts the current learning tech marketplace by addressing two key problems: 

• The ever-widening skills gap and talent crisis
• The misalignment between L&D and business goals

These two issues have baffled L&D leaders for years. Finally, a promising solution has arrived on the ed tech scene. 

Problem No. 1: The ever-widening skills gap and talent crisis.

Even before the disruption by generative AI, the World Economic Forum in 2020 predicted that by 2025 the unrelenting pace of technology will displace 85 million jobs, create 97 million jobs, and require half of all employees to reskill. 

McKinsey & Company already reports that, as predicted, 87% of companies are experiencing a talent shortage. But the skills pinch is happening despite business leaders working hard to fill the skills gap. Companies threw a boatload of money at the problem in the past decade.

In 2010, companies spent 271 billion on corporate training globally, and that spending increased by 37% in ten years. According to Training Industry, companies in 2020 will spend a whopping $357 billion on training and learning programs. And in the United States alone, training expenditures passed the $100 billion mark in 2021-2022. 

What do companies have to show for their spending sprees? Not much. As companies spent billions of dollars, the percentage of CEOs worried about skill availability only increased. It actually increased at a faster rate than company spending: it went from 53% in 2012 to 79% in 2019. (With the arrival of generative AI, who knows how much that percentage increased?!)

Clearly, the learning solutions that companies spent billions on in the past decade didn’t fill their skill gaps. But don’t lose heart — now there’s a viable solution for keeping your company stocked with talent.

Solution: How academies keep your company stocked with talent.

Academies enjoy a long and successful track record when it comes to developing and delivering internal talent. A famous example comes from General Electric: After building skills at the company’s physical academy in the 1950s, Reginald Jones went on to become a future GE CEO.  

Bersin also lauds his old-school academy experience at IBM in the 1980s:

„We had a sales academy like none other. I spent years in sales training and learned more about customers, selling practices, and products than at any other time in my life. (My son just spent a year in the SAP Sales Academy, and it set him off on an incredible career.”

— Josh Bersin

So historically, learning academies have been successful. And while the GE and IBM academies were brick-and-mortar buildings, today companies can continue to cultivate talent with the same principles using the latest technology. And they continue to remain successful. Bersin identifies some of these successful modern-day versions:

• Comcast, Academy of Customer Service
• Comex, Supply Chain Academy and Safety Academy
• Visa, FinTech Capability Academy
• Capital One, Cloud, Digital and Cybersecurity Academy
• Ford, Autonomous Vehicle Academy

Problem No. 2: The misalignment between L&D and business goals.

Along with the widening skills gap, another difficulty plaguing HR and L&D leadership is aligning learning initiatives with company goals. Because of the endless learning options provided by podcasts, conferences, books, and boot camps, it’s easy for well-intentioned employees to spend learning benefits on skills that don’t align with company needs. 

For example, employees using one of the many self-directed learning platforms often make learning decisions with limited to no guidance from C-suite leaders. In an article for Training Industry about academies, Yael Gilbo Kaufmann, Co-founder of Learn In, observes that “self-directed learning requires too much guesswork for employees: ‘Would I be more valuable to my company if I read this article or watch this video on digital analytics?’”

Just how far off is the alignment? In the Brandon Hall Group 2020 Learning Strategy Study, almost every company (87%) expressed the need to align learning and goals, but only 13% said they were capable of doing it. What an extrodinary statistic!

Obviously, before companies start investing in upskilling, they need a learning solution that re-aligns learning objectives with business objectives.

Solution: How academies drive business objectives. 

For upskilling to align with company goals, academies must provide the connective tissue between learning platforms, data, and people (e.g. other departments, C-suite leaders, managers, and employees). 

The corporate academy is a storied 20th-century U.S. institution — starting in the mid-1950s when the president of GE, Ralph Cordiner, bought land and established a brick-and-mortar university to develop managers. As you might expect, and with so much overhead spent to run brick-and-mortar academies, leadership in the old days insisted on playing a key role in shaping curricula and goals. 

Today’s modern academies continue this tradition. Bersin explains that academies “should be led by a business leader, not an L&D professional.” This, he says, could be the CIO, CEO, or CFO at the helm of their academies. 

But it’s not just having the C-suite over the academy that ensures alignment. Today, modern academies utilize technology, like integrations, to promote quick and easy communication between software programs, access skills data, and connect everyone within the company. More easily and effectively than ever, leadership can now provide insightful unique perspectives on the skills that are needed and help design the learning pathways to fill those needs.

Why are learning academies a good solution for deep upskilling? 

As companies spent those billions of dollars over the last decade, many legacy learning solutions attempted to use their software to bridge the skills gaps. As discussed, it didn’t work. So why will learning academies get the job done? 

The builders of academies understand that deep upskilling is a different critical learning need than training or everyday learning. Deep upskilling requires different pedagogical strategies. Deeper upskilling requires a richer, longer, and more intensive learning experience. To do that, academies focus on a learning methodology that promotes deeper, more critical skill learning and supports developing those skills to pursue a career path. 

Three learning strategies enable academies to deliver deep skill-building: 

• Collaborative learning
• Career pathing and skill mapping
• Practical application and feedback

Collaborative Learning

Academies — at their core — are collaborative. It specifically refers to a class of learning methods based on traditional in-person learning models, which are often executed in groups or cohorts. After all, blended learning has long been regarded as one of the most effective learning models for high-impact learning topics. The social dynamic of learning from peers and subject matter experts lends context, sparks discussions, and offers coaching and feedback. 

Especially with generative AI changing the world of skills, humans must fill in the gaps of deeper learning around more complex or human-centric skills like critical thinking, effective decision-making, communication, and problem-solving. So it’s a win-win for any deep skill building to require employees to flex interpersonal and communication skills.  

Career Pathing and Skill Mapping

Academies think big. Careers are built by performing a cluster of skills — not just one skill. Too often legacy learning programs only focus on learning a skill. Or if an employee does learn a cluster of skills, those skills don’t necessarily relate to a clear career path.

Academies use an infrastructure that looks beyond just “a” skill and toward actual career development. With the right academy program, academy participants can identify a career path and then use the academy program to identify the skills they need to get there. 

Practical Application and Feedback

Developing a career require practical experience. Most legacy solutions today focus on knowledge, but they don’t ask learners to apply that knowledge. This leads to the classic situation where someone can know everything about dietary science and weight lifting, but they don’t have any practical experience. To be an expert, and to develop deep skills that go beyond knowledge, they must go to the gym regularly, lift weights, and eat healthily. They need to practice and perfect their actual skills. 

To build tangible skills, academies facilitate opportunities for employees to balance practice through individual and team projects. To further enhance and reinforce that experience, academies use coaching, peer and expert feedback, and assessments. 

Who can (and should) build academies?

Sold on academies and want to build your own? Well, you’re in luck. Now more than ever, any company, no matter the size or industry, can build its own academies. 

The list of academy builders comprises the who’s who of the business world: Google, AT&T, Amazon, Microsoft, GE, and more. And while seventy years ago only the most rich and well-resourced companies could afford these expensive and resource-heavy institutions, today you just need the right technological platform. 

Technology democratized learning academies for all businesses. So don’t let the list of academy users intimidate you — let it inspire you! You can (and should) build your own academies. It’s affordable and attainable. 

What are some additional benefits of building internal academies? 

Keeping your company well-stocked with talent is critical, but there are additional benefits you can enjoy by building your own academies. Investing in internal academies will: 

• Reduce costs 
• Boost retention and engagement 
• Provide dexterity for future skilling

Reduce Costs

You can reduce costs in two ways by building internal academies. First, by building your own internal academies you save the money you’d potentially spend hiring an outside agency. Outside agencies focusing on talent development cost a bundle. On top of that initial fee, they can charge extra to customize and tailor their standard content so it aligns with your company goals. 

Second, especially in light of the current talent shortage, upskilling your employees is cheaper than externally hiring new talent. For example, a General Assembly Whitepaper reports that between recruitment fees, advertising, and other hiring expenses, it may cost a company about $30,000 to hire a middle-career software engineer. (That doesn’t even include onboarding expenses.) The whitepaper estimates that “the cost to train and reskill an internal employee maybe $20,000.” While that may not sound like much of a difference, it can save a company “as much as $116,000 per person over three years.” 

Boost Retention and Engagement 

According to a PEW poll, a majority of workers (63%) quit their jobs in 2021 because of low pay or a lack of opportunities to advance their careers. Many learning platforms will cite this statistic to show how employees value learning. But the statistic isn’t about learning — it’s about career growth. What builds career growth? Acquiring new skills. So not only do you save money and develop new skills-building academies, but you boost retention as well.  

Provide Dexterity for Future Skilling

Filling your current skills gaps is critical, but those skills gaps will change over time. “In many ways, technology and AI are moving faster than real life,” explains Andy Bird, the CEO of Pearson. “We’re struggling to catch up, and the impact that that has on us both as individuals and as companies is the need to continually re-skill and upskill.”

The future, as Bird describes it, is unknowable. You don’t know which skills you’ll need in ten years, but you do know that you’ll be constantly upskilling and reskilling. Academies can help you recognize new skill gaps and address them as they arise. Once you’ve built an academy or two, you design an academy framework that works well for your company so you can add new ones as needs arise.

What are some basic tips to start building your own internal academies? 

The obvious question is how can under-resourced L&D leaders put together the kind of flexible, talent-building academies the workforce needs? It’s not as daunting as it might seem. A mix of resources smartly deployed can make it work. Here are a few steps to get you started:

Step No. 1: Address challenges with the appropriate solution. Ask yourself if the problem requires learning, training, or skill development. Then use the right tools to accomplish those critical learning needs. There are three broad areas of skill building:

• Training to teach specific skills and processes.
• Learning that is more focused on enrichment and curiosity.
• Development that prepares employees to advance the organization. 

This framework can help you differentiate some of the different needs you might have and clarify how to move forward. 

Step No. 2: Provide time for upskilling. Providing time is pretty simple. Just 34% of employees are willing to upskill in their own time, while 71% will jump at the chance for paid upskilling and 64% will upskill on company time. 

Step No. 3: Encourage learning in cohorts. More than 90% of employees and HR pros surveyed by Randstad said that skilling initiatives would be more effective with guidance and support. Company-led cohorts provide support and accountability and facilitate cross-training. 

Step No. 4: Get the rest of the business involved. It’s important to make a business case for the talent academy. When the entire business sees the need for talent-building to enable you to compete and win the marketplace, the whole organization is energized and supports it.

To learn more tips, download a free copy of A Practitioner’s Guide: Building a Modern Academy.

A Modern Path Forward To Deep Upskilling & Business Alignment  

With skills changing so quickly, companies must get this critical moment right — and fast. You can’t waste your time trying to solve the most unprecedented skill gaps with whatever learning tool you’ve used for the past ten years. You need a solution that delivers, and Academies not only deliver upskilling but they’re affordable and align upskilling with your business needs. 

It doesn’t matter how you get it done. You can build your own academy with a paperclip, duct tape, and shoestring or you purchase a fancy academy platform — just build it.

The post Learning Academies 101: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Degreed.

In this article, we break down everything you need to know about learning stipends: what they are, why companies use them, how to set them up, and more. Just think of this as your personal, all-you-need-to-know learning stipends resource. So whether you’ve just heard of learning stipends or need some tips to refine your stipends, this is the article for you.

What is a learning stipend?

A learning stipend is a sum of money companies give employees to spend on personal upskilling and learning initiatives. Employees can spend their funds in any way they see fit—as long as they fit within company guidelines.

Maybe you’ve heard of this idea with a different name, e.g., education stipend, learning and development stipend, continuing education stipend, etc. As long as employees receive money to spend on upskilling and learning, it’s a learning stipend. 

This idea isn’t new. In fact, it’s a reboot of traditional tuition reimbursement programs. But something needs to change when 47 percent of businesses offer tuition assistance and only 5-10 percent of employees use it. Learning stipends are a new and exciting change. 

What is a prepaid learning stipend?

The new and exciting change is prepaid learning stipends. What’s the difference between the two? 

With a traditional learning stipend, the employees pay upfront for their boot camps, conferences, books, etc. and the company reimburses them. A prepaid learning stipend eliminates the reimbursement process. Today, companies can issue employees their own prepaid digital debit cards. 

While this may seem like we’re splitting hairs to point out this difference, it matters. It’s the most significant decision you’ll make to set up a learning stipends program. More on that later.

Why use learning stipends?

Today, when done well, learning stipends are the most equitable and efficient way to upskill and engage your workforce. This is especially true when you compare learning stipends with other upskilling solutions like content licenses or learning management systems (LMS). 

Here are the ways learning stipends outstrip other solutions:

• Flexibility
• Personalization
• Scalability 

Flexibility

Learning and development requires a myriad of resources to upskill: coaching, classes, conferences, books, training, etc. It’s a long journey to truly master a skill, and many LMS and content licenses don’t offer all those diverse resources. With a learning stipend, employees can spend money on the resources they need, when they need it.

Personalization

Along with a myriad of resources, every employee’s learning journey is unique. After all, an engineer in your company requires different upskilling than someone on your marketing team. (Even two engineers at your company may need to learn different skills.) With a learning stipend, employees find and purchase resources that align with their personal development goals.

Scalability

But getting access to specialized content, in a scalable way, is difficult. To get the most bang for their buck, many learning and development solutions provide trainings and content that serves the most employees. This creates generic content, and it doesn’t give employees the specialized content they need for deep upskilling. With learning stipends, employees get access to the best-specialized resources available in a scalable way.

Who uses learning stipends?

Any company can use learning stipends. Company size, industry, or location? It doesn’t matter. If you look at a list of companies currently offering learning stipends, it will include start-ups, tech juggernauts, and everything in between.

The Best Workplaces

Anyone can offer learning stipends, and the savviest companies out there do. When surveying the companies listed for Inc Best Workplaces 2022, 72% offered learning and development stipends. And more companies offer educational stipends than unlimited time off. It’s a bit of a phenomenon: in the past six years, the rise of learning stipends as a benefit rose from 8% to 70%. So you’re ahead of the curve and in good company offering employees learning stipends. 

The Majority of Employees

Not only do companies love them, but workers love learning stipends too. Gen Z and millennial workers will make up 74.7% of the workforce population in 2030, and they’re all about learning stipends. 

Why?

First, Gen Z and millennial workers value learning and development. A LinkedIn survey found that 76% of Gen Z workers see learning and development as the key to their success, and a Gallup poll found that 87%of millennial workers rank development opportunities as important to them in a job. So by using learning stipends, companies give these young workers what they want.

Second, personalization is a buzzword for young employees, and learning stipends let employees choose the skills they want to develop. For a Learn In survey of millennial and Gen Z workers, young workers ranked “personal learning choices via a personal learning budget” as the second most important support an employer could provide. 

Third, if you use prepaid learning stipends, learning and development opportunities become affordable. Half of young workers live paycheck to paycheck, so if you use a reimbursement model, you’ll likely exclude many employees eager to take advantage of their learning stipend. 

What major problems do learning stipends solve?

While there are lots of benefits to using stipends, which we’ll discuss in another section, many companies use learning stipends to solve two significant problems: 

1. The ever-widening skills gap
2. The rise of Generative AI

Problem #1: The Ever-Widening Skills Gap

Calling today’s skill shortage a “gap” is a bit of a misnomer. Instead, it’s more of a chasm: the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) expect that a billion jobs will need new skills by 2030. 

Automation alone will create 95 million jobs that don’t yet exist. „The biggest issue isn’t that robots are taking all the jobs,“ Korn Ferry said, „it’s that there aren’t enough humans to take them.“ Simply put, the rapid pace of technological change and automation make it impossible for companies to have the necessary skills. 

In response to this skills chasm, Gartner reported that 60 percent of HR leaders said building critical skills and competencies would be their highest priority in 2022. True to their word, McKinsey found that 69 percent of businesses increased their skill-building investments since 2019. And many of these upskilling investments include learning stipends. Why?

How Learning Stipends Drive Upskilling

Companies use earning stipends to solve their upskilling problem because they’re quick, equitable, and effective. Not only do learning stipends offer a quick solution, but they also remove red tape and provide employees access to the right training at the right time. 

One advantage of learning stipends is that it allows employees to build skills and work concurrently. This is a benefit, according to HR thought leader Josh Bersin. Bersin instructs companies to „make learning part of everyday work,“ which also refers to what he calls „learning in the flow of work.“ This method „recognizes that for learning to really happen, it must fit around and align itself to working days and working lives.“

Companies like Salesforce have found that employees respond well to this on-the-job upskilling. In a Salesforce survey, 80 percent of employees said they retain information better with on-the-job training. „Teaching team members a few critical skills they need right now, then providing opportunities to practice as they go, makes learning feel more manageable and helps people retain information,“ said Heather Conklin, general manager of Trailhead at Salesforce.

Problem #2: The Rise of Generative AI 

The unrelenting pace of technology widens the skills gap further. Before the arrival of Generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the scene, over half of the employees (52%) believed they were “easily replaceable in their jobs.” And employee fears aren’t too far off. Since the new advances in technology like Chat GTP, IBM announced that they could replace 7,800 jobs with AI, and they’re pausing hiring to evaluate which jobs truly need a human. 

Now, in a Generative AI world, a recent study by Checkr found that 74% of American workers “believe their jobs might eventually be replaced by AI tools.” The fear is so real that up to 67% of workers “would spend their own money to learn about AI to keep their job.” 

How Learning Stipends Drive Retention

While 67% of employees are willing to dip into their own pockets for AI upskilling, just imagine the attraction, engagement, and loyalty for a company that provides upskilling. It goes a long way with this generation. Remember, these are the same workers that participated in the Great Reshuffling. 

When a PEW poll asked workers why they quit in 2021, the second most popular reason was companies didn’t provide enough opportunities for advancement.  If upskilling and career development were key a year ago, imagine just how critical they are now in this moment with generative AI. Employees need to know their companies will invest in and support them in navigating and upskilling in this new AI work environment. 

Even before the Great Reshuffling and Chat GTP, many studies supported the strategy of using learning and development to improve retention. A Capterra survey found that 87 percent of businesses say employee learning and development programs are critical to retaining talent. Employees agree. In Gallup’s The American Upskilling Study, 71 percent of workers said learning increased their job satisfaction, and 61 percent said learning opportunities make them want to stay with a company.

What are some additional benefits of using learning stipends?

Retention and skill-building may be one of the most urgent needs your budget addresses, but employee education brings a host of benefits for employees and businesses. Learning stipends will: 

• Boost recruiting opportunities 
• Increase employee engagement
• Support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives 
• Promote career development

Boost Recruiting Opportunities 

Learning stipends not only help with retention but attract recruits too. If today’s employees are willing to quit jobs that don’t offer enough growth opportunities, then it’s at the top of their list when job hunting. In fact, a survey found that 80 percent of job seekers consider an employer’s professional development crucial when accepting a new job. Reaffirming this statistic, Andrew Geant, cofounder of Wyzant, found that „in interviews, potential employees often cite the learning stipend as a top reason they applied.“

Increase Employee Engagement

As you’d expect, a tool that improves recruiting and retention also drives employee engagement. Education platform Udemy found that more than half of high-engagement companies have employees who spend 31–50 hours learning per year. And this learning is positive engagement. A Glint survey found that employees consider opportunities to learn and grow as the number one driver of happiness at work.

Unfortunately, when it comes to learning and development programs, 2.5 – 5% is the average for employee engagement. But if you use prepaid learning stipends, your learning and development team can witness incredible engagement gains. A tech company, Checkr, recently revealed that by switching to prepaid learning stipends, employee engagement rose from 2.5% to 20% in just five months. 

Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The engagement scores go up with prepaid learning stipends because more employees can use them. With the traditional reimbursement model, only employees with the extra money and time can take advantage of learning stipends. Since 6 in 10 Americans don’t have $500 in savings, most employees can’t pay upfront for a $2,000 coding boot camp. 

A reimbursement stipend excludes a lot of your employees from growing and developing, and a Training Industry poll found that 65 percent of Americans believe that providing education benefits to all employees helps promote racial and gender equality in the workplace.

The solution is prepaid learning stipends. Prepaid learning stipends are how companies can give all employees equitable access to upskilling opportunities and career growth.

Open Up Career Development Opportunities 

Speaking of career growth, with record resignations and skills gaps, LinkedIn said 62 percent of L&D leaders are prioritizing internal mobility. Along with retention, a successful learning stipend program can be a lever for leaders to help employees advance their careers.

The tutoring platform Wyzant gives employees unlimited access to its tutors for work-related skills and $2,000 per year to spend as they choose. „We consider learning stipends to be something of a secret weapon,“ admits cofounder Andrew Geant. „In addition to helping with recruitment, they can also make it easier to promote people from within, as current employees use the educational opportunities to uplevel their skills and capabilities.“

How can you set up your employee learning stipends?

There are a few ways to structure and administer employee learning funds, depending on your company’s budget, resources, and needs. Perhaps the most important decision you’ll make setting up your learning stipends is deciding when employees receive their learning and development money. Pay attention: this decision heavily influences engagement and accessibility.

Reimbursement vs. Prepaid Learning Stipends

As mentioned earlier, a traditional reimbursement model requires employees to pay upfront for their learning and development opportunities. Depending on the process, the reimbursement can take days, weeks, or even months. This is where things get rough for your employees.

Say that an employee wants to enroll in a three-month-long coding boot camp. With the reimbursement model, the employee may need to pay $2,000 of their own money to enroll. And depending on the reimbursement process, they may have to wait until they complete the course, three months, to get reimbursed.

If you do want to use the reimbursement method, it works best for supporting light learning and development opportunities. Let’s say an employee just purchases a book for $20 and a one-off course for $80. In this case, reimbursement could possibly work for some of your employees. But to truly be equitable, and to truly fund the boot camps and courses required for deep upskilling, prepaid learning stipends are best.

Manual vs. Platform Administration

Today, there is always an app or a platform out there to make any process easier, and learning stipends are no exception. Today, you can build a learning stipend system manually, using a spreadsheet or project management tool like Monday.com or Asana. 

You can use your existing programs to:

• Create sheets or boards that list learning opportunities 
• Enable employees to use email or tags to request courses and funds
• Enter completion dates and skills learned
• Pay for courses upfront through credit cards or have employees create purchase orders

A manual system can be a valuable option for small organizations or those that want to test adoption before investing in a dedicated platform. That said, a manual solution could be slow and create multiple steps for employees to go through to get a stipend, and low adoption could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Platform Administration

Along with DIY, there are platform administration systems that can help companies with their learning stipends. Depending on the platform, it can help companies administer, implement, support, and track their learning stipends: 

• Issue debit cards
• Allocate time to learn at work
• Set limits on individual employee budgets
• See how much is spent
• Add and remove funds
• Approve program requests, and issue and refill cards
• Track employee progress, and visualize ROI

A dedicated platform can be a valuable option for any organization—especially larger businesses. But no matter the size of the company, a learning stipend platform offers quite a few advantages as far as speed, ease of use, and tracking outcomes.

Covering Anything vs. Work-Related Skills

There are two schools of thought on whether employee education stipends should be limited to company-related skills. Amazon pays for any program, sharing a story of how a warehouse employee became a registered nurse. The argument here is that the benefit attracts more talent than it loses and that learning any new skill boosts overall learning capacity. 

In contrast, Buffer gives employees $800 a year to spend on career-related learning. Employees also get a Kindle with unlimited access to books and audiobooks. Similarly, Slack doles out $500 annually for personal development and $2000 for professional courses. The argument here is that companies should guide employees to develop skills that align with their company’s needs and goals.

Both of these setups have positives and negatives. If you see learning stipends as a fun benefit to fulfill curiosity and exploration, let your employees sign up for that skiing lesson. However, if your company foresees lots of upskilling and talent development needs in the next few years, you may want to align stipends with your company goals.

What are some basic tips to make the most of your employee learning stipends? 

If you especially want stipends to align with company goals, use these six best practices below. These six tips will help you implement an education stipend program that fosters learning and aligns employee growth and business needs.

1. Make financing flexible: look at multiple benefit budgets to see where you could better use funds. 

2. Start small: leverage existing training budgets to offer as little as $50 to $100 per employee per year.

3. Use prepaid learning stipends: tuition reimbursement is a barrier to learning and is rarely used.

4. Target job-ready skills: remember that a learning stipend is a means to an end—the end being upward mobility within the company.

5. Ensure completion and success: design programs to uplevel employees with skills that expand their scope or role, or result in a promotion, raise, or career shift. 

6. Measure outcomes: stipends represent an opportunity to establish a „learning-first“ mentality while ensuring that the workforce is choosing to build skills the business will need in the future.

To learn more tips, download a free copy of 10 Best Practices: Learning Stipends that Deliver Results. 

The Fast Track to Reskilling and Retention

Generative AI and the skills gap threaten to derail small and large businesses alike. Few can afford to fall behind the twin race for talent and skill-building at scale. Learning stipends offers a powerful first step to enable companies to compete and win on both fronts, giving employees the development opportunities they crave while providing businesses with a resilient skills pipeline.

The post Learning Stipends 101: Everything Your Company Needs to Know appeared first on Degreed.