Para esclarecer estas dudas y agilizar la adquisición de habilidades, los directores de las áreas de Aprendizaje y Desarrollo y RR. HH. se deben centrar en tres factores:

1. definir con claridad lo que se espera de cada rol; 
2. comunicar esas expectativas; y
3. facilitarles a los empleados la información adecuada para que subsanen sus deficiencias.

Gracias a la nueva funcionalidad de Degreed, puedes lograr todo esto y ayudar a tus empleados a adquirir las habilidades necesarias para que desempeñen su rol de la mejor manera posible. 

Qué pueden hacer los empleados para adquirir habilidades de forma más eficiente partiendo de lo que se espera en cada rol

Tomemos por ejemplo a Cintia, una ingeniera de software ficticia. Cintia se acaba de incorporar a Acme, Inc. En su empresa anterior ocupaba un rol similar, pero le gustaría saber qué se espera en Acme. 

Cuando Cintia inicia sesión en Degreed, en su perfil se incluyen automáticamente las habilidades que prioriza Acme en su rol, además del nivel de dominio esperado de cada una. También hay una descripción de cada habilidad y nivel de dominio para que ella pueda saber qué comportamientos debe exhibir si se propone llegar al nivel buscado. Cintia puede usar esta información y recurrir a Skill Review Coach de Maestro para reconocer su nivel de dominio actual e indicarlo en su perfil. 

Partiendo de esta base, puede adaptar su desarrollo profesional según las deficiencias que deba subsanar. Degreed simplifica este proceso, ya que plantea un plan de habilidades dinámico que selecciona contenidos específicos de forma automática en función de lo que debe priorizar Cintia. El plan se adapta especialmente a su nivel de dominio actual y presenta contenidos que le permitirán avanzar al siguiente.  

Además, cuando busque materiales complementarios, ya no perderá tiempo descartando contenidos que son demasiado básicos o avanzados para ella. En lugar de eso, encontrará con rapidez los que se adecúen a su nivel de dominio específico y a la etapa del proceso de desarrollo profesional en la que se encuentre. 

Gracias a todo esto, ahora Cintia sabe qué habilidades debe tener, qué aspectos debe mejorar y qué materiales la ayudarán a desarrollar las competencias más importantes. Esta certeza y el acceso a los materiales de desarrollo profesional correctos le permitirán adquirir habilidades más rápido y comprometerse más con el proceso de aprendizaje. 

Qué pueden hacer los administradores para automatizar este proceso a gran escala

Antes, personalizar las experiencias de aprendizaje era un trabajo manual que llevaba demasiado tiempo como para implementarlo a gran escala. Hoy, la IA se ocupa de las tareas manuales para que los directores de las áreas de Aprendizaje y Desarrollo y RR. HH. puedan dedicarse a cuestiones más estratégicas, como definir qué habilidades deben tener los empleados en cada rol para adecuarse a los objetivos de la empresa.

En Degreed Learning, los administradores pueden cargar una lista de los roles de su empresa, las habilidades asociadas a ellos y cuál es el nivel de dominio buscado de cada una. También pueden definir las habilidades prioritarias que quieren que aparezcan en el perfil de los empleados para que ellos adapten su desarrollo profesional.

En Habilidades+ de Degreed, los administradores aprovechan la IA para potenciar la correlación entre las habilidades y los roles. Por ejemplo, la IA genera la descripción correspondiente al nivel de dominio de cada habilidad y, en cada nivel, aclara con exactitud lo que los empleados deben poder hacer para dominar ese grado de competencia. Esa información orienta a los trabajadores cuando evalúan sus habilidades y les permite seleccionar el nivel de dominio correcto según la definición de la empresa. 

Los administradores también pueden usar la IA para asignar automáticamente una etiqueta de nivel de dominio a los contenidos de su catálogo. Además, pueden revisar las etiquetas aplicadas y aprobarlas. De esa manera, es más fácil encontrar el contenido adecuado según el nivel de habilidad de cada empleado.

Por qué correlacionar roles con habilidades y asignar etiquetas resulta beneficioso para las empresas

Gracias a toda esta eficiencia administrativa y las experiencias personalizadas, es posible contar con soluciones sólidas y aplicables a gran escala, lo cual resulta verdaderamente útil para las empresas. Estos son los principales casos de uso con más beneficios inmediatos:

• Gestión estratégica de contenidos: Se pueden detectar las fallas y eliminar los materiales redundantes o que perdieron vigencia.
• Onboarding: A los recién contratados se les pueden asignar de manera automática contenidos adaptados a su nivel específico de dominio de las habilidades exigidas, con lo cual se acelera su preparación.
• Búsqueda y detección: Los resultados de las búsquedas se pueden personalizar según las necesidades y el nivel de habilidad de cada empleado.
• Trayectoria profesional y movilidad interna: Se pueden establecer con claridad las habilidades necesarias para ascender en la jerarquía de la empresa o pasar de un departamento a otro, lo cual es muy útil tanto para los empleados como para las compañías. 

Usa la IA para fomentar el desarrollo profesional de los empleados

La IA promete mejorar las experiencias de aprendizaje y reducir la carga de trabajo de los administradores. Con Habilidades+ de Degreed, esa promesa ya es una realidad. 

Gracias a nuestro proceso para correlacionar los roles y las habilidades, los planes dinámicos y las etiquetas de dominio automáticas para los contenidos, ahora las empresas pueden ofrecer oportunidades de desarrollo profesional personalizadas y trascendentes a gran escala, sin sumar esfuerzo. Como lo que se espera de cada rol se entiende con más claridad y hay un seguimiento, las empresas pueden dinamizar la adquisición de habilidades para adaptarse mejor al ritmo de los cambios.

*El lanzamiento general de la funcionalidad mencionada en este blog está programado para abril de 2026.

The post Define expectativas claras para potenciar las habilidades appeared first on Degreed.

Degreed Maestro se pensó específicamente para subsanar esta deficiencia, ya que ofrece experiencias de aprendizaje inteligentes, personalizadas y flexibles que transforman el potencial de la IA generativa en más productividad, innovación y ventajas competitivas. En otras palabras, es una IA con la que puedes adquirir habilidades para la IA.

Te explicamos cómo:

Maestro mantiene su precisión a gran escala.

• Genera de forma automática itinerarios de aprendizaje personalizados que se adecúan a los roles, las habilidades y las necesidades de las empresas.
• Permite aprovechar las oportunidades que surgen para abordar los objetivos de aprendizaje en materia de IA generativa, lo cual es de gran ayuda para quienes ocupan roles como entrenador de IA, ingeniero de instrucciones para IA y analista.

Maestro ofrece sesiones de coaching personalizadas para ganar confianza.

• Propone consignas de coaching potenciadas por IA y simulaciones en función de los roles para afianzar el dominio de la IA generativa.
• Refuerza la confianza con intervenciones contextuales y comentarios constructivos, la clave para lograr cambios sostenibles en la conducta.

Maestro permite aprender mientras se trabaja.

• Coordina oportunidades de aprendizaje en función de las acciones, el rol y las preferencias de cada usuario.
• Promueve hábitos de aprendizaje constante, ya que hace recomendaciones y envía recordatorios durante las tareas cotidianas.

Maestro tiene efectos cuantificables en las habilidades y los resultados de las empresas.

• Hace un seguimiento de cómo se fortalece la confianza, cómo aumenta el dominio de las habilidades y cuáles son las conductas ante el aprendizaje a lo largo del tiempo.
• Se integra a Habilidades+ de Degreed para presentar análisis en tiempo real y correlacionar el aprendizaje de la IA generativa con la estrategia empresarial.

Resultados estratégicos

• Todo el personal logra dominar la IA generativa con más rapidez.
• Aumenta el compromiso, la retención y la movilidad interna.
• El uso de la IA generativa da resultados en menos tiempo.
• Las inversiones en programas de aprendizaje se adecúan a los objetivos de transformación del personal y las métricas de desempeño de las empresas.

Tus planes para el futuro

Veamos cómo tu empresa puede plantear estrategias de aprendizaje de IA generativa para innovar más rápido, operar con más inteligencia y lograr resultados más duraderos.

Programa una llamada personalizada con un experto de Degreed hoy mismo.

The post IA para aprender a usar la IA: cómo Degreed Maestro acelera el dominio de la IA generativa appeared first on Degreed.

¿Qué sucede cuando una de las instituciones financieras más respetadas del mundo decide que llegó el momento de reformular su estrategia para desarrollar habilidades?

En State Street, la respuesta era evidente: había que agilizar al personal y facilitar la movilidad interna sentando una base para toda la empresa a partir de sus datos y con el apoyo de los ejecutivos, e integrar esa base en la estrategia empresarial anual y los planes de acción del equipo de Talentos.

Como posee más de 50 000 empleados a nivel internacional, y el 11 % de los bienes financieros del mundo pasan por sus sistemas a diario, State Street necesitaba un método más estratégico para abordar el desarrollo de habilidades, uno que se mantuviera a la par de las exigencias cambiantes de las empresas y que estuviera a la altura de las expectativas de los empleados.

“Los ejecutivos se acercaron y nos comentaron: ‘No tenemos manera de saber qué habilidades tienen los empleados ni cuáles faltan, en qué áreas se necesita upskilling y en cuáles hay que hacer reeskilling’”, relató Laura Sullivan, vicepresidenta del equipo de Desarrollo de Talentos.

Esa dificultad fue la que dio pie al lanzamiento de SkillsFIRST. Más que una iniciativa de RR. HH., es un mecanismo esencial que pone de relieve la importancia de las habilidades para el desempeño, la retención del personal y el crecimiento profesional. Por un lado, esta iniciativa posibilitada por Degreed e integrada en Workday ayuda a los altos mandos a adecuar la oferta de talentos a las necesidades más básicas de la empresa. Por el otro, les da a los empleados la posibilidad de hacerse cargo de cómo adquieren habilidades.

De una noción limitada a un panorama integral de las capacidades

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.

En lugar de comprar licencias de costosos programas para hacer inferencias, State Street usó Degreed y Workday para crear su propia biblioteca de habilidades personalizada combinando normas del sector y los conocimientos especializados de sus propios expertos. Con los aportes de expertos en la materia, los equipos de Aprendizaje definieron siete habilidades centrales para cada rol y prepararon planes de roles especiales en Degreed.

Cómo funciona la integración de Degreed y Workday en State Street

En State Street, la integración entre Degreed y Workday es la columna vertebral de la estrategia de la empresa para priorizar las habilidades, ya que relaciona el desarrollo profesional de los empleados con el plan estratégico del área de Talentos.

El proceso comienza en Degreed, donde los empleados buscan contenido de aprendizaje gestionado y recurren a los planes de roles personalizados. Posteriormente, se les recomienda que evalúen su nivel de competencia con la escala de ocho puntos de Degreed y que, a partir de eso, entablen conversaciones estructuradas sobre su desarrollo profesional con los líderes solicitándoles que les den su opinión sobre las calificaciones.

En última instancia, las habilidades se trasladan a Workday, de modo que se puedan aprovechar para tareas esenciales de RR. HH., como correlacionarlas con puestos vacantes, hacer recomendaciones internas y planificar el personal de manera estratégica, siempre en función de los datos actualizados de Degreed, que prueban la competencia necesaria.

Con esta integración, el desarrollo profesional deja de ser un mero anhelo y se convierte en un aspecto operativo y cuantificable que guarda una estrecha relación con los resultados empresariales.

Efectos estratégicos que se multiplican a gran escala

En apenas el primer año de implementación, State Street obtuvo importantes resultados:

• Se ahorraron millones de dólares al evitar la compra de costosas herramientas externas de inferencia de habilidades y gestión del mercado de talentos.
• El 50 % de los empleados se sumó a SkillsFIRST.
• Hubo 1200 ascensos internos más en seis meses.
• Se registró un aumento del 11 % en las puntuaciones de compromiso de los empleados a causa del desarrollo profesional.
• El 34 % de las contrataciones internas se consiguió gracias a datos de SkillsFIRST, por lo que se evitaron los gastos inherentes a las contrataciones externas.
• Se hicieron más de 21 000 calificaciones de habilidades por mes, lo cual permitió formar perspectivas completas sobre los talentos, y eso contribuye a la planificación y al aprendizaje.

Estos resultados dan cuenta de algo más que un simple cambio de tecnología: señalan un compromiso de toda la empresa con la transparencia, el crecimiento y la movilidad.

Principales enseñanzas para los directores del equipo de Talentos

Para los directores de las áreas de RR. HH., Talentos y Aprendizaje y Desarrollo que quieren empezar a trabajar con las habilidades, el proceso de State Street demuestra la eficacia de varias estrategias:

• Comenzar con objetivos empresariales claros, no solo funcionalidades del sistema.
• Acordar un vocabulario común mediante una biblioteca unificada de habilidades y planes de roles.
• Integrar las plataformas para convertir los datos sobre habilidades en información sobre el personal.
• Darles a los empleados la posibilidad de participar en el proceso y aprovechar sus beneficios.

Al transformar las habilidades en el elemento que subyace al desempeño, a la planificación y al desarrollo profesional, State Street reinventó el modo en que una compleja empresa multinacional puede explotar su potencial y estar siempre preparada para el futuro.

Sigue aprendiendo.

La iniciativa SkillsFIRST no solo transformó el aprendizaje en State Street, sino que aumentó la retención del personal, mejoró la participación, facilitó la movilidad interna y permitió recortar gastos concretos.

Descubre cómo un método similar podría acelerar los resultados en tu empresa. Hablemos.

The post Desarrollo de habilidades a gran escala: en qué se diferencia el método de State Street appeared first on Degreed.

Supongamos que tu equipo de Productos dedica un año entero a crear una plataforma. Tras investigar exhaustivamente, encuentra una solución que permite resolver problemas fundamentales del mercado. Imaginemos que tu equipo de Marketing planifica una campaña creativa para el lanzamiento con mensajes convincentes, campañas por correo electrónico, anuncios digitales y publicaciones en las redes sociales. Se formula una estrategia de comercialización persuasiva mediante la cual se designan las cuentas clave y se definen con claridad los arquetipos de clientes.

Cuando llega el día del lanzamiento, es hora de descorchar el champán, ¿no?

No te apures. ¿El equipo de Ventas recibió capacitación estratégica? ¿Tus vendedores saben menos sobre el producto que tus posibles clientes?

Si quieres que el lanzamiento sea todo un éxito, el equipo de Ventas debe conocer bien el producto y practicar su discurso promocional. Necesita respuestas rápidas a preguntas decisivas sobre cómo funciona el producto y para qué sirve. Debe plantear qué aporta teniendo en cuenta las necesidades particulares de los clientes.

Además, debe poder aprender todo esto de una manera rápida y flexible que se adapte a su ajetreada agenda.

Coaches personalizados para las necesidades de tu empresa

Si bien los coaches de IA listos para usar son muy eficaces, las opciones de personalización que ofrece Degreed Maestro multiplican su utilidad.

Con Maestro, puedes adaptar los coaches de IA de modo que reflejen las prioridades, el contenido, las pautas y la filosofía de tu empresa, así como la voz de tu marca. Gracias a este contexto, los coaches pueden hablar con propiedad, transmitir los mensajes que correspondan según la situación y ofrecer oportunidades de aprendizaje sumamente productivas. 

Por eso, con Maestro puedes ampliar a gran escala actividades que antes eran más complicadas porque dependían de personas; por ejemplo, las valoraciones del desempeño personal o el coaching para ventas. Los casos de uso son numerosos, pero centrémonos en un solo ejemplo: la creación de un coach personalizado que capacita a un equipo de ventas para lanzar un producto nuevo.

Maestro en acción: creación de un coach de capacitación estratégica para ventas

En nuestra publicación anterior del blog, Mark usaba el coach de revisión de habilidades de Degreed Maestro mientras participaba en el onboarding para ocupar el puesto de director de Ventas. Su objetivo era descubrir sus brechas de habilidades y armar un itinerario de aprendizaje personalizado para subsanarlas. 

Ahora, el empleador de Mark recurre a Maestro para crear un coach personalizado que lo prepare a él y al resto del equipo de Ventas para la acción.

Y seamos sinceros: lanzar un producto es un caos. Las opiniones importantes llegan tarde. Las estrategias cambian. Se agregan funciones a último momento. Los mensajes se modifican por completo. El equipo de Ventas necesita los materiales promocionales para ayer. 

Ahora imagina que este lanzamiento no es como cualquier otro.

El equipo ejecutivo considera que este producto es un factor diferenciador clave para la empresa. Todo el mundo debe extremar las precauciones al gestionar qué información tiene cada persona y en qué momento.

Es evidente que esta situación (cuando la estrategia cambia constantemente y solo se puede comunicar a determinados empleados) es un verdadero dilema a la hora de capacitar a un equipo. Todo esto siempre ha derivado en un alto grado de estrés y en capacitaciones que no surten efecto. Pero crear un coach personalizado con Maestro* es tan simple y sus resultados son tan eficaces que el esfuerzo es muchísimo menor. No te preocupes por coordinar, por ejemplo, los horarios de todos para organizar una serie de webinars internos. Toda la información fundamental que necesita el equipo de Ventas se puede cargar en el coach en cualquier momento, incluso el mismo día del lanzamiento.

Además, gracias a que los coaches de Degreed Maestro se pueden personalizar, los empleados reciben la capacitación estratégica que necesitan en el momento preciso. 

Supongamos que un director de Ventas quiere practicar un discurso promocional adaptado a un cliente en particular antes de una reunión importante. El coach le puede hacer comentarios útiles de forma instantánea en función de los materiales cargados.

Ahora, imaginemos que un vicepresidente regional quiere saber cómo es el perfil del cliente ideal del producto para determinar cuáles serán las cuentas destinatarias y pronosticar oportunidades. Lo único que tiene que hacer es escribir la pregunta y esperar la respuesta.

Por último, pongamos el ejemplo de un integrante del equipo de Ventas que necesita una respuesta rápida para una pregunta típica, pero el líder de Productos tiene reuniones todo el día. Ahora puede consultar a Maestro.

Se terminaron las épocas de crear programas de capacitación estratégica a las prisas con información que, al final, pierde vigencia enseguida. Ya no se arruinan más los planes por cambios a último momento. No hay que apagar más incendios.

Y puedes tomarte el tiempo de hacer pequeños ajustes en tu presentación de diapositivas justo antes del lanzamiento.

Maestro se encarga de todo.

Coaching para la capacitación estratégica en ventas desde el punto de vista del equipo de Ventas

Ya vimos cómo el equipo de Capacitación Estratégica creó un coach personalizado, pero ¿qué opinan los integrantes del equipo de Ventas? ¿Qué les pareció y cómo lo usaron?

Observemos cómo Mark usa el coach para cerrar una negociación. 

Cuando el equipo de Capacitación Estratégica hizo una demostración del coach, Mark quedó sorprendido por su capacidad para responder preguntas que habitualmente le tendría que enviar al líder de Productos responsable de la solución. Tenía muchas ganas de probarlo. 

Como el coach se integró en un itinerario sobre el nuevo producto, para Mark es fácil consultarlo en el transcurso del programa de aprendizaje. 

Mark inicia una conversación con el coach para despejar dudas básicas que tiene sobre el producto y recibe consejos importantes para adaptar su discurso de ventas. 

Tres días después, Mark se encuentra con un cliente en una exposición comercial. Esta persona leyó un comunicado de prensa sobre el producto nuevo y se quiere reunir más tarde para hablar del tema. Hay mucho ruido en la exposición, así que Mark inicia una conversación de texto con el coach personalizado. Rápidamente, recibe consejos para adaptar su discurso de ventas a las necesidades de ese cliente en particular. Hasta tiene tiempo de practicar el discurso, y el coach le hace críticas constructivas para implementar algunas mejoras importantes.

Cuando llega el momento de la reunión, Mark pone en práctica los consejos de Maestro, y el cliente queda más interesado todavía. Programan una llamada de seguimiento con el resto del equipo del cliente, y así se concreta la primera venta del producto.

El potencial del coaching personalizado a gran escala

A Mark el coach personalizado le resultó vital. Lo ayudó con cuestiones específicas que necesitaba para vender el producto nuevo. Pero el coach personalizado no solo lo ayudó a él, sino a todo el equipo de Ventas.

Al ampliar la asistencia personalizada y adaptarla al nuevo producto exclusivo, los objetivos y las necesidades de la empresa, Maestro realizó el upskilling de todo el personal de Ventas y le dio lo que le hacía falta para contribuir al crecimiento comercial. 

El lanzamiento fue todo un éxito. Ahora sí, ¡a descorchar ese champán!

Obtén más información.

Programa una llamada personalizada con nosotros hoy mismo.

*El coach personalizado de Degreed Maestro se encuentra en desarrollo.

The post Degreed Maestro: coaching impulsado por IA para la capacitación estratégica en ventas de nuevos productos 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.