A Guide to Employee Skill Development & Building a Winning Plan

Modern organizations know the value of highly-skilled talent. They also know that employee skills are like growth in general: if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.

You need a plan to ensure that team members not only excel in their roles today, but are well prepared for what’s coming next.

An effective employee skill development program goes beyond a few training sessions. It requires a thoughtful, well-designed plan that aligns with both organizational goals and individual growth.

This guide explores why employee skills matter so much, the kinds of skills you should invest in, and how to build the ideal plan. Then we’ll see the huge impact that modern technology can have, to make all of this easier and more effective.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining an existing approach, you need to turn intent into action and design programs that truly make a difference.

Why employee skill development matters

Every industry goes through changes. And today, the rate of technological change feels like it’s increasing faster than most businesses can keep up with.

To remain competitive, efficient and profitable, you must keep on top of these changes and use them to your advantage. 

The benefits of a skills-based employee development approach are significant:

• Employees are more engaged and perform at a higher level. 93% of CEOs credit upskilling programs with increased productivity.
• Employee retention goes way up. A skills-based approach to learning has been shown to make companies 98% more likely to retain top staff.
• Staff become more employable for future roles, which can do wonders for your reputation as an employer. This in turn makes it easier to hire new talent. 
• The organization becomes more adaptable, which is where this whole article started. Gartner has found that 58% of employees will need new skills just to keep performing in their current positions 
• You have a common understanding of the ideas and skills the company values. This helps align team members, and is also hugely valuable in the onboarding process.

Employee training and development programs are almost always a good idea. And a particular focus on skilling makes sense for the vast majority of businesses.

Kinds of skills to develop

Many people think of workplace skills as strictly the techniques employees use to execute their core roles. How to drive a forklift, write a line of code, or make an omelet.

But there are a range of skills to be aware of, all of which may require development:

• Technical skills: Also known as “hard skills,” these are the specialized knowledge and abilities people need to perform their specific roles.
• Soft skills: These include concepts like emotional intelligence, negotiation, problem solving, and communication skills. While they can be harder to define and measure than technical skills, they’re no less important.
• Transferable skills: Transferable skills can include both hard and soft skills, and are the kinds of competencies that people can take from one job to the next. Developing these is great for career development, as they make workers more employable in future roles.
• Proprietary skills: These are pieces of knowledge unique to your business which employees need to succeed.

Why invest to develop employee skills?

The business landscape changes constantly. The skill sets you needed even two years ago will have changed substantially by today. That’s why upskilling and reskilling are so important to sustainable business.

Key catalysts to develop internal skills include:

• Technological advances and the appearance of new software or tools in your industry
• Regulatory and compliance changes at an industry, national, or international level
• Evolving customer expectations and ways of doing business 
• Cultural shifts and increasing emphasis on sensitivity and DEI training, as well as hybrid work environments and changing professional standards.

These factors can have a direct impact on your profitability and sustainability. If you lack the skills required to deliver as the environment evolves, you’re unlikely to succeed for long. 

How to create an employee skills development plan

Here are eight important steps or factors to consider when building your skills development program.

1. Identify the essential skills for your business

While it’s tempting to try and build a comprehensive list of every possible relevant skill, start with the business-critical ones first. Based on your current range of roles and the company’s growth plans, which skills are most important?

Write down each skill, aligned to the roles that need to possess it. Include the level of attainment required in each role and at each level.

This process is called skills mapping, sometimes also known as training needs analysis. The goal is to have a clear ontology of the skills your organization needs, whether or not you currently have them.

Learn more about mapping skills for your organization.

2. Analyze market trends and emerging skills

As part of building your skills ontology, consider what’s being prioritized around the wider industry. You both want to meet your current needs and future-proof your business against what’s coming next.

This involves carefully observing sectoral developments, technological innovations and changes in consumer behavior, while keeping an eye on what your direct and indirect competitors are offering. Data may also be helpful here. Look for skills benchmarks, individual performance analyzes and wider sectoral data to assess existing and future gaps.

At the same time, look for emerging skills, whether relational or technical, which will become essential in the future. Using AI tools and writing effective prompts are current examples.

3. Assess current competencies & skills gaps

Once you know what you’d like to have, it’s time to evaluate your current position. What level of attainment does the business actually possess today?

Doing this assessment can be tricky and time consuming, but it’s also critical to identify skills gaps and build a successful development strategy. Assessments will include surveys for both employees and their managers, asking each to rank the level of attainment they think they and their teams have.

It’s obviously a somewhat subjective exercise, and needs to be done sensitively. The goal isn’t to pinpoint individuals who are behind the curve, but rather to find your biggest liabilities at the company level.

From here, you should have a fairly clear idea of your biggest skills training needs.

4. Create employee-specific training plans

Learning and development should always be customized to the individual. At the very least, programs should reflect an employee’s role, their seniority, and their current skills gaps. A new employee needs product and company culture 101, while a seasoned veteran may focus on leadership skills or prepare themselves for a coming job rotation.

Of course, this creates work for L&D teams. But your training programs don’t need to be written one by one to be tailored to the individual.

Simply ensure that learners can select the right development opportunities for them based on their role and needs. Modular courses are ideal, with a mix of mandatory courses and self-service learning opportunities.

And an obvious but crucial note: talk to employees. Ask them which skills they most want to develop, both to excel in their role and for future career success.

Transparent communication and employee engagement help minimize resistance to change. Involving employees in defining their development paths increases motivation, and also creates loyalty to the strong business you’re building.

5. Cater to diverse learning styles

A one-size-fits-all program is a great way to ensure that employees don’t develop new skills. Everybody learns differently, and your plan should factor this in.

A great skills program will include:

• A mix of delivery methods: online training, in-person sessions, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and gamification to keep people interested.
• Collaborative aspects: let employees learn from one another and share their results. And a little friendly competition also helps.
• Simulations and role play: some people learn best by doing. Give your learners the chance to test their skills in a supportive, pressure-free environment.
• Regular catch ups: because not everyone retains every lesson, it’s best to follow up regularly. But always in small chunks, so it never feels like a burden.

A little diversity in how and when training is delivered is important. The last thing you want is boring, tedious training sessions.

6. Lean on great tools

Delivering learning programs at scale is hard work, and can be time consuming. But modern tooling is taking much of the burden away from L&D teams. Learning management systems (LMS) can now automate everything from course creation, to calendar reminders and polite nudges, to insights and analysis.

These tools provide your employees with flexible and personalized training, allowing everyone to develop the skills that interest them at their own pace.

Without a great LMS platform to rely on, you simply can’t hope to deliver this level of customized, employee-specific learning. But with one of these tools at your side, you can quickly build world-class training programs your teams will love.

7. Encourage self-learning and personal development

In addition to traditional training programs, encouraging self-learning lets employees take control of their own progress. Not everyone is motivated to do so, but you absolutely want to encourage and reward the ones who are.

This could include:

• Digital content libraries accessible whenever they need
• Mentorship programs that bring in outside experts or experienced team members (other than their managers)
• One-on-one coaching sessions for those with specific development goals
• Certifications and professional development initiatives that aren’t strictly required in their roles
• Presentations and knowledge sharing from top talent within the company to help upskill their peers

Ensure that managers acknowledge employees who show commitment to personal and professional development, and make it a core value for the company.

8. Collect feedback and adapt

Regular feedback from employees via interviews or satisfaction surveys is key to collaboration and adaptation. This feedback makes it possible to adjust skills development plans according to the real needs of employees.

A collaborative approach promotes more flexible skills management aligned with individual aspirations, and will help you achieve your goals more quickly.

The only real way to make an employee development plan stick is to have employees themselves enjoy and grow with it. So make sure they feel involved, and adjust the plan based on their input.

How technology enhances skill development

Managing and developing skills is difficult, especially as you grow and welcome a wide range of roles and experience levels. The good news is that innovative technological tools can help you integrate the training and upskilling of employees, and monitor their development.

Automate as much as possible

The integration of digital tools and online learning platforms greatly simplifies employees’ access to training. These tools centralize skills management and connect to other core business tools like Zoom, Salesforce, Google Drive, and more.

You can largely automate the management of development plans, create new courses in minutes, and send surveys to obtain relevant feedback from learners asynchronously.

Go further with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful ally in skills management and training, and is now a core feature of top LMS tools like 360Learning. AI-powered platforms let you create ultra-relevant training courses that meet learners’ needs, quickly format your training materials, send surveys, and even record videos.

Most critically, AI makes the slow, repetitive tasks most L&D pros have to endure into virtually instant. So you can save valuable time and focus on the most strategic parts of the role.

Dynamically monitor training programs’ effectiveness

Tracking completion rates, performance, and satisfaction with training programs is also tricky. But while time consuming, you must measure skills progression, employee engagement and return on investment. This regular monitoring provides concrete data to adjust programs based on identified needs.

Luckily, good tools take away the vast bulk of the effort. The best learning and development tools track KPIs for you, monitor skill attainment at the individual and team level, and solicit feedback from employees without you asking.

Program analysis can often feel technical and complex, but it really doesn’t need to be.

Get the tools you need for effective employee development

If you take away just two sentences from this article, make them these:

1. Employee skill development is a key differentiator and competitive advantage in modern business.
2. We have the tools to make this work more impactful and efficient, and to let development programs really fly.

Understanding change triggers, anticipating future needs, creating a culture of continuous learning, integrating technology, and collaborating with employees are all important. And that’s a lot to manage, even for a talented, experienced L&D team.

So don’t go it alone. At 360Learning, we offer an innovative, efficient, and easy-to-use solution to help each employee improve their professional skills. To find out more or get a personalized demonstration, contact us.