Best Before: Mastering the Half-Life of Skills through Upskilling

Much of the online conversation about the half-life of skills sounds daunting, but with the right approach to skills development, you and your team can leverage an understanding of the shelf-life of skills to ramp up your upskilling initiatives, close the skills gaps in your organization, and make a real impact on the business.

In this article, we define the term half-life of skills, outline how the shelf-life of skills differs in today’s labor market, and offer solutions to help you identify skills that are becoming irrelevant in the context of your organization. 

We also discuss how continuous learning and skills-based training can equip your workforce with the speed and agility needed to adapt to innovation.

What is the half-life of skills?

Coined by Ernest Rutheford, ‘half-life’ is a term first associated with nuclear physics and refers to the time it takes for atomic nuclei to reduce to half their initial value.

When we talk about the half-life of skills, the concept applies to skill retention and the widening of skills gaps. A skill’s half-life is the time it takes to lose half of its value or relevance to an organization or employee’s job.

In today’s tough job market, the rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, especially generative AI, quickly impact skills like data analysis and transcription. 

Continuous software updates also impact the shelf-life of skills, resulting in the need for constant upskilling, while the drive towards digital transformation in many sectors requires the development of new skill sets and competencies. 

Some examples of skills with varying half-lives include:

• Long half-life skills: Communication, leadership, decision-making, creative thinking, and time management.
• Short half-life skills: programming languages, software development, and hardware proficiency.

Is the half-life of skills shrinking?

Forty years ago, a skill’s half-life was at least ten years, but today, the shelf-life has shrunk to about four years—and keeps shrinking. 

While soft skills tend to have longer half-lives, hard skills are starting to have shorter shelf-lives following technological advances such as generative AI. According to IBM, technical skills tend to have shorter half-lives of about 2.5 years. 

The shrinking half-life of skills has significant implications for L&D, employees, and organizations. Upskilling and reskilling employees to maintain and update their skills is critical to closing skills gaps within companies and ensuring employee job security. 

Because the half-life of skills is shrinking, lifelong learning is becoming increasingly essential for career development. Continuous learning is critical to helping employees develop and acquire new skills to address the shrinking half-life of a growing number of skills (more on that in a minute).

At the same time, it’s crucial that L&D becomes the architect of skills in order to close skills gaps and drive business performance and impact.

Four steps to identify skills that are becoming obsolete

We recommend implementing the following four methods to help identify the skills within your organization that are becoming less relevant.

1. Skills gap analysis

Conducting a skills gap analysis is a great way to identify skills with shrinking half-lives within your organization.

Your skills gap analysis will highlight the current skills within your workforce and the skills needed for your employees to grow and your organization to maintain a competitive advantage. The bigger the skills gap, the more likely you have skills with shrinking half-lives. 

Leveraging an AI-powered tool like SkillsGPT will speed up the process by generating a list of the skills required for each job within your organization, including proficiency levels.

2. Monitor industry trends

Staying current on the latest trends specific to your industry will help you stay abreast of skills that are becoming less crucial to your organization. 

Grow your network by subscribing to industry newsletters and engaging in forums like the L&D Collective to stay current on emerging trends and new technologies and their impact on your organization’s skills requirements.

3. Analyze job market data

You can also review job market data to identify the recent trends in job posts and the skills required to be successful in a role. 

For example, skills for roles have changed by 25% since 2015, and it is expected to reach at least 65% by 2030. Keeping up to date on the skills required by the market will help you monitor and target the shrinking skills half-lives within your organization.

4. Leverage a learning platform

Most modern and competitive learning or talent management platforms will include functionality that empowers learners to declare their learning needs.

For example, Skills by 360Learning lets you and your team keep a pulse on the skills within your organization. The Skills dashboard helps you understand and map skills across your organization, making it simple to uncover skills that are becoming less relevant to the context of your organization--and those you should boost your immediate training efforts on.

The benefits of continuous learning

Leveraging collaborative and continuous learning is the best approach to closing skills gaps within your organization to stay ahead of the shrinking half-life of skills.

Continuous learning is the ongoing process of gaining new knowledge and skills throughout an employee’s professional development to remain adaptable and competitive in an environment where rapid change can always be expected. Upskilling and reskilling are key examples of continuous learning and essential for skills development in today’s workplace. 

The benefits of continuous learning are far-ranging, but here are the big ones: 

Employee benefits:

• Increased performance and competency, leading to potential promotion.
• Employees are empowered to continually work toward career development or pivot to a different role.
• Staying current on industry trends and being skilled for future opportunities will help employees remain competitive in a tight labor market.

Organizational benefits:

• Upskilling improves employee retention and reduces those high rehiring costs.
• Continuous learning empowers businesses to stay current with industry trends and maintain a competitive advantage.
• Organizations will boost productivity by allowing employees to improve their skills to enhance job performance continuously.

We recommend leveraging collaborative skills-based learning to implement a continuous learning culture with maximum impact.

How can skills-based learning help enterprises in a changing work landscape?

Skills-based learning or skills training is an approach that provides employees with training that gives them the necessary skills to fulfill the requirements of their roles. 

While traditional corporate training programs usually focus on general job tasks, capabilities, and competencies, skills-based learning targets the specific skills needed for a particular job or task. Leveraging skills training will empower you and your team to impact those short half-life skills within your organization.

Here's how:

• Closing skills gaps: You and your team will be able to close skills gaps to ensure that employees acquire the necessary skills they need today and desire tomorrow.
• Improved employee retention: Investing in upskilling and reskilling shows a commitment to employee development, enhances job satisfaction, and reduces turnover. 94% of employees are more likely to stay at an organization if it invests in their learning and development. 
• Enhanced organizational agility: By ensuring that your organization’s workforce is equipped with the latest skills, your enterprise can quickly respond to market changes and technological advancements.
• Financial savings: Organizations that prioritize skills development experience financial benefits, such as cost savings from reduced turnover and optimized spending on learning and development. 

If you’re considering implementing a skills-based strategy, check out our five-step blueprint for a skills-based learning strategy or get in touch to see Skills by 360Learning in action and how it can help you impact the short half-life skills in your organization.