In a world where technology changes quickly and world events require businesses to be agile, it may not be possible to hire workers with the skills your company needs. After all, you never know what skills you might need in a few years.

Case in point: when Generative AI took the world by storm in 2023, artificial intelligence was suddenly made accessible to workers who never needed to use it before. LinkedIn data shows that learners suddenly became hungry for AI skills, with 4 in 5 learners wanting to learn how to use AI in their jobs.

The sudden need for brand new skills isn’t limited to AI. The pandemic changed the way we work completely. McKinsey’s most recent Future of Work report defines job sectors not by industry, but by how physically close workers must be to co-workers and clients.

How can Learning Development (L&D) help train workers to meet these and other unexpected changes? Embracing a skills-based approach can help L&D leaders upskill employees more effectively, equipping teams with the future-ready skills they need to thrive amid disruption.

What is a skills-based organization?

A skill-based organization places skills, rather than roles, at the heart of their approach to work.

This approach frees the worker from the constraints of their role and allows them to tackle jobs they have the skills to address — even if those jobs might have fallen outside of their previous job description.

It’s an approach that many companies have been looking into since the great role reshuffle of the pandemic; 93% of respondents to a Deloitte survey say that moving away from jobs to a skills-based approach is important to their organizations.

What are the benefits of a skills-based approach to work?

• Workers can be seen as well-rounded people with their own collections of skills, rather than being defined by their role at work
• Embracing a skills-based approach can break down organizational knowledge silos
• By deploying people based on their skills and capabilities, workers can be given tasks that better match their interests, which can improve engagement on the job
• Rather than trying to train or hire for a specific collection of skills, organizations can stay agile by training internally for the skills they need and hiring externally for others

Taking a skills-based approach to L&D

The most important part of a skills-based approach to learning is knowing which skills are most needed by your organization. If you don’t know what skills are necessary, or if your leadership doesn’t agree on the most important skills, it will be difficult to build effective learning.

Conduct a skills audit. What is your team already good at and where are your skill gaps? Use customer satisfaction data, training data, employee surveys, organizational values, and conversations with leadership to inform this process. This might be easier said than done. Your business needs to get clear on its core values in order to identify core skills. However, once you have this information, you can do a better job of building training.

Get choosy about skills

It’s tempting to train too many skills in an attempt to be good at everything. However, you need to pick the skills that matter most to your team. What does your team really need? What will make the biggest difference? It’s better to produce strong training for one skill than weak training for 100 skills.

It’s very important to be realistic about which skills you can train well and the best ways to deliver that training. How many skills do you have the time and budget for? Remember — not every skill your team needs should be covered by your L&D content. Some skills are better addressed through other means, such as coaching or feedback from a manager. Know what works best for the skills you are teaching.

Addressing the skills gap crisis

The skills gap crisis isn’t a new problem — it has been an issue for several years.

As early as 2017, reports suggested that the half-life of a general workplace skill is five years. More recently, IBM reported that the half-life of a technical skill is three years. This has posed a problem for organizations that need to skill up workers quickly.

The answer seemed to lie in reskilling and upskilling initiatives, especially after the pandemic when so many roles were redefined. However, while upskilling is still a big priority for organizations, many of the reskilling initiatives that were started in the last few years aren’t going so well.

LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning report found that most large-scale reskilling and upskilling initiatives started since the pandemic are still languishing in the planning and activation stages. The problem? These initiatives are large one-size-fits-all programs that aim to reskill hundreds or thousands of employees at once. A more dynamic and personalized approach, suggests the report, might be more effective.

Skills-based training could be the approach you need to quickly and nimbly close the skill gap in your organization.