The 3 most effective up- and reskilling methods

The business environment is shifting daily. With so many new skills, demands, and customer expectations, do you feel confident in your workforce’s ability to deliver?

Employees are expected to adapt faster while organizations have to stay agile, and you can’t oversee everything. Supporting your workforce so that they can accomplish more within their roles in a scalable way is essential to tackling this challenge – but how can you achieve this?

Let’s look at a few different approaches to upskill your workforce, which can help you get things moving.

The 70/20/10 Model

Employers want to find methods that teach employees new skills and help them retain them for the long term. While traditional teaching models focus on theoretical aspects of learning, only practical application guided by experienced peers has proven to be effective for long-term development.

This is what the 70/20/10 model is all about. It focuses on practical elements of learning to help facilitate long-term growth.

What is it?

The 70/20/10 learning and development model is a well-known model in the training industry for describing the best mix of sources of learning for successful organizations. The method describes gaining 70% of knowledge through work-related experiences (on-the-job), 20% from interactions with others (mentoring), and 10% from formal educational activities (learning courses and content). As an individual, this means that you need to invest 70% of your time in work-related tasks in order to learn a specific skill; 20% by learning from others and just 10% by attending classes or watching tutorial videos to have a comprehensive understanding of a particular skill or aptitude.

The model is most useful as a general guideline for companies looking to improve the effectiveness of their learning and development programs by including additional activities and inputs. Organizations across the world continue to use the concept to significant effect.

Using the 70/20/10 model, you can tailor learning to your company’s needs to improve internal knowledge, methodologies, and skillsets. Three of the best ways to use this model include introducing job rotation, job enlargement, and mentoring to your company.

Let’s take a closer look at each and how you can introduce the 70% and 20% learning experience to your workforce.

What is job rotation?

Job rotation is the practice of moving employees through different jobs in the organization to transfer specific skills, knowledge, and competencies. It fits into the practical element of the 70/20/10 model, fostering on-the-job experience for workers.

How it benefits your company

By exposing employees to new skills and experiences, you gradually prepare them for taking on those responsibilities themselves and help them understand how the role fits into the organization. This ultimately enables you to upskill workers for more responsibility and more advanced skills.

How to implement it

If you want to introduce job rotation to your organization, you should set up a regularly scheduled roster of employees who will shadow each other and rotate responsibilities under guidance. However, while this can provide a unique perspective for participants, it can be pretty disruptive for your organization. Thus, you should make ample preparation for this potential.

What is job enlargement?

The process involves giving more responsibility and activities to employees. Unlike job rotation, enlargement adds more duties and tasks to current positions rather than assigning employees entirely new roles.

How it benefits your company

Job enlargement teaches people variety and helps develop skills outside the scope of their roles. It helps break out of comfort zones and gradually expands employee skills when they’re ready. This essentially allows you to get more productivity out of employees and helps them gain valuable experience, gradually.

How to implement it

In most cases employees are invited to join or manage new projects. Job enlargement can also involve adding new tools or technologies to a process that employees have to become adept at. Another effective way of implementing job enlargement is by giving employees the chance to lead teams or manage small tasks outside their scope.

What is mentoring?

Mentorship involves assigning employees to more senior members for learning and education. Employees shadow their mentors and can approach them should they need help or guidance. In terms of the 70/20/10 model, mentorship combines on the job experience (70%) with interaction (20%), making it one of the most effective approaches for employee development.

How it benefits your company

Mentorship allows you to guide employee development and encourage specific traits and skills. Unlike job rotation and enlargement, mentorship offers additional safety to employees, as there is always a more senior member on standby to assist.

How to implement it

Start by identifying individuals who want to learn specific skills, have an aptitude for critical skills, and other employees who already possess those skills. This will enable you to make a pool of mentors and mentees. From there, you can assign mentorships based on the skills you want to develop and the employees you want to upskill. Be sure to notify each participant and encourage their buy-in for maximum effectiveness.

Give your employees the attention they deserve

Reskilling or upskilling your employees takes time and effort, and the best results often come from the most personalized approaches. However, large companies can’t spend the time and money to up- and reskill all of their employees individually. Without a way to personalize learning and development, up- and reskilling could backfire, wasting time and resources.

However, Learning Pool gives you a way to automatically provide personalized training and development to employees through the 70/20/10 model. With individualized learning recommendations and development plans, you can reskill and upskill individuals effectively and quickly through mentorship, job rotation, or job enlargement at your convenience. Employees are gradually trained through internal and external educational sources, which are recommended to them at precisely the right time in their development. This helps them adapt and overcome training challenges faster than unfacilitated methods.

Contact us today if you’re ready to give your organization the skills it needs. We’ll outline how we can help and the steps you can take for your company’s future.