10 Benefits of Skill-Based Learning

Skill-based personnel development is currently a hot topic. Never been Upskilling and Reskilling as urgent as they are today, and they are continuing to increase. Significant changes in the global economy and rapid changes in technology and ways of working have affected every aspect of our personal and business lives. L&D teams around the world are challenged to do more with less and find new ways to fill the skills gaps that exist in almost every industry.

Traditional vs. Skill-Based Learning: What's the Difference?

One approach is to move away from traditional (“one-size-fits-all”) learning models towards individualized, skill-oriented learning models. Traditional learning models have been on the market for a long time and, like all old things, they no longer meet the requirements of the new working world. The downside of traditional models is that they don't give learners any clues as to what skills they need. They lack clarity as to where the skills gaps and development opportunities lie. They also don't take a strategic approach to learning, which results in low-quality learning outcomes.

In contrast, skill-based learning models focus on the specific skills required for current and future optimal performance and help learners acquire the skills they need to fill their skill gaps. This approach is more personalized and leads to better learning outcomes. It focuses on planning, implementing and evaluating the skills acquired in various ways.

From our experience, we know that it can be difficult to convince stakeholders of the need for change. Skill-based approaches are often perceived as complex, lengthy and expensive, meaning that they are often removed from the agenda as discussion points. But it doesn't have to be that way.

10 Benefits: What Your Boss Should Know About Skill-Based Learning

Here are 10 reasons to use skill-based personnel development to convince your boss:

Reason 1: Strategic Development of Employees

Skill-based personnel development helps you to match your current skills with future requirements. This approach is invaluable when it comes to identifying current and future skill gaps and using them to implement skill-based hiring and training initiatives to fill the gaps.

Reason 2: Increasing Agility and Flexibility

A skill-based workforce development approach focuses on the required skills and behaviors and not on the associated tasks and qualifications. This helps you to move away from old, rigid job descriptions and make your company more agile and flexible in order to be able to react quickly to changes in the work environment.

Reason 3: Speed up Skill Development

Skill-based learning accelerates skill growth by leading your employees to the desired target skill profiles more effectively and without detours. They are able to provide them with tailored learning opportunities based on their individual goals and needs. This makes it possible to focus on specific skills tailored to the individual and leads to more relevant and targeted learning as well as to better learning outcomes.

Reason 4: Minimize Selection Errors

With Skills, your company can use skill-based hiring processes. Skill-based hiring practices aim to hire or promote employees exclusively on the basis of skills, skills and (objective) aptitude for the task at hand. It is no longer a question of evaluating educational background, experience and assumed suitability. Human bias is thus eliminated thanks to the measurability of skills.

Reason 5: Reduce Employee Turnover

If you strategically support your employees and give them the opportunity to develop within your company, you will have satisfied employees. Happy employees tend to stay with a company, which means a lower turnover rate for the company. Strategic personnel development also opens up new opportunities for internal mobility by allowing current talent requirements to be matched with internal offerings.

Reason 6: Make Learning Outcomes and ROI Measurable

Skill data enables a data-driven approach to workforce development that allows you to track your progress and ROI. Instead of measuring completed learning units, you can demonstrate actual results such as acquired skills, closed competency gaps, etc. The added value for the company is quantifiable and measurable and can be equated with increased productivity and given a monetary value.

Reason 7: Increasing Productivity

Employee performance improves when they are better equipped to do their jobs and meet the needs of their customers. Skill-based learning keeps your employees up to date with constantly changing tasks. The more efficiently and effectively your employees can work, the more your company's productivity increases.

Reason 8: Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Employees who can see and experience that their company is committed to their development are generally happier and more engaged. They feel valued and motivated, which leads to higher productivity. Today, employees see a lively learning culture as an important part of what makes a company a great place to work.

Reason 9: Eliminate Silos in HR Functions

A skill taxonomy provides a solid basis for skills and supports all HR activities while removing silos in all functions. You can also develop powerful “applications” for personnel development based on your global skill taxonomy as a common language (e.g. expert search, internal mobility, identification of training needs, etc.).

Reason 10: Stay Competitive

To remain competitive in today's rapidly changing economy, it is important to develop a skilled workforce. A skill-based approach to L&D is the most efficient and effective way to achieve this. By giving your employees the opportunity to constantly develop, the company can develop with a strong position in the market.

Getting Started With Skill-Based Learning can be Easy

Of course, turning your entire company into a skill-based organization can be a challenge, but Rome wasn't built in a day either. Our advice is to start small. Instead of tackling the entire workforce at once, the most successful customers start with small pilot projects within their organization. Prove the concept to create a showcase project that you can use to gain acceptance for major changes. Select a business unit and start there.

Would you like to start with skill-based personnel development?

Sign up now for free for our Skill-based personnel development masterclass on. In just 8 hours, you'll learn everything you need to advance skill-based personnel development in your company.