By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer at Coursera
Learning and technology leaders face greater challenges than ever. Global talent shortages have made it more difficult to hire employees, and the pressure building up as global economic activity weakens means leaders must rethink how they source the critical skills they need to sustain business growth and transformation.
A key part of the solution will be thinking outside the box, tapping into internal talent, and sourcing skills from non-traditional hiring pools.
Unleashing internal talent and untapping frontline teams
‘Talent matching’ is the bedrock of successful reskilling. It entails aligning existing talent with the skill gaps that need to be plugged in a way that creates the most value for the business. An effective talent matching process can be one of the biggest challenges leaders face.
But even before thinking about ‘talent matching’, organizations are challenged by not having enough talent to match in the first place. With economic uncertainty on the horizon, the urgency to drive competitiveness is only growing. Yet combined with a shrinking labor supply, this is leaving organizations worried that there aren’t enough people to accomplish the work at hand. Executives are wondering: Can we turn the “Great Attrition” into the “Great Attraction”?
For that reason, alongside recognizing where gaps are located and understanding that a talent-matching strategy can help address their issues, leaders need to explore how they can widen the pool of candidates for reskilling and upskilling programs.
Engaging frontline workers—which represent 80% of the world’s workforce—is one way to do this.
Too often these employees are in insecure roles which are overlooked for development. This is despite their clear motivation to grow and develop—70 percent have applied for career advancement opportunities with either current employers or different companies.
New Way
What if you could quickly and efficiently build career pathways for workers, and become the employer where everyone wants to work? What if, rather than worrying about how to hire employees externally, you could help the business perform in the long run with a stable headcount and improved morale—by creating a virtuous circle of internal talent sourcing that have the right technical skills? What if you could rapidly reskill existing talent for ten times less cost and in one-sixteenth of the time of traditional degree programs?
We have the answer. Targeted learning programs like Career Academy on Coursera can embrace the enthusiasm of frontline workers, enable businesses to plug skill gaps, and empower employees with growth opportunities, a win-win for businesses and staff.
Career Academy on Coursera is a new career training academy that enables any business to give employees—even those with no college degree or prior work experience—the opportunity to learn the skills to enter a high-demand, entry-level digital job. Created by the world’s leading companies and industry experts, Career Academy enables learners to explore careers, develop knowledge and skills, build a portfolio of hands-on projects using tools of the trade, and earn credentials to land good jobs.
Executing a better approach to workplace reskilling and upskilling
The skills shortage is limiting every organization’s ability to succeed. Instead of seeking to hire employees externally, we should recognize the opportunity to untap skills elsewhere. It’s time to think big and embrace new ways of sourcing the talent that underpins successful businesses. That should begin with your internal, and particularly, non-traditional talent pools.
This is just one example of how you can revitalize your talent strategies. If you’re ready to discover the full potential of workplace learning, download our full new e-book ‘Evolving Your Talent Strategy: The Urgent Need for Workplace Learning—and How to Execute on It’ now.
