While it would be great for every new employee to arrive at your company with all the skills they need to succeed, it’s very, very unlikely that this will ever be the case.
Even the most experienced employees will need to learn new ways of doing things, or refine skills that have got a little rusty over time, which is why reskilling employees old and new is so important for long-lasting success.
It’s also an effective way to show your commitment to employee development straight off the bat, so if employee reskilling isn’t part of your onboarding programme yet, maybe it’s time to change that.
The skills gap during the onboarding period isn’t a matter of capability. Every business has its own way of doing things, and with technology advancing so rapidly, employees at all levels of seniority and experience may find that their skills have become a little outdated over time.
Each company culture requires its own way of working, which can also bring with it a need for new soft skills. For instance, some cultures prioritise authority, following instructions and structure, while others champion creativity, innovation and cross-functional collaboration.
The onboarding period is the perfect time to reskill employees while they’re motivated and engaged, and to help them adapt to your own learning culture, processes and working styles.
The first few weeks and months at a new company usually comes with a few teething problems as new starters break old habits and learn new ways of working. Of course, this is nothing to worry about – it’s to be expected! But that doesn’t mean waiting until your new employees are fully settled in the business to start reskilling.
Starting your employee reskilling during the onboarding period reduces the time it takes for new hires to become fully competent and productive, and providing skills training for company systems and workflows helps prevent costly mistakes.
Equipping new starters with the skills they will need throughout their time at your company from the very start will also help boost their confidence and help them feel engaged in their work. There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to hit the ground running, but not having the right skills to do what’s needed, so building employee reskilling into your onboarding gives a great first impression of a continuous learning culture, reduces employee turnover and boosts loyalty among your workforce.
Nobody likes to feel like they’re constantly playing catch up, which is why employee reskilling should be integral to any onboarding programme. This should align with the reskilling in place for current employees to ensure everyone is on the same page, whether they’ve been with you for three weeks or three years.
In fact, consider the reskilling part of your employee onboarding as a stepping stone to your full employee reskilling programme. It can provide the foundation knowledge needed to gain the right skills, allowing new employees to ramp up to the full training.
However, it also makes sense not to assume that new employees have no knowledge of the skills they’ll need. Assessing their knowledge in their first couple of weeks, whether this is a simple self-assessment or a skills test will ensure you’re able to provide training at the right level, whether they need to start from scratch or simply brush up on more recent developments in the industry.
An effective way to help bridge the gap between new and existing employees is to encourage knowledge sharing. For instance, in 5app, you can easily share resources or entire Playlists with a note, so more experienced employees can send useful assets directly with newcomers to help them develop their skills.
When we talk about employee reskilling, we’re broadly talking about two groups of skills: hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills are specific, teachable skills that help you perform specific tasks, covering things like systems, design, languages, data analysis and programming. Those earlier on in their careers will likely need to learn more hard skills, especially in the onboarding phase when they’re preparing to perform their new role. Hard skills can generally be tested and assessed, and improvement can be measured over time.
Soft skills are less tangible, and are used when working with others and solving problems at work. Soft skills cover things like emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, leadership and adaptability, and the training required for soft skills is fairly different to that needed for hard skills. For instance, soft skills training may consist of scenario-based learning, workshops and group discussions. There’s no set way to ‘measure’ soft skills, and training may be revisited time after time to keep the skills front of mind.
During the recruitment process, you should have a fairly good idea of the skills each new employee is bringing to your company, and the onboarding process is a good time to confirm any skill gaps and useful development opportunities. Once the initial onboarding content is done, it’s time to address those skill gaps with personalised reskilling.
Providing ‘diagnostic’ assessments for important skills will help you pinpoint each new starter’s skill level, which will in turn allow you to set them up with the right training. Managers (or the L&D team) can then provide playlists or specific on-demand content assets to help fill gaps in the employee’s skills or knowledge, ensuring they don’t waste time revisiting topics they already know well.
Top tip: Use 5app’s Playlist section locking to set ‘triggers’ to unlock new learning content only when the employee is ready. This could be when they’ve completed a pre-assessment quiz, or to ensure they work through beginner, intermediate and advanced-level content in a sensible order.
If there are specific skill areas requiring extra attention, managers could assign a mentor to help provide more focused one-to-one support and guidance. Mentors can share useful content directly within the LMS, as well as holding regular training sessions online or in person to make sure they’re progressing under the guidance of an experienced colleague.
Continuous assessment and evaluation should be built into the employee reskilling process, both in the onboarding period and beyond. Some people learn faster than others, so once they’ve mastered an important skill, you can move on to the next, rather than wasting time on excessive training. Consider using AI for onboarding to continuously identify development opportunities for new employees and reduce manual admin work.
Consider awarding badges within the LMS for new skills to provide evidence of training completion. This could also be used as part of your competency framework to show who has which skills across the business, allowing for future cross-training, mentoring and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
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