How do I keep my team’s skills current?

Employers have a responsibility to keep their staff’s skills up to date. Nik Rawlinson discovers that, as the training becomes more engaging, it’s easier to do so than ever

Expanding staff knowledge is easier than ever.

“Your most valuable workers are ingrained in their own ecosystems and know the skill sets they want to investigate”

Why do staff resign? Some find more interesting propositions elsewhere. Others are tempted by better pay. Everyone retires, eventually. But

Zoe Morris, president at Frank Recruitment Group, points out one more factor: “One of the most common reasons for professionals wanting to move on is that their current employer isn’t supporting their development.”

It shouldn’t be hard. Few people are better placed to decide where a team member’s skills are lacking than that member themselves. Listen to what they say and give them the time they need to pursue those areas; yet so many managers still get it wrong.

“Your most valuable workers are ingrained in their own ecosystems and know the niches and skill sets they want to investigate and delve deeper into,” Morris told PC Pro. That’s why it’s key to “schedule time where they can self-learn, and facilitate the costs involved where possible. Investing time as well as money into your staff’s development is a sure-fire way to drive better retention.”

In short, staff need to feel valued – and helping them to sharpen their skills is one of the most effective ways to do that. In the technology sector, says IT outsourcing service provider Harvey Nash, 95% of staff are working to develop new skills – often in their own spare time.

Yet significant knowledge gaps still need to be plugged. More than half of all organisations struggle with a lack of in-house skills for legacy technology, according to research by Park Place Technologies. A similar number believes the skills gap will impact their sector’s ability to adopt new technologies, and one in ten isn’t confident in its IT infrastructure at all. That’s past, future and present technology equally impacted. Investing in staff development has never been more important.

Skills sharing

Docebo ( docebo.com) mixes traditional course building with Coach & Share, a social learning platform it introduced in 2016 to facilitate in-house knowledge sharing. By involving the learner in the process of learning, said Docebo product marketing manager Matt Powell, “social learning” – effectively, self-publishing what you know and allowing others to comment on it – leads to higher levels of engagement.

Coach & Share “allows staff to contribute, comment, ask questions and develop subject matter experts internally,” said Powell. “From an L&D manager’s perspective, [getting this kind of engagement] has always been a challenge. Traditionally, learning has been seen as something that staff have to do but we want people to want to learn, and then apply that learning to their job.”

Powell is keen to point out that Docebo’s offering is more than an educational Facebook for Business: it’s underpinned by a high level of AI, which both increases the value of the information put into the system and helps managers and team members to identify the most appropriate content.

Coach & Share, which is one part of Docebo’s wider offering, “creates content creators internally by establishing subject aspects within different parts of the business,” said Powell – and much of this is done passively, freeing those experts from any obligation to step aside from their