Scalability: Why You Should Start Small With Your Reskilling Program
Corporate giants like Amazon, Disney and AT&T put millions of dollars into their internal, upskilling and reskilling solutions. In 2018, Disney launched a $50 million upskilling initiative, Amazon’s Upskilling 2025 pledge committed $1.2 billion and AT&T invested $1 billion in their Future Ready reskilling program. While multi-billion dollar investments may not be a realistic first step for every company, flexible solutions exist to help accelerate talent acquisition and scale with your company.
One of Tech Elevator’s longest-standing partnerships, a Midwest-headquartered financial institution and Fortune 500 company, started small by reskilling only a handful of employees. By comparison, The Walt Disney Company had over 125,000 eligible employees for their first investment. It’s important to note that both, however, continue to be successful despite differing levels of their initial investments.
As you take your next steps with reskilling and learning and development programs, look to the experts to guide you toward a scalable solution. Continue reading as we explore the various paths companies can take to start their own reskilling solution and build their future workforce.
First, explore and test your reskilling program options.
Establish which program options are within your company’s reach regarding resources and implementation. Starting small could be the best-fit solution until a company is ready to scale.
One way to start small is to test or pilot a program. Companies can test reskilling by sponsoring an employee’s seat in an already-established program. Companies get the same curriculum and standards if they launched their own program with a partner, but on a smaller scale.
Sending one or several individuals through a sponsored seats program will give your organization an idea of the talent and skills that reskilling programs can provide.
Then, scale your reskilling program for further success.
Once you have a better understanding of the possibilities with reskilling, it might be time to start piloting your own internal solution.
One of the best aspects of working with a reskilling provider is that they typically offer flexible solutions to meet your company’s capabilities. Whether you need support planning, recruiting and selecting students or want the framework to run the program entirely by yourself, custom solutions can help.
Some organizations have the resources and capabilities to launch a pilot program right from the start. Discuss this with an experienced provider and see if this is an option for your company.
Each phase of reskilling comes with its own opportunities to scale. Below we’ve outlined the five key phases of our reskilling approach.
1. Consultation and Discovery
The consultation and discovery phase is an opportunity to align strategic talent priorities. Here, our expert workforce transformation team meets with your organization to establish what success looks like and what goals you’re trying to achieve. This phase is also the chance to address any potential blockers and secure buy-in from leadership, if necessary.
2. Project Planning and Reskilling Roadmap
During this phase, our team develops a custom program approach and roadmap. Depending on which partner you work with, they may even assist with the internal marketing of the program as well as messaging when companies launch a pilot program. All the details involved with recruitment, messaging and program implementation will be delivered for alignment during this phase.
3. Recruitment and Selection
The recruitment and selection phase is where your partner will begin marketing to eligible individuals and execute the recruitment plan. This phase is dedicated to building excitement and awareness as well as selecting eligible employees for the program. Your partner will coach selection teams on best practices and what to look for in individuals interested in being admitted into the program.
4. Program Launch and Instruction Begins
When the program launches and instruction begins, accepted candidates will be learning and applying the technical curriculum right from Day 1. Instruction is typically conducted by an instructor provided by the reskilling partner. However, instruction can also be conducted by a contract instructor employed in-house. As the program grows, this aspect can be transferred entirely to internal teams.
5. Redeployment
Once the program concludes, redeployment begins. This phase focuses on transitioning graduates into their new tech roles and ensuring systems are in place for their continued development. A fully scaled and realized reskilling solution can yield tech talent by the team instead of by individual roles. It is vital that systems are established before scaling to ensure the newly reskilled employees have a clear path after the program.
Partner with a reskilling provider to scale your tech talent capabilities.
By working with an experienced reskilling provider you’re establishing scalable learning and development systems for your current and future workforce. Acting as both a consultant and an extension of your team, your provider will help determine and implement the solution that is the best fit for your needs.
Remember that reskilling doesn’t need to be an “all-in” solution. Depending on resources and capability, the initial solution could be to start with a program size that’s more manageable for your company. Once structures are in place, scale your program to fit your company’s growing talent demand.
Reach out to our Enterprise Team and learn more about how Tech Televator’s Reskilling Program can help develop your tech teams of the future in a scalable way.
