Dive Brief:
- In just the past four years, Accenture has retrained nearly 300,000 of its 469,000 global employees, according to Ellyn Shook, the company's chief leadership and human resources officer, who spoke on a Business Insider panel at the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
- Shook said she believes the experience means Accenture could be a case study of how job-retraining for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Business Insider said. The Dublin-based company estimates the cost of "reskilling" staff cost $1 billion annually. Shook talked about creating a "work-learn, work-learn mindset," and said that to make reskilling effective, training should provide skills that workers can implement within six months.
- Shook said Accenture refined its skills pipeline, developing "Job Buddy" software that allows employees to examine what their skills are, what areas of their work are likely to be automated, and what training will help. Among the pilot group for the Job Buddy system, 85% of workers used it to assess their jobs and enroll in new training.
Dive Insight:
For many companies, calculating the return on investment for training is key to maximizing their learning spend. Industry trends show spending on training is on the rise, as businesses struggle with talent shortages, skills gaps and looming digitalization.
Development of existing employees has become a top priority; employers are working with the talent they have to ready it for the jobs of tomorrow, whether the skills needed can be identified or not. Experts have advised HR to remember that the future of work is the people who perform it, not just the technology that powers it.
In addition to prepping employees for the tasks that come, training can be a significant boost to engagement and productivity. The more development employees get, the more they want, according to one study. But critical to successful training initiatives is partnering with staffers to align their needs with those of the company.
