Month: July 2022

Upskilling and Reskilling in Uncertain Times: Wix.com, Second Nature and retrain.ai on Why It’s Time to Double Down

Posted on by Dr. Shay David

Economic shifts are causing some companies to slow down, lay off or cut back on employee services. Does that mean it’s time to hit the brakes on talent development? 

Absolutely not.

In fact, it’s the perfect time for enterprises to invest more in the reskilling and upskilling of their people. Doing so only helps to better address the new challenges of today’s financial crisis and prepare to fuel productivity when the economy recovers. 

In a recent panel discussion, Dr. Eli Bendet-Taicher, Head of Learning and Talent Development at WIX.com, Ariel Hitron, CEO of Second Nature, and retrain.ai CEO Dr. Shay David offered insights into current trends and challenges, and what it all means for the future of learning and development in HR. 

To see the full session on-demand, click HERE.

 

Here are some highlights:

 

Ariel Hitron: To quote the World Economic Forum, “One in three global organizations is accelerating upskilling or reskilling programs in response to COVID-19. In doing so, they recognize the value of their people — the vast potential of each individual to leverage his or her existing skills to add value beyond their current role and learn new skills in response to changing needs.” 

Backing up a bit, why do you think some enterprises are accelerating upskilling efforts at a time when others are cutting back? 

Shay David: When we talk about acceleration, it’s acceleration of several secular trends that already started years ago–namely the capability to be flexible and work remotely, the capability of doing more knowledge work, the capability of having flexible teams. If we look at the larger trends in the market, a lot of it has been about the move into digital services, digital economy, digital transformation in general.  

COVID didn’t invent any of these trends, it was just the accelerator that forced a lot of people to rethink: What are we doing? What skills does our team need? Are we giving our teams those skills? All of the sudden, businesses found themselves needing to reinvent. And when you reinvent a business, you have to add new skills. At retrain.ai, we focus on understanding what that skills landscape looks like, and with a lot of our customers, we’re definitely seeing that trend. 

AH: Now we’re heading into a slowdown in the market. Hiring is definitely changing. Do you think this will also have an impact on the upskilling, reskilling and learning programs? What are your thoughts on that?

Eli Bendet-Taicher: A lot of companies have been downsizing in the past few weeks and months–but they don’t want to downsize their business. So they’re finding ways to be more effective and productive with fewer people. They may need employees to take on more responsibilities or change roles, which in turn means they need to be reskilled or upskilled through programs that are ready to go.

So I actually think this recession will make companies and organizations actually invest more in L&D, more in reskilling and upskilling programs, because they just have to. They still need to thrive, they still need to bring money to the table, and there may be other changes coming. They may even need to pivot the business at some point, and they’ll need to train their people with everything they have in order to do that.

AH: Okay, so as a business leader you have to do more with less, or more with what you have in terms of human resources. Picking up on that, what do you think learning and development leaders need to do to support that?

EBT: At Wix, we needed to really map the skill set and competencies for each role at the company. You have to be able to see what kinds of roles you have, what kinds of roles you need, and what it will take to deliver the expertise in each skill set for every role. It’s a full understanding of: This is what I want, this is what I have, and what is the gap. From there you can create programs specific to bridging that gap. 

We found we also needed to have a great interoperability policy. If I’m moving a person from one role to another, our organization needs to support that person with upskilling and reskilling so they’re able to do the job the best way they can. At the end of the day, you need to invest in people’s learning and development so they know they have that support. 

AH: Wow, a lot, a lot unpack there. So why don’t we start with the mapping of the skills for each role? Shay, you’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about this challenge. Maybe you can share some of your insights? 

SD: In our view, skills are the atoms that can help define what tasks are; tasks join into roles and roles join into occupations. You can also talk about an interesting hierarchy like capabilities and competencies–there are many different ways to skin the skills cat, if you will–but the bottom line is that you need to have a unified language that consolidates different systems within an organization that are otherwise siloed. 

Think about most of the organizations you’ve met to date. They probably have some sort of human resource information system or some human capital management system, most have learning management systems, probably some sort of onboarding system, employee performance systems, comp and benefit, and so on. Organizations, particularly global enterprises, have six or seven different systems to view their employees. The challenge that we have is that most of those systems don’t speak the same language. So the first order of business is to get the proper language in order to create a cohesive job architecture and skills taxonomy.

In our second post of this series, hear from our panelists about calibrating the macro and micro elements of skills mapping, the demand for hard and soft skills, and how AI can both transform data into actionable insights and enhance–not replace–the human experience of work. 

 

retrain.ai is a Talent Intelligence Platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging Responsible AI and real-time labor market data, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To learn more book a demo. 

NYC AI Law Update – 4 Important Things You Need to Know

Posted on by Isabelle Bichler

UPDATE: Local Law 144 will now go into effect on May 6, 2023.

This is an update to our initial post on the upcoming NYC Law. 

With less than six months to go before a new AI audit law goes into effect in New York City, new details are emerging to give us a better understanding of how the legislation–and penalties for noncompliance–will be implemented. 

Local Law 144 of 2021, as it’s known, issues updated guidelines for employers using AI in hiring. Part of a quickly growing practice, AI tools are in high demand for companies looking to speed up preliminary candidate screening and enable efficiency in the hiring process. In order to avoid introducing unintended bias into those actions, however, the AI must be responsible. There are several key attributes of Responsible AI, the net result of which is fully explainable machine learning systems structured to avoid biases that could skew results unfairly. 

There are still many questions around the details of the NYC audit law, which says companies using “automated employment decision tools” must first submit them to an independent bias audit and notify candidates at least ten days before an AI tool is used to allow for accommodations. But now we know more about what happens to those who don’t comply.

 

The latest update:

 

  • Each day an employer uses an automated employment decision tool in violation of the law counts as a separate violation. 
  • An employer’s failure to provide notice to a candidate or employee constitutes an additional daily violation.
  • Potential violations will be viewed quite broadly, setting forth penalties applicable to “all subdivisions, paragraphs, subparagraphs, clauses, items or any other provision.”
  • Fines for first time violations start at $375 per infraction; second violations start at $1350.

Plenty of questions still remain around the logistics of the new law, including who will conduct the required impartial audits and what standard will be used to determine any disparate impact on job candidates. We’ll be watching for those updates in the coming weeks and months, and will be sharing them here. 

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging AI and real-time labor market data, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To learn more book a demo. 

In Today’s Labor Market, Employees Are In The Driver’s Seat—But Do You Understand Their Needs?

Posted on by Dr. Shay David

This article first appeared in Forbes.

In my last post, I discussed the skills gap emergency in today’s workforce as accelerated digitization exposes the changing capabilities enterprises need today and in the future. From a business perspective, solving the skills gap correctly can fuel a sustained competitive advantage, while ignoring it can mean falling to oblivion. For employees, upskilling in response to workforce trends can mean the difference between continuous gainful employability and falling dangerously behind in—or even out of—the talent marketplace.

With more open positions across industries than there are workers to fill them, employees today have plentiful options, especially if they have the skills needed in today’s competitive marketplace. Knowledge workers are particularly empowered given the portable nature of their skills, which are in demand across industries and geographic locations. In this post, we’ll address the main question arising from the skills gap emergency: How do you win the war for talent?

As both enterprises and individuals face seismic shifts in the next few years, our research suggests that organizations looking to attract and retain the right talent must first understand the new workforce demands, which fall into several key buckets. Let us review each in turn.

 

Recognition And Purpose Are Key

 

McKinsey & Company’s research on the Great Resignation found that 54% of employees who quit their jobs felt that their employers didn’t value them. Skilled workers know their worth in the most competitive talent marketplace in decades; it’s going to take more than a prime parking spot or even a salary bump to hold their attention.

The McKinsey report goes on to say that today’s employees crave investment in the human aspects of work—a revised sense of purpose, social and interpersonal connections with colleagues and managers, and a sense of shared identity. They’re also willing to wait for it. The same study found that among employees surveyed, 36% of those who had quit a job in the past six months did so without having a new job in hand.

Recognition and purpose count in an era when blindly climbing the corporate ladder holds little appeal. Managers and HR leaders who proactively identify an employee’s unique skills and present ways to maximize them by recognizing their value and connecting them to the organizational mission offer a much more meaningful engagement. Whether it’s an invitation to take part in a new project or a chance to lead a team, new opportunities and responsibilities tell an employee their talents are recognized and valued and that their work makes a difference.

Today’s workforce landscape is flatter than a decade ago. The traditional assistant-manager-director-executive upward climb that defined professional development for years has given way to a more winding, opportunistic flow in which employees are drawn to interesting opportunities more than impressive titles. Flexible, non-linear advancement enables skilled workers to find new applications for their talents or to develop new capabilities altogether.

Keeping things interesting for motivated employees pays off. In a recent Pew Research Center survey of U.S. workers who left a job in 2021, 63% cited a lack of opportunities for advancement as a factor in their decision to leave. At a time when advancement includes multidirectional moves within an organization, these are workers who need not be lost.

Recognizing in advance those employees who may be itching for a challenge—or a move out of the company altogether—HR leaders have an opportunity to open a fruitful dialogue and dramatically increase retention. By understanding an employee’s professional aspirations, astute managers can plug those goals into personalized career paths supported by tangible learning and development opportunities. It’s a real win-win because the ability to do so at scale means enabling an entire workforce to grow within their organization rather than look for opportunities outside of it.

 

Onboarding And Development

 

After exercising their right to be selective in choosing their next job, new hires expect meaningful engagement from Day 1. Onboarding that only a few years ago would have taken three months or more must now be condensed into weeks and be packed with value. There’s a good chance you may need to execute onboarding remotely as well, which presents its own challenges. If the process falls short, new talent won’t hesitate to find the door as part of what some are now calling the “Great Regret” and others call “Failure to Launch.”

A recent study by consultancy firm Eagle Hill found that a large number of new hires think onboarding is missing the mark. Specifically, 71% didn’t understand which key relationships to build and 62% didn’t have a clear view of organizational culture. An alarming 54% reported not gaining full knowledge of how to use technology to do their job.

To my earlier point, fully understanding the expectations and goals of each new hire is key to employee engagement and retention. Regular check-ins can then follow, enabling conversations around professional aspirations, internal mobility opportunities and available learning and development programs. To this end, development is a direct continuation of onboarding. In an agile environment that supports nonlinear career pathing, the employee is constantly onboarding to new opportunities, and the organization must recognize and equip the employee with the right tools.

 

Summary

 

Today’s employee is looking for the full framework, tailored to them. Enterprises that find a way to recognize their employees, connect them to purpose, create a learning environment with a clear career path and do all of this at scale can not only win the war for talent but also foster long-term retention to remain competitive.

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging AI and real-time labor market data, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To learn more book a demo. 

What’s In It for Me? The Importance of Personalized Employee Development at Scale

Posted on by Karen Sackowitz

Recent surveys have shown that of workers who quit their jobs over the last two years, fueling the great resignation, a majority name lack of opportunity for advancement as a contributing factor. Yet plenty of employers offer training programs to upskill and develop their talent. Where is the disconnect?

In a recent interview, our COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf sat down with retrain.ai customer Maccabi Healthcare Services to talk about our work together. 

In this clip, Maccabi Head of Learning and Development Ifat Alfasi describes the importance of not just putting programs in place, but of making them easily accessible–and curated–to employees. In this way, individuals can see the potential inherent in the training and have personalized guidance on how to best benefit from it.

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and real-time market data, enterprises unlock key talent insights and optimize the hiring and upskilling of their workforce. For employees, our Talent Intelligence Platform seamlessly assesses the skills they have today, the skills they need for the future and delivers the resources they need to get them there. To learn more visit Request a Demo. 

More Than Money: Why Successful L&D Programs Require Real-Time Market Data

Posted on by Karen Sackowitz

In the United States, annual spend on corporate training averages $180 million. But research shows that only 12% of skills learned in those training programs are used on the job. As the skills gap continues to widen within the US workforce, how can enterprises better use learning and development budgets to help employees develop relevant, immediately beneficial skills? 

In a recent interview, our COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf sat down with retrain.ai customer Maccabi Healthcare Services to talk about our work together. 

In this clip, Isabelle, along with Maccabi Organizational Development Manager Yael Rotem-Sher and Head of Learning and Development Ifat Alfasi, points out the need to move beyond merely budgeting for L&D; organizations need to connect the dots between current labor market trends and in-demand skills of the future in order to develop employees successfully.

 

 

retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

The HR Conundrum: Plenty of Data, But What Does It Tell me?

Posted on by Karen Sackowitz

HCM Systems are traditionally data-rich, but information poor. This can be exacerbated by siloed systems that don’t work in concert with each other to provide HR leaders with a full, comprehensive view they need to strategize successfully. How can HR professionals–with more responsibility falling within their domain than ever before–structure voluminous data in a way that supports business goals?

In a recent interview, our COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf sat down with retrain.ai customer Maccabi Healthcare Services to talk about our work together. 


retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.