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6 Skill Development Tactics for Successful Teams

The way we work is changing. In the past, companies have focused on increasing productivity and performance at work. They prioritized getting more work done faster. Focusing on individual productivity led to one major drawback: people didn’t work together effectively. 

Teams are the drivers of change in an organization. They work together to complete tasks and build a sense of belonging amongst members. Companies investing in skill development see positive results, including increased retention, employee satisfaction, and productivity. Here are six ways to empower your teams to help your organization thrive. 

Develop soft skills

Automation is always lurking in the shadows. The World Economic Forum suspects by 2025, automation will disrupt 85 million jobs globally. This makes soft skills, which are behaviors and work habits that help employees interact with others, even more critical in the coming years. Teams will spend more time doing things machines cannot do, like thinking creatively and dealing with public relations. 

LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends Report showed that acquiring soft skills was the most crucial trend fueling the future of the workplace: 91 percent of respondents said that soft skills are more important than technical skills. Some 80 percent of organizations also say soft skills were critical to the organization. 

Soft skills are beneficial because:

  • Soft skills are transferable skills between jobs, careers, and industries
  • Every job requires people to interact with other employees
  • Business is about relationships

The top soft skills you can teach are:

  • Communication 
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Adaptability
  • Teamwork
  • Creativity
  • Analytical thinking
  • Flexibility

Soft skills help teams use technical skills and knowledge. They also play an essential role in improving one’s ability to work with others and can positively influence the team.

Create a strength-based skill development framework

A strength-based approach to skill-building focuses on an individual’s self-determination and aptitude, not their weaknesses. Strengths are the combination of talents, skills, knowledge, and experience that allow employees to do what they do best. Using these strengths is what enables employees and teams to succeed.

The concept comes from Dr. Donald Clifton, a renowned positive psychologist and the Father of Strengths Psychology. In his research, he asked people when they are happiest and what makes them most successful. 

The answer? People who can use their strengths every day—and their talents are the foundation for a person’s strengths.

Gallup suggests the following steps to build a strength-based framework in your organization:

  • Don’t assume employees know their strengths. Use the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to help them discover their talents. 
  • Apply strengths in a team setting to achieve common goals. Help employees learn and understand each other’s talents and how their strengths complement others. 
  • Assign team projects based on strengths.
  • Help align employee talents to their roles and career paths. Incorporate strengths into performance reviews and help employees set goals based on their abilities. 
  • Create a community of advocates to help everyone on the team use their strengths. These people help launch your strength-based programs and will help motivate employees throughout their journey. 

The connection between strengths and engagement in the workplace is strong. Creating a skill development framework that focuses on natural talents can simultaneously improve team productivity and happiness. Teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5 percent greater productivity.

Turn leaders into coaches 

Leaders play a significant role in building and sustaining talent development amongst teams. They navigate technology advancements and cultural changes. They recognize potential where others don’t. They help employees grow in new ways and are responsible for giving critical feedback and having tough conversations.

In short, it’s up to leaders to coach teams and facilitate skill development for future business needs. But they need help. Research from 40,000 organizations across 43 countries shows that almost 50 percent of employers report that they can’t find the necessary skills. This data suggests that they need help with talent planning and development. 

There are a few ways to transform leaders into coaches:

  • Encourage managers to have one-on-one check-ins with employees
  • Turn team meetings into collaborative problem-solving sessions 
  • Create a personalized learning program for managers to improve coaching skills
  • Give leaders a mentor

Turning leaders into coaches also helps build a leadership pipeline, a common challenge for organizations. Through effective coaching, they can train and develop successors within their teams for the future. 

Make learning and development part of the culture 

A learning culture is a work environment that supports a growth mindset. Organizations that prioritize learning encourage teams to grow, improve, and adapt for the future. Learning builds trust between employees and creates an inclusive work environment. 

A Harvard Business Review study found that employees working in high-trust versus low-trust environments saw the following results:

  • 106% felt more energetic at work
  • 76% experienced more engagement with their jobs
  • 74% felt less stressed

Everyone is part of a learning culture, from employees to managers and executive leadership. It’s a way of company thinking you can use to motivate teams and impact business goals. If you want to create your own, read ​​5 Strategies to Create a Learning Culture to learn how. 

“Once your team experiences the sincerity in your investment in their development, they naturally become more loyal to the company as they feel appreciated and validated. A company with a strong learning culture doesn’t have a limit to which they can grow and will have an engaged, tenured team at the helm.”

 

Jen Scopo, Instructional Design Manager, WorkRamp

 

Identify opportunities for upskilling and reskilling 

There is a massive skill gap problem in today’s workforce. Eighty-three percent of U.S. organizations surveyed by ATD report that they are experiencing a skills gap, and 78 percent expect to face such a gap in the future. With a skills gap in its workforce, an organization risks not meeting customer expectations.

Upskilling and reskilling are top priorities for L&D professionals globally. Since the pandemic began, 58 percent of companies have prioritized closing skill gaps, and 69 percent are engaging in more skill-building than before. 

There are several ways to upskill and reskill teams:

  • Build employee career paths
  • Incorporate upskilling and reskilling into performance reviews
  • Discuss skill building during one-on-ones
  • Offer a variety of development opportunities
  • Recognize team achievements 

Skill transformations have a positive impact on all areas of business. As the work world continues to evolve, it will be even more essential to upskill and reskill teams. 

Read more: Upskilling and Reskilling: Must-Have L&D Trends for 2022 and Beyond

Make learning easy and fun

Learning and development has a clear ROI for teams. Studies show that 84 percent of employees in the best-performing organizations receive the training they need, compared to 16 percent in the worst-performing companies. Learning has to be engaging and interactive to be effective.

You can use a tool like WorkRamp to build enticing learning experiences for teams. With WorkRamp’s course creation tools, you can set up live and asynchronous learning sessions on any device. You can also schedule events, assign courses, and manage groups easily from a single dashboard. 

Using WorkRamp, you can create learning for all employees to help onboard, upskill, and develop talent. You can use WorkRamp to:

  • Build a seamless onboarding experience. Employees know what to expect in their first fe weeks and will feel supported in their new roles.
  • Deploy compliance + regulatory training. Compliance features help to ensure training completion. 
  • Offer a library resources. Help employees upskill or discover new learning opportunities to help their careers.
  • Build career mobility opportunities. Offer learning paths that can serve as signals or conversations starters for team member promotions.
  • Create leadership development programs. Equip middle management with the training, skills, and resources to help them succeed.
  • Leverage key HRIS and HR tool integrations. Automate employee onboarding, mobility, and offboarding workflows.

You can turn employees into top performers by giving them the training they need. WorkRamp can help you create robust learning experiences for your teams. 

Learn more: How to Find the Best LMS for Small Businesses and Startups

Grow your organization by investing in skill development for teams 

Teams are powerful. They are the reason change happens in your organization. They share ideas and perspectives that help you achieve critical tasks and improve your bottom line. 

Teams that learn together grow together. By helping your team become smarter, stronger, healthier, and more resilient–you are creating a force to be reckoned with. 

Want to learn more about how WorkRamp can help you create skill development programs for your teams? Contact us to schedule a free demo.

 

Complete the form for a custom demo.



Michael Keenan

WorkRamp Contributor

Michael is a SaaS marketer living in Guadalajara, Mexico. Through storytelling and data-driven content, his focus is providing valuable insight and advice on issues that prospects and customers care most about. He’s inspired by learning people’s stories, climbing mountains, and traveling with his partner and Xoloitzcuintles.

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