Upskilling is no longer optional, it’s a strategic imperative. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, 59% of the global workforce will need upskilling or reskilling by 2030 to stay relevant amid rapid technology, economic, and demographic shifts.
For L&D leaders, that statistic signals urgency: skills are becoming obsolete faster, talent expectations are rising, and the cost of doing nothing is high in turnover, productivity loss, and opportunity cost. In 2025, advancing technologies like generative AI, hybrid work models, and automation mean organizations must invest in structured upskilling not just to close gaps, but to drive real business performance.
In this article, you’ll learn what upskilling means, why it matters in 2025, practical ways to implement it, and how Whatfix helps deliver it seamlessly in the flow of work.
What Is Upskilling?
Upskilling is the process of helping employees build new or advanced skills that strengthen their current roles and prepare them for evolving responsibilities. It focuses on adapting to new technologies, closing performance gaps, and future-proofing the workforce against rapid market and organizational changes.
Why Upskilling Matters in 2025
The latest World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 shows that 50% of workers have already undergone upskilling or reskilling, up from 41% in 2023, reflecting growing urgency to close skills gaps. This surge is driven by rapid AI adoption, automation, and digital transformation, which are reshaping roles across industries and demanding continuous skill renewal. For L&D leaders, investing in structured upskilling isn’t just beneficial but essential to maintain competitiveness, respond to rapid tech change, and align workforce capabilities with business strategy.
Upskilling vs. Reskilling: How to Choose
Upskilling and reskilling are two sides of the same workforce strategy but serve different purposes. Upskilling focuses on helping employees expand or deepen the skills they already use in their current roles. It ensures they can keep pace with new technologies, greater job complexity, or shifting business processes. Reskilling, on the other hand, prepares employees for entirely new roles when their current responsibilities are changing, declining in relevance, or being replaced by automation.
The table below highlights the key differences between the two approaches:
| Upskilling | Reskilling | |
| Purpose and focus | Enhances and adds to existing skills to improve performance and productivity in the current role. | Equips individuals with new skills for a different role, often in response to changing job demands or industry restructuring. |
| Driven by | The need to stay current with industry trends, technological advancements, and increasing job complexity within the same field is driven by the need to stay current. | Driven by fundamental changes in the job market, organizational restructuring, or the need to pivot to new career opportunities due to job obsolescence. |
| Outcome | Employees become more competent and can take on more complex or a greater variety of tasks within their current roles. | Employees transition to different roles or career paths, often within new departments or industries. |
| Organizational benefits | Helps improve the quality of work and productivity without significant changes to workforce composition. | Helps retain valued employees by transitioning them into emerging roles or sectors, thus adapting to industry changes without the need for extensive new hires. |
For L&D leaders, the practical decision of choosing between upskilling and reskilling comes down to business need. If a role continues to be critical but requires updated capabilities, upskilling will strengthen employee performance and productivity. On the other hand, if a role is being transformed or phased out, reskilling ensures talent can be redeployed into emerging functions without costly turnover or external hiring.
By using both strategies in balance, organizations can close immediate skills gaps while also building long-term workforce resilience.
Why Is Upskilling Important for the Future of Work?
Technology, markets, and job requirements are evolving at a pace most organizations struggle to match. Cloud platforms, automation, generative AI, and data-driven tools have shortened the shelf life of skills, creating a constant demand for new capabilities. Without structured upskilling, even newly hired employees risk falling behind soon after entering the workforce.
For L&D leaders, upskilling is critical for four reasons:
- Keeping pace with rapid tech change: New systems and digital tools are introduced every year, transforming how employees work. Upskilling ensures the workforce can adapt quickly, adopt new technologies effectively, and prevent productivity loss during transitions.
- Adapting to automation and AI: As automation and AI take on routine tasks, employees need to shift toward responsibilities that require human judgment, that is, oversight, ethical decision-making, and creative problem-solving. Upskilling in these areas ensures people remain essential to high-value work rather than displaced by technology.
- Staying competitive in the job market: Organizations that prioritize upskilling build reputations as learning-driven workplaces, making it easier to attract skilled candidates and retain high performers. At the same time, employees gain the technical and soft skills that help them advance into leadership roles.
- Closing widening skills gaps: Digital transformation has created gaps between what businesses need and what employees can deliver. Upskilling helps close this divide by preparing employees with industry-relevant capabilities, enabling teams to innovate and perform at higher levels.
When to Upskill
Upskilling should not be treated as a one-off initiative but as a continuous process triggered by clear business and workforce needs. For L&D leaders, the right moments to invest in upskilling include:
- During technology rollouts or digital transformation: Whenever new platforms, systems, or tools are introduced, employees need targeted training to adopt them effectively and avoid productivity dips.
- When automation or AI shifts job responsibilities: As routine tasks are automated, employees must develop higher-order skills like oversight, problem-solving, and data-driven decision-making, to stay relevant.
- Organizational change: Mergers, restructures, or process redesigns often redefine roles. Upskilling prepares employees to succeed in new workflows without slowing down business operations.
- For compliance and regulatory updates: Industries facing frequent policy changes such as healthcare, finance, or life sciences require ongoing upskilling to ensure employees remain compliant and reduce risk exposure.
- Employee growth and retention strategies: Offering structured upskilling pathways keeps top talent engaged, builds internal mobility, and reduces turnover costs.
Implementation Blueprint for Enterprise L&D
Upskilling has the greatest impact when it’s systematic. For L&D leaders, that means aligning programs with business outcomes, embedding learning into daily workflows, and measuring results consistently. Here’s a streamlined blueprint:
1. Conduct a skills gap analysis to identify needs and employees with transferable skills
Start by assessing your workforce’s current capabilities against future role requirements. Build an employee skills inventory to identify existing strengths, gaps, and transferable skills that can be developed quickly. This ensures investments target the most critical areas instead of spreading training too thin.
To help you conduct a skill gap analysis, you can download our free template:
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2. Build upskilling into your employee development plans
Link upskilling to both organizational objectives and individual career goals. When employees see training as part of their growth path and not just a corporate requirement, programs become more engaging and impactful. Embedding upskilling into employee development plans ensures learning is meaningful, personalized, and tied to long-term success.
3. Utilize a mix of training methods
Employees don’t all learn the same way, and relying on a single format limits the effectiveness of upskilling programs. A balanced approach that combines different methods helps reinforce knowledge, improves engagement, and ensures skills are applied on the job.
Key training methods include:
- On-the-job training and simulations: practical, hands-on training that allow employees to practice skills in real or risk-free environments.
- Microlearning in the flow of work: short, targeted lessons or in-app guidance that provide reinforcement without disrupting productivity.
- Social and collaborative learning: mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, and team-based problem solving that encourage knowledge sharing and skill transfer.
- Formal training programs: structured workshops, online courses, or certifications that build foundational and advanced expertise.
- AI-powered adaptive learning tools: platforms that personalize learning paths and content based on each employee’s skill gaps and pace.
- Blended learning frameworks: Models like the 70-20-10 rule combine experiential, social, and formal learning into a balanced program that maximizes impact.
A mix of these methods ensures employees can learn, apply, and retain skills effectively, while giving L&D leaders the flexibility to adapt programs to different business needs.
4. Set measurable goals
Define clear outcomes for each program using SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound). For example, set a goal for sales teams to achieve proficiency in two critical skills within six months. Incorporating training goals into performance reviews or incentive structures ensures accountability and buy-in.
4. Leverage enabling technologies
Technology makes scaling upskilling possible. Corporate LMSs provide structure for courses, LXPs deliver personalized learning experiences, and knowledge management systems centralize self-service resources. Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) add another layer by embedding guidance, reinforcement, and performance support directly in the flow of work.
5. Enable employees to learn in the flow of work
Traditional classroom-style training often fails to stick. Learning that is delivered in context, directly within applications and workflows, ensures employees immediately apply what they learn. DAPs support this by offering in-app interactive walkthroughs, nudges, and microlearning that reinforce skills without disrupting productivity.
6. Measure training effectiveness
Track both learner engagement and business impact. Metrics like workflow adoption rates, compliance completion, error reduction, and support ticket deflection connect training to tangible outcomes. Combine employee feedback and assessments with performance data to refine delivery and improve effectiveness.
How to Deliver Upskilling in the Flow of Work with a DAP
Traditional training often takes employees away from their work, making it hard to retain knowledge and apply it when it matters most. A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) solves this challenge by embedding learning directly into the applications employees use every day. With a DAP like Whatfix, L&D teams can:
Step-by-step guidance with Flows
Provide interactive walkthroughs that guide employees through complex processes, reinforcing skills as they complete real tasks in the moment of need.
Reinforcement with Task Lists
Automate spaced reinforcement by resurfacing tasks and reminders at set intervals, ensuring employees revisit and strengthen critical skills over time.
Just-in-time support with Self Help, Beacons, and Smart Tips
Give employees instant access to answers and contextual help without leaving their workflow, reducing dependency on support teams and boosting productivity.
Safe practice with Mirror and AI roleplay
Whatfix Mirror allows employees to rehearse workflows in a sandbox environment, or practice real-world scenarios through AI-driven roleplay. This creates a risk-free environment where learners can repeat processes, sharpen decision-making, and build confidence before applying skills on the job.
Measurement with Product Analytics
Track proficiency, adoption rates, and completion metrics to prove ROI and continuously refine upskilling programs based on real performance data.
Examples of Corporate Upskill Training Programs
Some of the world’s most recognizable enterprises have built competitive advantage by investing in their people. Here are some examples of successful corporate upskilling initiatives:
1. AlphaSights
To scale rapidly, AlphaSights shifted from traditional instructor-led training to employee-driven course creation using 360Learning. By empowering subject matter experts to author content, the company made training more role-specific and engaging. This approach boosted course completion rates to 95% and improved employee productivity.
2. Amazon
Through its Upskilling 2025 pledge, Amazon committed $1.2 billion to provide 300,000 employees with career pathways in fast-growing fields like IT, cloud, and UX design. Programs such as AWS training and IT apprenticeships equip employees with the skills needed for higher-paying, future-ready roles.
3. IBM
IBM made a global plan to provide 30 million people of all ages with new skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow by 2030. To achieve this goal, IBM announced a clear roadmap with more than 170 academic and industry partnerships. The plan relies on a broad combination of programs and includes collaborations with universities, key government entities, and NGOs. In general, IBM’s efforts mobilize the private sector across the globe to open and expand opportunity pathways for underrepresented and historically disadvantaged communities.
4. Mastercard
To remain competitive, Mastercard wanted to create a learning culture that would encourage its employees to build new skills. They decided to use Degreed as a platform that offers personalized learning experiences, creates career pathways, and helps employees connect to relevant content. There’s a breadth of content available on Degreed, including ‘bite-sized’ learning in the form of short articles, videos, and podcasts. This makes it easy for employees to engage with learning on the go.
5. ManpowerGroup
ManpowerGroup implemented Whatfix Digital Adoption Platform to upskill recruiters on Bullhorn ATS, a critical talent management system. Interactive Flows, Smart Tips, and in-app Self Help guided employees through key processes, improved data accuracy, and reduced reliance on traditional training.
According to Jill Busch, Director of L&D, “The in-system training is a game changer. Whatfix helped us move toward more current and innovative training solutions.”
Upskilling Clicks Better With Whatfix
Upskilling is most effective when it happens in the flow of work, not in one-off training sessions that employees quickly forget. Whatfix enables organizations to deliver continuous learning experiences directly inside the applications employees use every day. With step-by-step guidance, just-in-time support, AI roleplay, and analytics, Whatfix helps employees adopt new skills faster, reduces time-to-proficiency, and ensures training investments translate into measurable business outcomes.
See how Whatfix can help your workforce upskill in the flow of work. Request a demo today.
