How to Tell If Your Reskilling Efforts Are Working

There is a notable surge in the global appetite for AI and information processing skills (automation, generative AI, big data, AR, and VR). In India, this trend leads more people to take AI and automation training, which companies often support. According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 86% of Indian businesses seek to upskill and reskill their existing workforces in key emerging technologies, with 75% of leaders positive that this will help them deliver business goals in the upcoming years.

Yet historically, even substantial investments in reskilling initiatives have yielded underwhelming outcomes for some businesses. A key reason is that these companies haven't found a reliable way to measure the ROI of their organizational reskilling programs.

While tracking training completions or certifications is basic (and typically routine), measuring the impact—whether the investment in learning has conceivably translated to demonstrable skills and achievement of business goals—may be a relatively challenging (albeit not unattainable) task.

This article seeks to uncover strategies for calculating the return on reskilling investments, including how reskilling initiatives can be more effective.

What is Reskilling?

Reskilling is helping workforces learn and adopt new skills, primarily to equip them to perform evolving jobs effectively. The aim is to move someone from one role or function to another, often in response to technological changes, customer demand, or business strategy.

However, an important distinction can be made between upskilling and reskilling:

• Upskilling refers to improving skills within the same job.

• Reskilling means upgrading skills to move from one function or role to another.

Reskilling is a long-term strategy to stay sustainable and competent in the job market.

Are Your Reskilling Efforts Working? Here’s How to Tell 

Staying competitive in the current job market requires building new capabilities across the workforce. Below are a few considerations for employers to determine whether their reskilling efforts are yielding the intended results: 

1. Analyzing the application of new skills on the job

Beyond training completion, tracking the real-time application of new skills and knowledge is necessary to assess training effectiveness. For example, the training may have been ineffective if an executive was trained to maneuver a customer support device but continued to use an outdated system.

A few ways to track whether trained individuals are deploying new skills include 

• Seeking input from managers to determine if there is an observable improvement in different functions.

• Tracking uptake of new tools, systems, and processes.

• Performance reviews or check-ins may include skill application assessment.

2. Tracking delivery of outcomes

A clear indicator of successful reskilling efforts is improved outcomes. Organizations may proactively define the business outcomes they intend to measure once the program concludes. Reskilling impact goals typically include

• Targeted business goals, such as increasing talent availability within the organization, enabling AI adoption, or improving the employer brand

• Workforce productivity includes a noticeable improvement in the performance of employees in their roles.

• Talent retention, such as targeted reductions in employee turnover, either overall or within critical positions.

• Operational efficiency, for example, refers to reducing the time it takes to integrate a new employee into an organization.

Different companies may have other ambitions and goals they seek to realize by deploying reskilling initiatives. If there is no noticeable improvement in those specific business or people objectives, the root cause may be examined. However, it should be noted that training outcomes may not be immediately apparent. Further, a lack of improvement in outcomes or fulfillment of goals may not necessarily mean that reskilling has been ineffective but that further refinement is necessary.

3. Tracking retention and engagement

Improvement in employee engagement may be a compelling indicator of the success of a reskilling initiative. Investing in employee growth and progress can increase the likelihood of retention and loyalty toward an organization. A few signs that might indicate greater engagement include

• Positive feedback.

• Lower turnover rates in teams that underwent reskilling.

• Increased participation in new learning opportunities.

Strategies to Make Reskilling More Effective

Many companies struggle to measure the actual impact of their reskilling efforts. Building an effective measurement mechanism is inherently challenging. Even if there’s evidence that an employee's performance has improved post-training, it’s difficult to determine whether the change was driven by the program or other factors like self-motivation, manager support, etc. Further, the learning results are rarely immediate, and there may be no single, universally accepted metric or framework for gauging impact. Therefore, practical steps may be taken to ensure that reskilling efforts are thoughtfully designed to deliver meaningful value. 

1. Setting clear goals

Clear, specific, and measurable goals may be defined before implementing any reskilling initiative to track which particular problems are being solved and ensure investments are justified. These include closing a department's skills gap, reducing reliance on external hires, or preparing employees for new technological advancements.

    2. Having realistic timeline expectations

Many employers expect reskilling programs to demonstrate their value immediately, or at least while underway. The impact often becomes visible only when KPIs are evaluated at the end of the year or even beyond. Nevertheless, organizations may set a specific timeline and stay committed to it; clearly defined KPIs and a set completion date can make a significant difference.

    3. Testing the impact of initiatives before rolling them out

Rolling out a reskilling program company-wide without testing its impact may be avoided. In some cases, for instance, a virtual meetup set up to improve team bonding in a remote work setup may be measured using a simple employee survey. However, an AI upskilling program might require rigorous A/B testing to ensure the target impact has been achieved.

Leaders may select one or more teams or departments to train and develop, measure the return on learning investment, compare the value of different initiatives, and then scale them after making necessary adjustments.

4. Early manager involvement

Managers are critical in ensuring that reskilling initiatives are delivered as intended. Managers may be trained to support employees through reskilling initiatives, including making sure new learnings are being applied to different functions without fail.

Training managers may include:

• Reinforcing new skills and behaviors.

• Offering ongoing feedback. 

• Recognizing and reporting improvements.

• Providing input to align training initiatives with team goals.

5. Celebrating progress

The impact of reskilling efforts on organizational outcomes may be acknowledged and celebrated to build and sustain momentum. For instance, an improvement in the response time or the successful progression of a junior employee into a higher position due to new skills learning and application—these success stories may be shared within and across departments. This visibility into tangible outcomes from reskilling initiatives can encourage greater employee enrollment and reinforce learning values.

Conclusion

Companies unanimously agree that reskilling is a strategic imperative; however, significant progress remains, including in measuring and evaluating reskilling efforts, which is key to the success of reskilling implementation.

Reskilling is a tactical move that organizations employ to help their existing workforces grow sustainably towards progress and consequently, drive overarching business objectives. Successful reskilling may reflect in business outcomes as increased effectiveness in solving problems, improved performance, higher engagement, and greater commitment towards the company. For businesses, an increased ability to drive scalability, facilitate technological transformations, and survive evolving markets may be observed.