Encourage learning

Foster a culture of learning

A culture that supports skill development doesn't develop overnight, and it can't take root without buy-in.

• Let your team know that they can skill up during work hours.
• Publicly recognize individual and team progress rather than setting a required minimum of learning time.
• Encourage your team to download the Skills mobile apps (opens in new tab) to help them maximize downtime, such as a commute.
• Block out upskilling time for an hour a day or a few hours a week on your team's calendars so time for learning is already carved out for them.
• Encourage your team's growth and engagement by introducing them to Skill IQ and Role IQ.

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Recognize standout learners

Recognition is a great way to let your team feel appreciated for their efforts. And with the rapid pace of technology change, their success is your success.

Send dedicated announcements outside of your regular communications cadence to spread the word of individual successes. Or recognize their achievements in 1:1s, all-hands, or other creative ways to help them feel appreciated.

You can also encourage your team to achieve relevant certifications and recognize and reward those who do.

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Boost engagement

Continued upskilling isn’t an easy task for everyone. Support your learners with campaigns that communicate both the relevance and fun of learning.

We recommend running at least four campaigns per year to create a culture of continuous learning. But do what works best for your organization depending on goals, number of teams, and bandwidth.

See our Engagement program template (PDF, opens in new tab) for the following campaign ideas that you can tailor to increase engagement, boost usage, and help your employees upskill.

Strategic upskilling

Tie your learning goals to your tech organization's tangible objectives to drive upskilling in the most powerful way. Use the following campaigns to demonstrate this alignment:

• Channel share by an executive
• Team enablement sessions

Gamification

Engage your team to build important skills by setting up friendly competitions. Set goals and offer prizes using the following campaigns:

• Bingo program
• Advent calendar
• Skill IQ power hour
• Reskill power hour

Self-guided learning

Use the following campaigns to create a culture that supports skill development:

• Executive-led dedicated dedicated learning time
• Learning champions/ambassador program
• Accountability partners

Upskilling as an HR tool

Use these campaigns to stand out as an organization with an established culture focused on continuous career development and engaged learning:

• Tie-in with performance management
• Coaching support
• Peer group team meetings

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Get creative

The ideas above are just the beginning. Let your creativity and your organization's unique needs shape the development of campaigns that will resonate with your teams.

Upskilling program best practices

When you're thinking about how to implement an upskilling campaign, consider the following:

Start with the why

• Link the organization’s goals with required skills and emphasize everyone's role in achieving them.
• Ensure that leaders and teams understand the critical importance of upskilling.
• Have the CTO or another executive send motivational emails highlighting the strategic relevance of the upskilling program.
• Appoint champions within teams to advocate for the importance and benefits of upskilling to their peers.

Make it easy

• Provide clear instructions for how to get started, use channels, and take Skill IQs.
• Use varied communications (email, Slack, video, meetings) to share info about the upskilling program.
• Equip champions to answer questions and provide guidance.
• Enable Iris AI assistant on your plan and show your team how to use it to find relevant content.

Drive accountability

• Empower leaders to track progress on Skill IQs and learning hours.
• Use analytics to create leaderboards based on Skill IQ, content taken, Skill ups, or similar.
• Take the time to learn from both early adopters and stragglers.
• Have champions present knowledge-share briefings and curate channels with content they found most valuable.

Have fun and celebrate

• Host a kickoff event with food (who doesn’t love free lunch?) to start the upskilling challenge.
• Publish your leaderboards and have the CTO congratulate top performers.
• Offer competitions with rewards, such as physical prizes, vouchers, or mentoring opportunities.
• Share testimonials on learning impact, highlighting productivity gains.

Demonstrating ROI

We’ve found that learners get 9% more productive in their role after four weeks of learning with Pluralsight Skills. That's an additional 3.6 hours of output per week per person.

Try one of the following ideas and use the insights gained from analytics to demonstrate the effectiveness of adding upskilling campaigns to your tech strategy:

• Set up challenges based on how many Skill iQs or Role IQs your team members have taken, or by proficiency increased over time.
• See who can start a path first, or finish a certain amount of paths in a set amount of time.
• Set up a competition on how many hours your team can log in 30, 60, or even 90 days.
• Create a company channel and add your team. Celebrate team members who finish first, or finish in the least amount of time.
• Create a course club (PDF, opens in new tab) for your learners. Like in a book club, learners watch the selected course and then discuss what they’ve learned, either synchronously in a meeting or asynchronously in your organization’s communication tool. If you’re using Tech Foundations in conjunction with Skills, you can also use a topic instead of a Skills course.

Is there a program that worked well for your team? Send your story to Pluralsight success stories (opens email form).

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What's next

Know what's new. Stay on top of what's new in the Skills platform, skill up new team members, and get help when you need it.