L&D leaders can support organizational agility through skills training

Employees in different functions have different learning needs—but what those needs are might take L&D leaders by surprise. Given the rapid pace of change in today’s business world, the skills required to succeed in any job are also quickly changing.

“Leaders recognize that business success requires organizational agility, and learning is the fuel to make that happen,” LinkedIn’s VP of talent development, Linda Jingfang Cai, wrote in a recent blog post. “Collectively, we build an adaptable and growth-oriented workforce that can respond quickly to market challenges and emerging opportunities.”

Following up on a finding from a September 2022 LinkedIn report that one-quarter of the skills required for jobs today are different from those required in 2015, LinkedIn identified the most in-demand skills today by job function in its 2023 Workplace Learning Report. To do so, it analyzed data from job postings and the skills possessed by candidates who were either contacted by recruiters or hired in the past six months.

The results reaffirm previous findings that “soft skills” like management, communication, and leadership are valuable for most roles. These accounted for three of the top six trending skills across all jobs in September 2022, as well as problem-solving, time-management, and strategy. The 2023 report broke this down further by job function.

For example, for those in marketing, finance/accounting, or project management, interpersonal skills including teamwork and customer service are in-demand. While some functions are not client facing, they may serve different company stakeholders.

LinkedIn’s report also found career development and internal mobility to be key to retention. Employees who made an internal move had a 75% chance of staying at the company for over two years, while those who did not had a 56% likelihood of staying that long.

L&D leaders can use this information to help advocate for their budget or a say in HR strategy decisions.

“As talent developers, we have a seat at the table,” Jingfang Cai wrote. “The C-suite’s top workforce priority is ‘keeping employees motivated and engaged.’ Their second priority is ‘giving employees opportunities to move into different roles within the business.’”—AK