Reskilling can help you achieve your DEI Goals
Note: this is a companion blog to a conference presentation from October 2023. This blog is written with a German audience in mind, but even if you are not based in Germany, you may find this blog useful!
Many organizations I’ve worked with have very ambitious Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals but they also have limited resources to achieve them. When it comes to increasing diversity in tech, the work is especially challenging considering the lack of diversity in the industry overall. I want to present the concept of a Reskilling Program as a way to help you meet your DEI goals and maybe even solve some other challenges your organization is facing.
What challenges are we facing in recruiting tech talent?
- Underrepresentation: Women and individuals from diverse backgrounds are noticeably underrepresented, not just in technical roles but also in higher education programs that prepare them for a career in tech.
- High Barriers to Entry: Many tech roles demand extensive education, rendering them inaccessible to a broad audience. With roles requiring specific coding languages and specialties, it can be even more difficult to find talent that ticks all the boxes.
- Competition for Talent: All tech companies are generally competing for the same talent pool. Some companies have significant budgets for competitive salaries and perks as well as elaborate sourcing initiatives. If you have a modest budget, you are facing an uphill battle to attract talent.
- Changing Job Landscape: With automation and evolving job roles, many skilled people might find that their skills are no longer needed as AI changes the way work is done and makes many roles redundant.
Before delving into how reskilling addresses these challenges, what is reskilling?
Reskilling is the act of training employees or potential employees in new skill sets and readying them for a new role. Particularly in tech, reskilling offers opportunities for those previously without access to technical education or training to fully train and ultimately transition into a technical role such as software engineering or data analysis.
How does reskilling help us solve the challenges we are facing?
Reskilling can support you in meeting your diversity goals: it can directly help you increase the percentage of women and other underrepresented individuals in technical roles. It also creates pathways out of unemployment, supporting people who are currently unemployed or are at risk of unemployment to transition into new roles with a fresh skillset. You can also make your search for talent a bit easier by tailoring the training to match the specific skills of your job openings. On top of that, you may even be able to take advantage of governmental support that helps unemployed individuals access training at no cost to them.
How Does Reskilling Work?
Step 1: Start by committing to organize a reskilling program and make sure your HR team and tech hiring managers are aligned and have the roles to fill with the program.
Step 2: Collaborate with a partner who can administer the program and connect you to the right educators. I recommend checking out StartSteps which has already developed reskilling programs for several organizations.
Step 3: Tailor the curriculum to your needs: focusing on the specific tech stack you’re hiring for and what skills you want to build.
Step 4: Broadcast your program and recruit participants, whether they’re internal employees or external candidates who are currently unemployed and eligible for governmental support.
Step 5: Support the reskillers through mentorship and sharing insights about your organization, helping to prepare them for a future role within your company.
What Impact Does Reskilling Have?
For reskillers, a program can be life-changing.
Many people have the desire to transition into a technical career but faced hurdles in the past while trying to reskill on their own. A reskilling program provides the needed support to help someone build the skills and ultimately transition into a technical role.
A reskilling program helps people overcome limitations they’ve faced in the past, such as lack of education opportunities or support from family.
It can also help develop the next generation by creating role models who have successfully transitioned into tech, inspiring others to follow.
And most importantly, a program creates substantial economic empowerment for the reskillers. For example: someone transitioning from a customer service role can achieve a 2–3x salary increase in just a few years, with a significantly higher lifetime earning potential. This creates economic empowerment not just for them individually but for their families as well.
The impact for your organization is significant.
A reskilling program can help you achieve your DEI goals, but how? Let’s say your organization has 500 tech roles. You develop a program to reskill women into tech and you are able to fill 25 vacant roles with reskillers. At the culmination of the program, you can increase the percentage of women in tech by up to 5%. When companies in Germany employ an average of only 17% women in tech, a 5% jump is huge.
You will also have higher retention rates for the reskillers as they feel valued and supported and are more likely to stay. From an employer branding perspective, you have a fantastic lighthouse program to broadcast to potential applicants, showcasing your commitment to diversity. Finally, depending on how you design the program, it is likely more cost-effective compared to trying to attract and hire diverse senior talent.
So, how does reskilling support the future of work?
Five years from now, the workplace will look different than it does now. To address automation and shifting job criteria, reskilling introduces agility in recruitment, enabling existing and potential employees to adapt to new roles. As workplaces evolve, embracing flexibility and remote working, reskilling can create opportunities for people who previously were left out of the job market because of their geographic location or responsibilities at home.
As DEI in the workplace becomes a standard expectation of employees and job candidates (as well as a priority for regulators), organizations will need to show a serious commitment to DEI, with tangible initiatives. A structured program for reskilling and talent development is exactly the type of measurable DEI initiative that demonstrates a clear commitment to DEI. And lastly, the future will empower employees to dictate their career trajectories: mid-career shifts will become more routine. Reskilling is primed to be at the heart of this evolution.
If you are interested in learning more about reskilling, I’d encourage you to check out the work of StartSteps.
