Do Your Employee Skilling Initiatives Include Digital Credentials?

Today’s skilling initiatives are a critical component to an organization’s success. As companies aim to prepare their workforce for the future, Jonathan Finkelstein, CEO of Credly, addresses the need for digital credentials as a key part of their skilling arsenal. 

For several years, we have envisioned what a “new world of work” could look like. But over the last few months, realizing that vision went from an evolving process to a virtual overnight transformation. As we navigate and ultimately emerge from a global health pandemic and the resulting labor market disruption, organizations across all industries must embrace a new world of work.

It’s a world built upon essential principles: continuous upskilling and reskilling of employees within and across companies, learning as a benefit of employment, and a focus on equity and equal access to opportunity. These were emerging trends for many business leaders before the pandemic, but now they are a strategic imperative for everyone.

Organizations have come to appreciate the need to train and skill employees to navigate the pace of change in their respective industries and thrive long-term. This could be why 43% of employersOpens a new window have added more courses, training material, or users to their skilling programs since the initial outbreak of the virus earlier this year. And yet, skilling initiatives that future-proof a company and prepare its workforce for a new set of opportunities are only as good as their ability to send a clear signal about someone’s readiness to take on a new project or role.

Digital credentials are secure, portable representations of verified skills that travel with each person within and across different contexts. According to a recent study from DeloitteOpens a new window , 74% of organizations believe reskilling the workforce is important for their success over the next 12–18 months, but only 10% are ready to implement a plan to fulfill that demand for skills. As we prepare our workforce for the future, let’s look at why companies should shape their skilling initiatives with digital credentials as a critical component.

Learn More: How Automation and Reskilling Can Boost Employees’ Careers – And Your Bottom LineOpens a new window

Digital Credentials Drive Data-informed Decision Making

A significant benefit to digital credentials is the quality and volume of data embedded within them. This metadataOpens a new window is the foundation of a credential. It provides context around the achievement and skill, such as when the credential was issued, by whom, when or if it expires, the criteria for receiving it, proof of completion, and more.

This data and its ability to travel with each person who earned it make digital credentials so valuable. Organizations that rely on self-reported information to make human capital decisions operate with incomplete, inconsistent, and outdated information. They also exacerbate inequities and systemic biases in the workforce by relying on poor signals to determine readiness for the job at hand. Instead of relying on a stagnant paper certificate or an outdated profile, neither of which offer reliable data or insights into how or when a person came to acquire a specific skill, digital credentials paint the full picture in a trusted way.

Delivering training without also offering a trusted, data-rich, discoverable form of recognition is like a proverbial tree falling in the forest – did it really happen if no one is there to hear it?

Pairing learning outcomes with digital credentials ensures that investments in upskilling yield results in making the most critical organizational decisions – those about placing the right people in the right opportunities at the right time.

Learn More: How Digital Credentials Help Create a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

Digital Credentials Offer Recognition That Increases Employee Engagement

Many organizations use digital credentials to recognize their team’s accomplishments when it comes to upskilling and reskilling. Only 51% of workersOpens a new window are satisfied with the recognition they receive at work, which is why digital credentials are such a powerful tool to have in your employee recognition toolkit.

Providing employees with the ability to earn a credential after completing training demonstrates that you recognize the time and effort it took them to reach this milestone and shows you intend to rely on their newly developed human capital. As further recognition, employees can also share digital credentials on professional and social platforms to maximize the visibility of their accomplishments among their peers in the field and take their credentials with them as their career progresses. Learning and portable skills are an expected benefit of employment, and digital credentials make that benefit real, tangible, and useful.

Skilling Without Strategy Is a Strategic Dead End

As you consider a plan for your employees’ development, executing your skilling initiative without a strategy for how to put those skills to work might be a strategic dead end. Any type of learning and development program must map back to your organizational goals to be effective. By using digital credentials, you can align your skilling efforts with your overall strategy to meet your business goals. With the ability to make data-driven decisions with trusted and consistent information about people, you will be fully prepared to lead your team into the new world of work.

Why do you think digital credentials are an essential component of your skilling initiatives? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .