Upskilling and reskilling: differences, benefits and how to implement them

The shortage of qualified talent is one of the main challenges organizations face today. Upskilling and reskilling are the two training strategies that allow companies to close those gaps from within, without relying solely on new hires.

What are upskilling and reskilling? Key differences and definitions

Upskilling is the process by which an employee improves and expands their existing competencies to perform better in their current role or take on greater responsibility within it. Reskilling, on the other hand, involves training a professional in entirely new skills so they can transition to a different position within the organization.

Both strategies share a common goal: retaining internal talent and adapting it to business needs, avoiding the cost and time involved in external hiring.

The following table summarizes the key differences between both concepts to help decision-making based on each organization’s context:

Alongside these two concepts, it is worth knowing two complementary variants that are gaining relevance in the most advanced L&D strategies: right-skilling — identifying exactly which skills each person needs at any given time, no more, no less — and cross-skilling, which trains employees in the competencies of other areas to increase team versatility.

Why upskilling and reskilling are a priority in 2026–2027

The labor market is evolving at an unprecedented pace. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, 39% of current skills will become obsolete within the next five years, driven primarily by the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation. In terms of employment, 23% of jobs are expected to change before 2027, with the creation of 69 million new jobs and the disappearance of 83 million.

For HR and L&D teams, this has a direct implication: competency obsolescence cycles have shortened dramatically. What is a critical skill today may become outdated in 18–24 months. Organizations that do not invest in continuously developing their teams’ competencies will face talent gaps that no external recruitment process can fill with the necessary agility.

By 2027, demand for profiles capable of working alongside AI systems, managing data and leading teams in hybrid environments will grow significantly. This makes upskilling and reskilling strategic levers for competitiveness and business continuity, not just another training option.

This approach to lifelong learning is part of what is known as Lifelong Learning: the commitment to continuous training as the core axis of the talent strategy. You can explore how to implement it in your organization in our continuous training guide.

If your company already has a defined upskilling strategy, the challenge lies in executing it systematically and measurably. If you don’t have one yet, the first step is identifying where the gaps are.

The importance of reskilling and upskilling in companies: challenges and opportunities

Companies today are looking for workers with very different skills from those valued just five years ago. This is where reskilling proves its value: it allows organizations to retain employees with valuable qualities — business knowledge, culture, internal relationships — rather than replacing them with external profiles when their roles become obsolete.

Upskilling, for its part, is key to gaining competitive advantage in the market. Through this strategy, organizations respond to leadership demands and ensure the longevity of certain professional careers. According to a McKinsey study, 53% of business leaders point to skills development as the best way to close existing talent gaps.

Good management of this process starts with having visibility into the team’s current competencies. Tools such as skills management allow this information to be centralized and training decisions to be made based on real data.

How to tell if your company needs upskilling or reskilling

Before designing any training program, it is essential to conduct an internal diagnosis that cross-references the team’s current competencies with short and medium-term business objectives. Without this prior analysis, training programs lose focus and effectiveness.

Signs that indicate a skills gap

• Increasingly long recruitment processes to fill specific positions, indicating a shortage of that profile in the market.
• High turnover in key roles, especially in technical or digital areas.
• Growing dependence on external providers for tasks that should be handled internally.
• Recurring project delays due to a lack of specific competencies within the team.

Skills audit: the starting point

The formal diagnosis is structured through a skills audit or inventory that identifies which competencies currently exist in the organization and which will be needed in the next 12–18 months. The key steps are:

• Assess current levels through performance analysis, self-assessments and manager feedback.
• Build a skills map that cross-references existing roles with the critical competencies for each one.
• Detect obsolescence: if a key competency will become outdated in less than 18 months, upskilling or reskilling must be planned immediately.
• Prioritize the gaps with the greatest impact on revenue, efficiency or customer experience.

To dive deeper into this methodology, see our guide on skills taxonomy, which explains how to classify and structure your organization’s competencies in a scalable way.

Benefits of reskilling and upskilling for companies and employees

Upskilling and reskilling programs generate value in two directions simultaneously: for the organization and for the employee. They foster a learning culture that differentiates companies from competitors and builds more agile, creative and committed teams.

For companies

• Greater productivity: employees trained in the skills the business truly needs perform better and more efficiently, with a direct impact on results.
• Talent retention: lack of development opportunities is one of the main causes of turnover. Investing in training demonstrates a commitment to employees’ professional growth.
• Reduced recruitment costs: filling vacancies internally can save up to 20% compared to the cost of an external hire, according to McKinsey data.
• Adaptability to change: teams trained in new competencies respond better to technological disruptions, market shifts or new lines of business.
• Competitive advantage: an up-to-date, versatile workforce enables better service, faster innovation and market differentiation.

For employees

• Real professional development: access to relevant training increases employability and opens new career opportunities both within and outside the organization.
• Greater motivation and engagement: employees who feel the company is investing in them feel more valued and committed to their goals.
• Security against automation: developing new competencies reduces the risk of one’s own role becoming obsolete due to technology.

Key skills to develop in reskilling and upskilling programs

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report illustrates how skills demand has evolved: when first published in 2016, companies projected that 35% of workplace competencies would be affected within five years. That percentage has scaled to 44% in more recent editions, and will continue to grow with the adoption of new technologies.

Understanding the skills of the future is the starting point for prioritizing your training program. These are the most in-demand:

1. Creative thinking

Employees with initiative and creativity do not limit themselves to following instructions: they create their own opportunities. Organizations are increasingly seeking profiles with creative capacity, originality and initiative that adapt agilely to changing environments.

2. Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

Technical skills are as important as soft skills. Understanding and using AI technologies and data analytics are already a training priority in most organizations, alongside design and user experience skills. Structuring these competencies within a clear skills taxonomy facilitates their systematic development.

3. Leadership

An influential leader is able to align their team with the company’s values, mission and culture. Effective leadership is essential for working with people’s ideas and directing them toward the organization’s strategic objectives.

4. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence includes self-control, assertive communication, active listening and empathy. According to a Capgemini study, organizations with employees of high emotional intelligence achieve up to 20% more profit. It is one of the most in-demand skills among companies today.

5. Stress management

The ability to handle tensions effectively — identifying their triggers and applying strategies to minimize their impact — improves job satisfaction, wellbeing and workplace climate. A skill particularly valued since the pandemic.

How to implement an upskilling or reskilling plan in your company

Designing an effective upskilling or reskilling program requires a structured approach. Here are the steps to follow:

Assess the company’s needs

To successfully implement an upskilling and reskilling strategy, you must first assess and prioritize the most urgent skills among your employees. These competencies must adapt to the new work environment to achieve immediate objectives, but it is also important to think ahead and include skills the business will need in the future.

Study the existing skills of employees

Just as it is necessary to map skills gaps, it is equally important to identify the knowledge your team already has. The organization’s competencies should be compiled in a database that makes it possible to identify which employees can most easily transition to other roles. Tools like a competency map make this process visual and actionable.

Detect training needs

Once the gaps are known, the next step is to translate them into concrete training needs. This involves prioritizing by business impact and defining what type of training — upskilling or reskilling — each group requires. See our guide on how to identify training needs to apply a proven methodology.

Provide tools that guarantee an effective learning experience

To provide an effective learning experience, you need to choose a platform that not only offers courses in the most in-demand skills, but can also be constantly updated to reflect the latest trends. Opt for a comprehensive solution covering everything from technical competencies to soft skills, with interactive content — videos, simulations, practical activities and assessments — and flexible access anytime, anywhere. See our complete guide on how to structure a corporate training plan.

Design the training plan

With needs identified and tools selected, it’s time to design learning pathways tailored to each group. The most effective plans combine social learning, deliberate practice and structured cohorts. Consider formats such as microcredentials, learning in the flow of work or cross-mentoring to increase adoption and real transfer to the job.

Encourage continuous learning

Often, the prospect of having to learn new skills can be daunting for some employees. To help them, it is essential to maintain active communication that helps them understand the importance of continuous learning, both for the company’s sustainability and for their own professional development. Always remember to collect and analyze progress data to adjust the program wherever necessary.

Measure the ROI of your upskilling and reskilling program

For an upskilling and reskilling program to be sustainable over time, it must demonstrate measurable impact. These are the key metrics to track:

• Business indicators: reduced time-to-productivity following a role transition, lower turnover in key roles, improved customer NPS, reduced backlog and lower dependence on external providers.
• Talent indicators: percentage of vacancies filled through internal mobility, training pathway completion rates, number of certifications obtained per group.
• Simplified ROI calculation: (estimated benefit – total cost) / total cost. The benefit includes savings on external recruitment, productivity improvements and reductions in operating costs.

Platforms such as isEazy LMS provide real-time tracking dashboards that connect training data with business results, facilitating this reporting to leadership.

Discover how isEazy helped Telefónica with Spain’s largest reskilling plan

Reskilling and upskilling give employees the opportunity to acquire new skills, knowledge and competencies, making them active participants in the organization’s growth and success. A great example is Telefónica’s learning transformation, the leading Spanish telecommunications infrastructure company.

Through Spain’s largest reskilling plan, Telefónica achieved that 93% of its employees completed at least one training activity, incorporating more than 1,185 courses across various subjects, thus transforming its learning model to provide more comprehensive training. Discover how they did it →

The future of reskilling and upskilling: trends and predictions for 2027

Technological evolution and changes in the labor market make reskilling and upskilling indispensable for companies that want to remain competitive and innovative. The 2027 horizon points to a radical transformation in these processes, driven by the impact of artificial intelligence, automation and new learning methodologies.

Impact of artificial intelligence and automation

AI and automation are already key players in the corporate landscape, reshaping industries and redefining professional roles. Their impact on upskilling and reskilling is profound, bringing both new opportunities and challenges that L&D teams must anticipate:

• Real-time skills gap identification: AI enables critical skills to be mapped by cross-referencing market demands with internal competencies. Predictive analytics tools can anticipate which roles will be most affected by automation in the next 12–18 months.
• Personalized learning at scale: AI systems adapt training pathways to each employee’s needs, pace and learning style, making upskilling more efficient and with a higher transfer rate to the job.
• Automation of repetitive tasks: as AI absorbs administrative and basic analytical tasks, employees must transition to functions requiring critical thinking, creativity and advanced digital skills — the natural territory of reskilling.
• Emerging new roles: profiles such as the AI trainer, data ethics specialist or automation coordinator are generating demand for entirely new competencies that did not exist five years ago.

New learning methodologies for 2027

Beyond technology, the way people learn is changing rapidly. Innovative methodologies are making learning more efficient, accessible and motivating, and they will set the training agenda for 2027:

• Microlearning: small doses of content that can be consumed quickly and are gaining popularity. Ideal for employees with busy schedules, these micro-courses promote high information retention and can be easily accessed from mobile devices. Continuous training in micro format is already the norm in the most advanced organizations.
• Immersive learning: virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are revolutionizing training. Employees can experience real-world scenarios — sales simulations, safety training, new role onboarding — in a safe environment with no real consequences.
• Collaborative learning: platforms that foster knowledge exchange between colleagues — communities of practice, cross-mentoring, structured cohorts — accelerate competency transfer and reinforce the learning culture within the organization.

• Learning in the flow of work: integrating learning into the workflow itself — through learning pills, conversational AI assistants or resources accessible at the moment of need — reduces friction and increases adoption without requiring additional training time.
• Right-skilling: beyond upskilling and reskilling, right-skilling focuses on developing exactly the competencies each person needs at any given moment — no more, no less — optimizing training investment and maximizing business impact.

How isEazy can help you execute your upskilling and reskilling strategy

Designing an upskilling or reskilling program is just the first step. The key is having the right tools to execute it with agility, track results and adapt it as business needs evolve.

isEazy Skills provides the most comprehensive competency catalog on the market — soft skills, digital skills and power skills — with a 100% practical methodology that facilitates real transfer to the job. If you also need to create custom training content for specific reskilling programs, isEazy Author lets you produce interactive e-learning courses quickly and without any technical knowledge required.

To manage, distribute and measure the impact of all training — including ROI tracking by program — isEazy LMS centralizes the experience in an intuitive platform with real-time dashboards. And when upskilling programs also require reinforcement of internal communication and team engagement, isEazy Engage complements training with tools designed for distributed teams and hybrid work environments.

If you’d like to see how everything fits your context, you can start with a free trial or consult our guide on how to structure a corporate training plan.