By Dr. Alex Joseph Martin-Smith, DBA, MBA, LL.M, CMgr – CEO of Upleashed®

I’ve spent over two decades immersed in the world of digital transformation and organisational capability. In my career to date, I’ve had the privilege of working across industries and continents; from implementing skills matrices in UK financial firms to driving capability development in US aerospace teams. Along the way, my proprietary skills matrix solution from Upleashed® and ability6® has delivered far in excess of 92.5 million skills assessments worldwide, giving us unique insights into what helps people and businesses thrive. As the CEO of Upleashed and creator of our Capability Policy, I have led thousands of successful skills matrix implementations globally. Through these experiences, I’ve developed a deep belief that skills are a strong force for good. In other words, when we help individuals grow their skills, we don’t just improve business performance; we uplift lives and communities.

I’m writing this article to share why continually developing your workforce’s skills is absolutely critical, now more than ever, and to offer practical steps any leader can take, without a big budget, to build a vibrant learning culture. Whether you lead a for-profit enterprise or a non-profit organisation, my goal is to provide evidence-based insights, drawn from both research and my own journey, that will inspire you to make skill development a top priority.

The Strategic and Economic Case for Continuous Skill Development

Continuous workforce skill development is not a luxury, it’s a strategic imperative. New technologies and evolving business models are reshaping job requirements faster than ever. According to the World Economic Forum, 50% of all employees will require at least some ‘reskilling’ by the end of 2025 as automation and digitalisation accelerate. Moreover, the very skill sets needed for jobs are in flux: research indicates they have changed by roughly 25% since 2015 and will change by about 50% by 2027. In other words, half of what your team knows today could become outdated in just a few years. Organisations that don’t actively promote learning risk falling behind more agile competitors.

Beyond adapting to change, developing employee capabilities makes strong business sense. Multiple studies have shown a high return on investment from training and upskilling. One landmark analysis by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) found that companies with comprehensive training programs have 218% higher income per employee and 24% higher profit margins than those that invest less in training. The message is clear: nurturing talent isn’t just an HR initiative, it’s a financial strategy. When employees grow, so does the bottom line.

Perhaps the most immediate economic benefit of continuous skill development is improved employee retention. Put simply, if you don’t help your people grow, they’ll look for opportunities elsewhere. In one survey, 86% of employees said they would leave their job for an employer offering more professional development, yet 94% said they would stay longer if their company invested in their career growth. Losing talented staff is costly; especially for resource-strapped sectors like non-profits, nearly 50% of whose leaders cite staff recruitment and retention as their biggest challenge. Replacing an employee can cost an estimated six to nine months of that employee’s salary in recruiting, onboarding and lost productivity costs. By contrast, creating learning opportunities helps keep valued team members on board, saving these turnover costs and preserving organisational knowledge. In my own experience, when people see a future with your organisation, a path to build new skills and advance, they are far less likely to jump ship! Consistently developing your employees’ skills thus not only fills current capability gaps, it also builds loyalty and engagement that translate into a more stable, high-performing workforce. 👏

Continuous development of your workforce also drives innovation and agility. A strong learning culture encourages people to experiment, improve processes, and adopt new technologies ahead of the curve. Research bears this out: organisations with a robust learning culture are 92% more likely to innovate (develop novel products and processes), 52% more productive, and 17% more profitable than their peers. They are also considerably more adaptable, when market conditions shift, their employees have the breadth of skills and growth mindset to pivot quickly. In fact, companies that prioritise learning see substantially higher engagement and retention rates (30–50% higher) than those that don’t. The strategic payoff from continuous skill building is evident in these numbers. When you invest in your people’s capabilities, they pay it back through greater innovation, efficiency and commitment. As a leader, it’s hard to think of any other investment with such clear and multifaceted returns.

Human and Psychological Benefits of Growing Your People

While the business case for skill development is compelling, the human case is just as powerful. At its heart, continuous learning feeds a basic psychological need for growth and fulfillment. Employees are not cogs in a machine, they’re people driven by the desire to develop mastery and make progress in their careers. When you as a leader support that desire, you unlock higher levels of motivation, engagement, and performance in your team.

Consider the impact on morale and engagement when employees see their workplace as a place of growth. Providing training and development sends a signal: we value you and want to invest in your future. That message dramatically boosts how people feel about their jobs. It’s no surprise that surveys find a strong link between learning opportunities and employee engagement. For example, 80% of workers reported that the chance to learn new skills would increase their engagement at work. People are simply more enthusiastic and devoted on the job when they’re growing and expanding their abilities. On the flip side, a lack of development leads to boredom, frustration, and disengagement. No one wants to feel stuck in a dead-end role. By cultivating a learning environment, you keep work interesting and challenging in a positive way. Team members who are regularly acquiring new skills tend to be more confident in their abilities and more willing to take initiative, which creates a virtuous cycle of productivity and satisfaction.

Continuous skill development also nourishes what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a “growth mindset.” In a growth mindset, individuals believe they can improve their talents through effort and learning, as opposed to seeing abilities as fixed. Cultivating this mindset in your organisation has profound benefits. Employees with a growth mindset embrace challenges, strive to learn, and consistently see potential to develop new skills. They are more resilient in the face of setbacks because they view failures as learning opportunities rather than roadblocks. Over time, this creates a workforce that is adaptable, optimistic, and unafraid to tackle new problems, exactly the kind of team that thrives amid change. In my own journey, I’ve seen how transforming the culture in this way can uplift people. When individuals realise their employer genuinely wants to help them grow, it unlocks their enthusiasm and potential. They begin to set higher personal goals, whether that’s learning a new software, improving their public speaking, or gaining a certification. And as they achieve these goals, their self-efficacy soars. They carry themselves with more confidence and contribute at a higher level.

The human value of continuous development extends far beyond the workplace. We often speak of organisations needing agility, but continuous learning also gives individuals agility in their careers and lives. Employees who build a broad portfolio of skills are better equipped to step into new roles, whether within your organisation or beyond it. In a world where specific jobs can disappear overnight, adaptable skills provide stronger career security. Just as importantly, when people feel their work is helping them progress personally, it becomes more meaningful. They experience higher levels of job satisfaction, confidence, and overall wellbeing.

This effect can be particularly profound in non-profit organisations, where mission-driven staff gain new capabilities that amplify their impact on the communities or causes they serve. For example, training a non-profit team in the latest digital outreach skills not only strengthens organisational performance but also enables them to reach and serve more people, increasing their positive impact on society.

In this way, developing your workforce’s skills creates a ripple effect: it uplifts individual lives and, by extension, their families and communities. As I often say, “skills are a force for good” – Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith. Every new skill learned is a small but powerful victory. It boosts self-belief, opens new opportunities, and often sparks a desire to keep learning. It is also deeply personal. Skills can lead to promotions and increased earnings, which in turn may enable someone to pay their first rent or mortgage, gain independence, buy a car, care for family members or pets, build social connections, or even start a family amounts so many things – its the catalyst for how we can improve our personal lives. In this sense, skill development is intrinsically linked to personal milestones and life achievements.

By prioritising continuous development, you meet not only a business need but also a deeply human one; the need to keep growing. In turn, you foster a more passionate, purpose-driven workforce. When people are growing, they bring more of their best selves to work and to the world.

Building a Culture of Continuous Learning

To reap these benefits, skill development cannot be a one-off program, it needs to be embedded in your organisational culture. Culture is essentially “how we do things here,” and a culture of continuous learning means that improvement and development are part of everyday work life. In such an environment, curiosity is encouraged, knowledge is freely shared, and time is regularly set aside for learning at all levels. People no longer see training as a rare interruption to “real work”; instead, learning is part of the real work.

Shaping this kind of culture starts with leadership. Leaders must actively champion learning through both words and actions. It’s crucial to communicate a clear vision that developing capabilities is a core value and strategic priority. Just as importantly, leaders need to model the behavior, for example, by engaging in learning themselves, sharing what they’ve learned, and making a point to recognise team members who pursue growth. When the CEO or department head openly talks about books they’re reading or new skills they’re practicing, it sends a powerful message that learning is appreciated, not punished. Contrast this with an old-school culture where admitting you don’t know something is seen as a weakness. In a learning culture, not knowing is simply seen as the first step to finding out. There is an atmosphere of psychological safety in which employees can say “I’m not expert at this yet, but I’d like to learn” without fear. This encourages junior and senior staff alike to continuously update their skill sets.

One practical hallmark of a learning culture is giving employees ownership of their development. That means encouraging each person to identify skills they want or need to build and providing avenues for them to pursue those goals. Managers in a learning culture act more like coaches than taskmasters, they work with employees to create individual development plans, suggest new learning experiences, and support them through challenges. Regular career conversations replace the ‘once-a-year’ check-box training review. When people feel supported in this way, their engagement soars. They know their growth is not only in their own interest but is actively supported by their leaders. It creates a strong mutual loyalty: the organisation is investing in them, so in turn they invest their discretionary effort back into the organisation. Genuine Win Win 🏆

A key cultural shift is to integrate learning into daily workflows. For example, some companies set up “lunch and learn” sessions, peer mentoring circles, or internal workshops where employees teach each other new skills. Others implement rotation programs or special projects that allow employees to stretch beyond their usual roles. One engineering firm I encountered created an internal skills forum where employees post short video tutorials to share expertise on-demand. Strategies like these make learning a continuous, social activity, not an isolated event. Over time, this normalises growth and knowledge sharing as part of “how we work together.” It also helps break down silos; when people are teaching and learning across departments, they develop a broader understanding of the business and more empathy for colleagues’ roles, which strengthens the overall team. The end result is an organisation that is more agile and resilient. In fact, 84% of companies agree that a strong learning culture helps create a more resilient, adaptable workplace. Such companies tend to handle change more smoothly because their employees are used to learning new skills and can more readily adjust to new realities.

It’s worth noting that a learning culture is as vital for non-profit and public sector organisations as it is in industry. If anything, when resources are tight, the culture needs to work harder to facilitate low-cost development opportunities. I’ve seen non-profits leverage their mission-driven ethos to foster learning by framing it as “learning better ways to serve our cause.” They often encourage employees to attend free webinars, connect with peer organisations to exchange knowledge, and engage volunteers or board members to provide training in their areas of expertise. The common thread is an openness to ideas and improvement, hallmarks of a continuous learning culture. Whether it’s a hospital, a charity, a factory or a fintech startup, the cultural principles remain the same. Make learning a shared value, lead by example, embed it into routines, and celebrate growth. When you do that, you create what I call a ‘Capability Uplift Loop‘: people build skills, which drives success, which in turn encourages further learning and growth. That positive feedback loop can transform an organisation’s trajectory.

Practical Steps to Foster Continuous Learning (on a budget)

You might be thinking: this all sounds great, but how do we do it, especially if we don’t have a big training budget? The good news is that building a vibrant learning culture is possible for any organisation, regardless of size or budget. Here are some practical, actionable steps to get you started:

• Lead with a Skills Assessment: Begin by understanding where your team’s strengths and gaps lie. You can conduct a simple skills audit by listing key skills needed for each role and having employees self-rate their proficiency. This doesn’t require expensive consultants, an Excel spreadsheet works to start, or you can use a free template. (For example, Upleashed offers a free Excel skills matrix template that any manager can download and use.) Involving your team in this process also sends an early signal that you care about their development. Once you have a skills matrix, it becomes a roadmap for targeted growth. You and your employees can clearly see where to focus, be it improving digital skills, project management ability, or other competencies.
• Set Development Goals and Plans: Treat employee development with the same importance as business KPIs. Work with each team member to create an individual development plan with 1–3 concrete learning goals per quarter. These should align with both the employee’s career aspirations and the organisation’s needs. For instance, a finance staffer might set a goal to learn a new analytics software that will improve reporting efficiency. Importantly, make these goals part of regular performance conversations. Check in on progress during one-on-ones: ask what support or resources the employee needs, and acknowledge milestones achieved. When employees see that their growth goals are taken seriously (not just a HR box to tick), they’ll be more motivated to pursue them. Even if your organisation doesn’t have formal performance reviews, you can incorporate development goals into quarterly check-ins or team meetings.
• Encourage Peer Learning and Mentoring: One of the most cost-effective development tools is the knowledge already present within your organisation. Establish ways for employees to learn from each other. This could be as informal as pairing up a less-experienced employee with a veteran mentor for an hour a week, or as structured as launching a formal mentorship program. Similarly, encourage teams to hold short knowledge-sharing sessions. For example, each Friday one person can present a new skill or insight they picked up (even from outside work) in a 15-minute show-and-tell (may sound cringe, but it works, believe me!). Another idea is to create an internal skills directory,a simple spreadsheet or Slack channel where people list topics they are knowledgeable in and willing to help others with. This way, if someone wants to learn about, say, data visualisation or grant writing, they know which colleague could give them pointers. Peer learning not only spreads skills, it also builds camaraderie and a culture of cooperation.
• Leverage Free and Low-Cost Learning Resources: Building a learning culture doesn’t mean sending everyone to expensive seminars. Today there is a wealth of high-quality educational content available at little or no cost. Make it a habit to direct your team to free online courses, tutorials, articles, and videos relevant to your work. Websites like Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning offer free or affordable courses on countless topics – many organisations use these to supplement in-house training. You could challenge your team to complete one online course or certification this quarter (many are self-paced and flexible) and then share back one key thing they learned. Also consider non-digital resources: industry associations and local libraries often host free workshops or have skill development materials. As a leader, curate some of the best resources you come across and distribute them to your team; for instance, if you find an excellent tutorial on effective fundraising, send it around saying “let’s all take a look at this.” Such gestures reinforce the expectation that continuous learning is part of the job. Even something as simple as circulating a relevant TED Talk video and discussing it at your next team meeting costs nothing but can spark new ideas and skills.
• Create Stretch Assignments and Cross-Training Opportunities: One of the most powerful ways people develop is by doing challenging work. Whenever possible, use projects as a vehicle for learning. Assign employees tasks slightly beyond their current comfort zone, with the proper support in place. This might mean rotating roles on a project team so everyone learns a bit of each function, or giving an employee a chance to lead a small initiative to develop their leadership skills. Cross-training staff in different roles is another high-impact, low-cost practice. Not only does it build organisational resilience (people can cover for each other), but it also enhances skills and breaks monotony. For example, a non-profit might cross-train its program coordinators in basic fundraising, and fundraising staff in program delivery, each gains insight and skills in the other’s domain, making them more effective overall. Encourage employees to volunteer for special projects or committees as well, even outside their primary expertise, as a way to broaden their experience. The key is to structure these opportunities so that employees are set up to learn, give them clear objectives, a support person or resources to consult, and permission to make mistakes in the process. Afterwards, debrief and reflect on what they learned. This “learning by doing” approach embeds development right into the workflow and often yields immediate benefits to the organisation as well.
• Recognise and Reward Learning Behaviors: Finally, to solidify a learning culture, make sure you acknowledge the effort your people put into development. Celebrate learning achievements publicly, just as you would sales wins or operational milestones. This could mean giving a shout-out in a staff meeting to someone who just earned a certification or mastered a new skill, or adding a “Learner of the Month” recognition in your internal newsletter. Some organisations incorporate skill growth into performance reviews and promotions explicitly- for instance, requiring demonstration of new skills acquired when considering advancements. Even without formal HR policies, as a leader you can reward learning behavior by giving growth-minded employees more opportunities. If someone has shown initiative in upskilling, you might assign them to a high-profile project that capitalises on their new abilities. The message to the team is powerful: continuous improvement leads to career advancement. Also consider building learning into the team’s rituals. For example, start a meeting by having each person share one thing they learned recently, whether work-related or personal. It’s a quick practice that normalises talking about learning. When employees see that curiosity and skill growth are noticed and appreciated, it reinforces their motivation to keep pushing their development.

Notice that none of these steps require a large budget or a dedicated L&D department. What they do require is consistency and genuine commitment from leadership. By taking these practical actions, you demonstrate that continuous learning isn’t just a slogan on a poster, it’s truly “how we do things.” Over time, these habits and practices will begin to feed off each other. Employees who benefit from mentoring will mentor others. Those who attend a free workshop will come back and recommend it to colleagues. New hires will walk into an environment where people are buzzing about what they’re learning. That is the point at which you know you have a self-sustaining learning culture.

Skills as a Force for Good and Growth

In my career, I have yet to encounter a situation where investing in people’s skills did not yield an overall positive outcome. From the boardrooms of finance firms to the ‘shop floor’ of manufacturing plants, and from fast-growing tech startups to grassroots non-profits, the pattern holds true: when we elevate our employees’ capabilities, we elevate our organisations and our communities. Continuous workforce skill development is one of the few initiatives that checks all the boxes, strategic, cultural, and human.

• Strategically, it drives innovation, agility, and performance metrics that shareholders and stakeholders value.
• Culturally, it creates an environment of vitality, adaptability, and resilience.
• On the human level, it transforms jobs into journeys of growth, fulfilling our innate desire to learn and better ourselves.

As leaders, we are the stewards of our organisations’ most important asset, our people. By making skill development a top priority, we send a powerful message about what we value. We also gain a tremendous competitive advantage in the process. Remember that skills have a “force multiplier” effect: each new competence learned by one person can be shared, applied to new challenges, and combined with others to create exponential impact. An employee who learns coding can automate a process, saving countless hours; a manager who develops better coaching skills can uplift an entire team’s performance; a charity worker who gains data analysis skills can unlock insights to serve more people in need. These are the kinds of outcomes continuous learning makes possible.

I encourage you to take the insights and steps in this article and put them into practice starting today. You don’t need a multimillion-pound training budget or a formal academy. Start with small, meaningful actions, talk to your teams about their growth goals, create one new learning opportunity this month, acknowledge someone’s effort to develop a skill. Lead the way by learning something new yourself and sharing that story. These actions cost little or nothing, but over time they will build momentum. You’ll start to notice a change in the air: a sense of forward motion, of problems being met with curiosity rather than resignation, of employees going the extra mile because they feel valued. That is the emergence of a true learning culture.

In closing, continuous workforce skill development is more than a strategy for surviving disruption (though it is certainly that). It’s a strategy for building organisations that excel and endure because they are constantly renewing themselves through their people. It’s also, fundamentally, a commitment to the betterment of those people. When you help individuals grow and realise their potential, you not only improve business performance, you uplift lives. I have seen technicians become managers, interns become innovators, and ordinary teams achieve extraordinary results, all because someone invested in their growth. These are immensely rewarding outcomes for any leader to enable. So make skills a priority. Nurture your talent continuously. In doing so, you will create a workplace where everyone from the newest hire to the CEO is learning, improving, and striving toward excellence together. That is the kind of workplace where people thrive and when your people thrive, your organisation will thrive. Skills truly are a force for good and a force for growth. Start unleashing them, and you will reap the rewards for years to come.

References

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Campbell, P. (2023, September 5). WEF’s reskilling revolution and its impact on L&D. Chief Learning Officer. (citing World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report). Retrieved from https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/

Peck, D. (2025, January 3). Employee Training Statistics, Trends, and Data in 2025. Retrieved from https://www.devlinpeck.com/content/employee-training-statistics (see “The skills sets for jobs have changed…” section)

Bassi, L. J., Benson, G., & Cheney, S. (2000). Profiting from learning: Do firms’ investments in education and training pay off? (Executive Summary). American Society for Training and Development. (ASTD research report)

ClearCompany. (2023, August 22). 27 Surprising Employee Development Statistics You Haven’t Heard Of. ClearCompany Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.clearcompany.com (see “Higher Retention Rates” and survey statistics)

Foundation Group (Guest Writer). (2023, December 4). Nonprofit Staff Training: How to Enhance Your Impact. Foundation Group CEO’s Blog. (citing Center for Effective Philanthropy survey on nonprofit challenges)

MacKenzie, K. (2023, September). The cost of replacing an employee – it’s more than you think. Workable Stories & Insights. Retrieved from https://resources.workable.com/ (see “The cost of replacing an employee can be substantial…” para.)

Bersin, J. (2015, January 26). Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement. Deloitte Review, 16, 146–163. (See “Organizations with a strong learning culture…” and “learning culture in retail example” for statistics on innovation, productivity, and profit)