Upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling: What’s the difference?

Whether it's to keep up with changing business requirements or improve employee retention rates, both employers and employees look to bolster their skills and teams with training. Upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling are three strategic training approaches adopted in workforce development. All three have distinct differences, each offering unique benefits.

So, what are the differences, and how can organisations implement these effectively?

What is upskilling?

Upskilling refers to the process of improving current skills to enhance performance in an existing role. It is about deepening an employee’s abilities and increasing their competence in specific areas.

Upskilling is often driven by technological advancements, changes in market trends, or new strategic plans within the company. For example, a digital marketer might upskill by learning about the latest SEO strategies or digital analytics tools to manage online campaigns better.

Benefits of upskilling

• Keeps employees up to date with industry standards
• Enhances job satisfaction through mastery of new skills
• Improves productivity and quality of work

Learn more about the benefits of upskilling.

What is reskilling?

Reskilling is the process of learning new skills so an employee can do a different job within the organisation. This strategy is often employed in response to industry disruptions or company restructuring.

Reskilling helps organisations adapt to industry changes by enabling workforce flexibility. For instance, a retail worker might be reskilled to handle online customer service operations as the business shifts from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce.

Benefits of reskilling

• Prevents loss of staff through redundancies by adapting employees to new roles
• Reduces the cost and time associated with hiring new talent
• Promotes a culture of adaptability and continuous learning

What is cross-skilling?

Cross-skilling involves training employees to perform multiple roles within the business beyond their primary job functions. This strategy builds a versatile workforce that can easily pivot between roles as needed, enhancing operational flexibility. An example of cross-skilling would be training a sales associate to also handle basic customer support queries, thereby enabling them to assist across departments during peak times or staff shortages.

Benefits of cross-skilling

• Increases operational flexibility by enabling employees to manage multiple roles
• Enhances team collaboration and understanding across departments
• Provides employees with a broader career path and growth opportunities

Differences between upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling

Targeted outcomes

Upskilling: The primary aim of upskilling is to enhance and update an employee's existing skill set to boost productivity and efficiency in their current role. It focuses on deepening expertise to keep pace with evolving requirements.

Reskilling: Reskilling enables employees to switch career paths or roles within the organisation due to changes in job requirements or to fill gaps created by technological or market changes. It prepares employees for a different kind of work than they were originally hired for.

Cross-skilling: The goal of cross-skilling is to enable employees to handle multiple job functions across different areas of the organisation. This strategy aims to create a more flexible workforce that can quickly adapt to workload fluctuations and staff shortages without the need for additional hiring.

Strategic focus

Upskilling: Focuses on strengthening the company’s core competencies by improving the quality of work and encouraging continuous professional development among employees.

Reskilling: This activity concentrates on organisational agility and sustainability by preparing employees for transformational shifts. It ensures the workforce can adapt to new business models or technologies without significant disruptions.

Cross-skilling