Like most things that involve technology, how you approach the journey depends on where you are now, where you want to go, and your budget. When it comes to getting the workforce ready to adopt new technologies and new ways of approaching things such as analytics, large language models (LLMs), machine learning (ML), and leveraging generative AI (Gen AI), this is no different. There are turnkey solutions offered by firms which can assess where you are, put together a custom roadmap for where you want to be, and set up and manage your learning environment on their hosted platform. Alternatively, you could leverage your current learning management system (LMS), if you have one, for a custom focus on upskilling teams as appropriate based on their functions, and even link it to your human resources information system (HRIS) and career-pathing. Lastly, you might have the budget that necessitates the sweat equity that so many of us remember from our early homeowner phase of life: DIY.
No matter your budget, there are a variety of ways to navigate this journey. There are so many options, in fact, that you might be overwhelmed, and even put off upskilling, at least for a while. It can be daunting, no doubt. According to Gartner’s predictions, there will be a shift in the number of digital technology Accounting/Finance experts within the Accounting/Finance function from approximately 13% in 2023 to 46% by 2027.
Common Elements of Successful Upskilling Programs
The most successful programs include elements of gamification (like badges and levels), opportunities to apply and showcase the skills learned (such as hack-a-thons, shark-tank-like contests, or some other form of show-and-tell that provides visibility at an executive level for solving corporate challenges, preferably in a group effort format) and an opt-in approach.
Let’s call the turnkey solution mentioned above ‘Large’, leveraging the LMS ‘Medium’, and the DIY approach ‘Small’, and examine what each of these solutions might look like. The sizing, of course, also describes your budget.
Large
For a full turnkey approach from a leading firm, utilizing either their proprietary platform or a partner’s hosted platform, the implementation would be managed like other technology projects and would include a discovery phase, a design phase (mostly theme and curriculum design, along with any integration components), a configure/build phase, and deployment. Based on our research, for this type of approach, and without unusual setbacks, you could expect a timeframe of 3 to 9 months and would come with a significant consulting price tag.
Medium
The medium category will be largely impacted by whether the LMS is already live in your environment. There are approximately 700 different LMS on the market today, representing a $8.76B market, with approximately 70% of L&D departments in North America utilizing LMS in some capacity (FinancesOnline, 2021). If you already have an LSM live, your next determinant of cost and journey is whether you have the internal resources to design and implement an upskilling program, or if you will need external help. “Help” may vary widely, from help crafting the vision with the existing L&D team able to implement it within your LMS, to help with the vision, content curation, configuration within the LMS, and the launch. If your company has the internal multi-disciplinary expertise, the program could be launched in a matter of months, utilizing the existing content provider, a custom landing page(s) in the existing LMS and utilizing a cross-functional team to roll out the program.
Small
Even with little or no incremental budget, there are upskilling program options. For anyone that has ever taken on DIY home renovations, such as refinishing your own kitchen cabinets, you know why they call it “sweat equity”; the work takes a lot of time and effort, often in addition to everything else on your plate. But it is possible. Furthermore, the lift can be a team effort, with the heaviest effort being the administrative tracking of “courses” taken to achieve various badge levels. The good news is that there is a lot of content available that will likely require little to no incremental cost (really). For example, if you have a Microsoft enterprise license, there is a lot of free training available for the Microsoft stack. If you have the legacy CEB offering from Gartner, you likely already have access to an “all you can consume” catalog of content for virtually every aspect of technology thought leadership, as well as self-diagnostic tools. Almost all audit firms or other professional services vendors offer free webinars on a variety of hot technology topics. Your enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise performance management (EPM) platform vendors likely have training courses, or quick how-to videos available on-demand as well. Want to know some quick tips on how to do a power query in Excel? Just “Google” it. There are a lot of free or low-cost training materials (such as those included in vendor costs that you are already paying) available. Other sources such as LinkedIn Learning have a variety of content that may be free, depending on an individual’s LinkedIn license.
In this Small-budget, DIY approach, the lift will be in the tracking of courses to achieve various levels. It’s possible that you have a small Accounting/Finance team, and maybe show-and-tell opportunities aren’t necessary, because they are everyday occurrences. And maybe an honor system around the courses is just fine, because you are working so closely with staff that it is evident when incremental skills are learned. In this DIY approach, you can create and adapt the program as needs change as easily as updating a spreadsheet.
At the end of the day, just as in other projects, the journey will be different for each company, and some companies will experience success on the first deployment, and some might find the upskilling program to be a learning curve of its own with a few slow or false starts. But it is possible, on any budget, or with no budget at all.