LHH Announces New Findings On Upskilling And Reskilling In Career Transition

Thousands of LHH candidates elevate their skills during COVID-19 crisis

New York, NY /PRNewswire/ - LHH, the leading global provider of talent and leadership development, career transition and coaching, today announced new findings on the utilization of reskilling and upskilling courses by individuals in career transition.

From March through May 2020, amid the height of the COVID-19 crisis and rapidly increasing unemployment, individuals receiving Active Placement support—LHH's reimagined, socially responsible approach to outplacement—completed more upskilling and reskilling courses than were completed by all candidates LHH supported in 2019.

"In reviewing our data on the use of upskilling and reskilling resources, we certainly expected to see some increase over the last three months," said LHH President, Ranjit de Sousa. "The impact of COVID-19 across every industry has heightened peoples' awareness of the changing world of work, and the need to take stock of their skills and assess their future career options.

"That said," de Sousa continued, "seeing the data on this sharp increase in personal learning over such a short time period has demonstrated to us the importance of being nimble and ready to support people as they focus on their careers while facing uncertainty."

Most notable among the findings, LHH candidates completed over 28,500 courses in the period from March 1 through May 30, 2020 compared to 23,000 courses in all of 2019. LHH also found that candidates watched over 892,000 learning videos in their entirety during the same 3-month period, compared to 785,000 in all of 2019. LHH expects this trend of high engagement in learning during the job search process to continue in the months ahead.

During the last week of May, LHH surveyed 1,016 LinkedIn users via an online poll asking, "Have you taken an online learning course in the past two months to acquire new skills?" 82% of respondents said they'd taken at least one course, with 38% saying they'd taken 3 or more courses.

Mary-Clare Race, Chief Innovation and Product Officer at LHH stated, "Given some of the significant shifts in labor demand, a willingness to learn will be critically important post COVID-19, as job seekers look to renew their skills and reinvent themselves to match emerging employer needs. At LHH, robust online training is embedded in our career transition solution, helping candidates develop the skills employers are looking for in new hires."

"While some established companies and new entrants in the outplacement space are just catching on and beginning to talk about the importance of offering upskilling options in a career transition package," Race added. "We've invested in integrated skill development in our career transition services for over 15 years, and we've evolved that offering as skill requirements in the marketplace have shifted."

In early 2019, LHH announced that they had enhanced Active Placement with unlimited access to additional reskilling and upskilling resources, including the entire LinkedIn Learning catalog—currently totaling 16,000 courses—and courses from General Assembly, a global leader in tech education and career transformation which was named one of the world's "Most Innovative Companies in Education" by Fast Company in 2019.

LHH's recent findings also point to continued interest in developing a mix of both technical and soft or behavioral skills. While the top courses utilized by LHH candidates include in-demand skills like data analytics, digital marketing, python and scrum, the list also includes soft skills such as strategic thinking and several management and leadership topics. LHH also noted that, for the last 10 years, Project Management Institute (PMI) certification prep courses have been the number one curriculum among candidates.

"We've held firmly to our belief that career transition presents a unique opportunity for every individual to level up their skills, whether they do so to pursue a different kind of job altogether, increase their earning power, or to simply stay current and competitive within their own area of expertise," said, Race. "Choosing a personal learning path can be difficult, so we ensure that all our coaches are adept at guiding people to training that makes sense for their unique career goals."

"We also know that it's not enough to update your skills and then apply for online job postings that might seem like a good match," Race continued. "This approach is even less effective when unemployment is high and the job market is more competitive. Helping people successfully land the best job for them is both an art and a science. That's why we've continued to evolve our people-led, technology-enabled approach to create better outcomes in the new world of work."

One example of this approach is LHH's use of data at scale and machine learning in their proprietary tool, Fit4Next. By looking at the frequency and combinations of activities that resulted in successful outcomes for millions of LHH candidates, Fit4Next can predict whether an individual is on or off track to land successfully based on their own progress. LHH's Career Coaches use their Fit4Next dashboard to access data on the individuals they're supporting and then contextualize that data to the individual's unique circumstances and goals in order to make personal recommendations for getting back on track.

Another way LHH supports individuals with both leading technology and personalized support is the Digital Talent Exchange. Available only to LHH candidates, the Digital Talent Exchange matches individual candidate skill profiles with privately published job opportunities from over 10,000 hiring managers and recruiters. LHH's Talent Promoters work with these hiring professionals to understand their emerging talent needs, and then refine the people-to-jobs matches from the Digital Talent Exchange to deliver customized "talent pools" from which companies can quickly engage with available talent.

"As companies continue to recover from the crisis, focus on recovery, and accelerate changes to their business models and their workforce," de Sousa noted, "it is vitally important that they support every outgoing employee with progressive, socially responsible outplacement. This means offering relevant upskilling and reskilling alongside individual coaching and a job connection strategy that creates the best results for people, companies and communities."

About LHH
In today's marketplace, organizations are discovering the need to turn their attention inward to find their future talent. At LHH, we help companies see the possibilities in their people. Through assessments, coaching, upskilling and transitioning, companies can realize the untapped potential within their own workforce, resulting in increased productivity, morale, and brand affinity.

A division of The Adecco Group—the world's leading HR solutions partner—LHH's 4,000 coaches and colleagues work with more than 12,000 organizations in over 60 countries around the world. We make a difference to everyone we work with, and we do it on a global scale. We have the local expertise, global infrastructure, and industry-leading technology to manage the complexity of critical workforce initiatives and the challenges of transformation. It's why 60% of the Fortune 500 companies choose to work with us.

Learn more at www.lhh.com.