What do you do when you can’t hire the people you need?
For aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin, their answer has been to develop and reskill their existing workforce.
“The pace of change in technology is rapid, and there’s a technical talent shortage that’s making it difficult to hire not just in the US, but worldwide,” said Tanya Pang, Senior Manager of Performance and Capability Solutions at Lockheed Martin, during her case study at Perspectives 2020. “So we can’t hire our way into digital transformation. And neither can you.”
Lockheed Martin knew their existing workforce already had skills adjacent to the needs of the latest emerging roles. They just had to transform those skills to meet the new reality.
Here are the four key steps they’ve taken to reskill for digital transformation.
1. Establish a Structure
The first step was to establish a learning structure that aligned their biggest skill needs with emerging roles. For Lockheed Martin, those skill areas were data science and analytics, artificial intelligence, autonomy, and cybersecurity.
Working with subject matter experts and using a combination of enterprise and open source content, Lockheed Martin created learning paths for their employees within those target areas, as well as career paths that were based on the users’ aspirational roles.
2. Run a Pilot
Lockheed Martin knew they couldn’t do all they wanted at once, so they gradually rolled out and tested their features. This began with key target groups, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data science, as well as HR, since their team needed to familiarize themselves with the new learning tools.
By rolling out these features with a smaller pilot group, they were able to test, iterate, and scale their program gradually and with minimal risk.
3. Involve Stakeholders
Stakeholders are an important part of any learning program. At Lockheed Martin, there were multiple layers of stakeholder involvement, including learning leaders from each business, HR leadership, the functional leads for each functional area, and the executive team, all the way up to the CEO.
This level of involvement necessitated the creation of stakeholder maps, the building of relationships, and continual iteration and innovation. But by closely involving their stakeholders, Lockheed Martin was able to keep everyone aligned on company-wide learning goals and methods.
4. Track Outcomes
Both during and after their pilot, Lockheed Martin continuously reviewed the utilization rates of their content and tools and made adjustments whenever they fell below established thresholds. They also gathered feedback from their employees and tracked engagement, and in the years to come, they plan to carefully monitor talent movement to ensure this program supports their ultimate goal of reskilling for digital transformation.
Want to hear more about learning, growth, and HR?
If you’d like to watch Lockheed Martin’s full video case study, or if you’d like to access more insights for learning, growth, and HR, check out all our free on-demand content from Perspectives 2020—our recent, global digital learning experience! It’s never too late to unleash your greatness.
