Episode 71
Building a Workforce That Bends, Not Breaks
Brief description of the episode
With AI, automation, and shrinking labor pools rewriting what it takes to stay competitive, Bijal Shah, CEO, Guild, shares a grounded, actionable playbook for building resilient teams. From supporting frontline talent to measuring ROI in learning programs, Bijal unpacks what it takes to create a workforce that adapts, grows, and drives business forward. If you’re building pathways that align learning to real jobs and real outcomes, this conversation is worth your time.
Key Takeaways:
- AI, automation, and demographic shifts are creating widespread skills gaps across industries.
- Critical gaps include adaptability, frontline leadership, and job-specific skills in healthcare and retail.
- Roles like medical assistants and phlebotomists are in especially high demand.
- Businesses can identify gaps by zeroing in on roles that are hard to fill or essential to operations.
- Aligning training with these role-specific needs helps build real workforce resilience.
- Use stackable learning pathways to deliver quick, job-ready skills that build toward broader development goals.
- Combine immediate training, like AI skills, with foundational skills such as
problem-solving and communication. - Design programs that allow workers to show progress quickly while continuing to grow into more advanced roles.
- Focus on skills that address both current labor demands and long-term adaptability in a changing job market.
- Understand the employer’s business goals, talent gaps, and day-to-day operations by engaging multiple stakeholders and visiting worksites.
- Back-up learning programs with clear data showing internal mobility, retention, wage growth, and ROI from skilling investments.
- Align offerings to business-critical roles and demonstrate how programs solve real workforce challenges, not just content delivery.
- Provide insights and recommendations beyond your own product, even if the solution lies outside your platform.
- Support HR and L&D teams with the reporting and financial data they need to prove the value of learning to their leadership.
- Track not just engagement and completion rates, but also internal promotions, role changes, and wage growth.
- Measure how learning programs contribute to retention and career mobility within the organization.
- Report on skills gained, mapped to real job functions using a standardized taxonomy.
- Show program ROI by tying learning outcomes to productivity, revenue impact, and business performance.
- Deliver data that helps HR and L&D leaders make the case for continued investment in workforce development.
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