Reskilling for tomorrow: how HR can drive workforce agility in a changing economy

Purpose Organisations are under pressure to change quickly, thanks to quick technological changes, digitalisation and economic turmoil. Traditional workforce development methods are unable to keep pace with the rapid changes in many roles. The purpose of the paper is to guide human resource (HR) leaders on how to strategically leverage reskilling to ensure worker agility and overcome challenges in an unpredictable environment. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines new research, industry reports and case examples to develop a practical reskilling framework that links learning investments to evolving business needs. Findings More than short-term training, workforce agility depends on. Companies that develop a continuous learning culture, support technology-enabled upskilling and partner with line leaders to redeploy talent more quickly have higher engagement and build more resilient organisations. Research limitations/implications While existing research on reskilling and workforce agility remains fragmented, this paper addresses key gaps by offering an integrated, cross-industry perspective. It moves beyond isolated discussions of training or upskilling to propose a holistic four-stage reskilling framework aligned with business strategy. By validating the model through eight diverse industry cases, the study establishes a clear linkage between reskilling, organisational agility and competitiveness – bridging theoretical gaps. Practical implications HR leaders should carry out skills gap analyses as a precondition of reskilling being developed as a business necessity. The learning plan should be closely aligned with strategic goals and measurable metrics that assess its impact on agility and performance. Originality/value Changing the perception of reskilling to a core component of organisational agility enables HR practitioners, through a stepwise method, to embed learning in the organisation’s fabric rather than viewing it as an isolated initiative.