6 Strategies to Ward Off Skill Decay
HR Dive, Tuesday, June 16th, 2026
Companies must adopt speed-to-skill approaches to combat rapid skill obsolescence from technological change.
Skills are becoming outdated faster than ever, with 47% of surveyed employees experiencing job skill obsolescence within five years.
TalentLMS research finds that speed-to-skill, the ability to identify, develop, and apply needed capabilities quickly, is critical for organizational competitiveness. Major obstacles include competing work priorities, misaligned training, and insufficient integration of learning into daily tasks.
The report recommends six strategies: embedding skill-building into work itself, responsive planning, accelerating the learning-to-practice pathway, modular content, clarifying ownership between managers and L&D, and measuring skill application rather than course completion.