Employee Upskilling: Creating a Continuous Learning Journey from Onboarding to Production

Employee training and development have fundamentally shifted. One-and-done training programs can’t keep pace with today’s performance demands. The organizations pulling ahead are building continuous learning in the workplace, connecting onboarding, upskilling, and real-time performance into a single, ongoing journey. 

This approach turns learning from a checkbox into a competitive advantage, especially in fast-moving, distributed environments where speed to proficiency and engagement directly impact results. 

How Employee Training and Development Has Evolved Beyond Traditional Programs

Gone are the days when training ended at certification. Today’s customer interactions and enterprise operations have become significantly more complex, requiring the workforce to handle more challenging scenarios, while more mundane and repetitive tasks have been automated. Therefore, today’s employee training and development requires a holistic, outcome-focused strategy that treats learning as an ongoing process, rather than a one-time event. 

This shift is especially critical for distributed and remote workforces, where consistent performance, engagement, and continuous upskilling can make or break the customer experience. 

Organizations that prioritize career development outpace others on key indicators of business success, according to the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report. The same organizations are also more likely to be frontrunners in AI adoption. 

The Arise Success Story: A Blueprint for Excellence 

The story of Arise Virtual Solutions, a global platform connecting the world’s largest companies with independent customer service agents, demonstrates how organizations can achieve remarkable results through strategic learning integration. Their transformation reveals key insights that every CX leader should consider. 

The Challenge: Gig Workforce, Full-Time Expectations 

Arise faced a challenge that many service organizations encounter: how to achieve rapid speed to proficiency with gig workers without sacrificing performance standards. 

Operating fully remotely, the organization sought to keep its gig workers engaged while ensuring they reached production-level performance as quickly as full-time employees. 

Sonia Brant Mullins, Vice President of Service Partner Experience at Arise, explains: “We operate on a part-time model that offers our Service Partners flexibility, but the expectation is that even though it’s a part-time certification model, they still get to the level of proficiency at the same time as a full-time model.” 

How a Performance Intelligence Platform Powers Continuous Learning, Upskilling, and Performance Outcomes 

Arise deployed Centrical’s Performance Intelligence Platform to manage its workforce’s performance, engagement, and development through AI-powered coaching and microlearning, enhanced with gamification and personalization to drive behavior change. 

The adoption of Centrical’s solution revolutionized the company’s training and performance management approach, integrating ongoing upskilling with real-time performance data. 

1. Microlearning That Accelerates Upskilling and Performance

The foundation of effective employee training and development is delivering learning in a digestible and actionable format. Arise implemented microlearning modules designed to support training and continuous upskilling by: 

• Providing bite-sized, role-specific learning objectives 
• Delivering content based on individual performance data 
• Enabling self-service learning paths 
• Supporting real-time performance improvement 

2. How Gamification Drives Employee Engagement Through Learning

Employee engagement through learning increases dramatically when learning feels motivating, visible, and rewarding. That’s why gamification can play a crucial role in building such engagement. 

“The tools within Centrical, of having to be able to build specific missions and games, and the gamification and avatars, are very important to help keep the learner engaged,” says Chris Carver, Director of Instructional Design at Arise. 

Key gamification elements include: 

• Interactive missions and challenges 
• Avatar customization 
• Performance and completion-based rewards 
• Leaderboards and peer recognition

3. AI-Powered Personalizationfor Smarter Upskilling

Modern learning and development strategies rely on AI to personalize learning at scale. 

Centrical’s AI capabilities: 

• Analyze individual performance patterns 
• Recommend targeted learning content and coaching actions 
• Assign relevant microlearning modules 
• Surface predictive insights for performance improvement 

What Results Did Arise Achieve with Continuous Learning and Upskilling? 

The impact of Arise’s employee training and development transformation is clear: 

• Speed to proficiency reduced by 50%: Time to proficiency dropped from three months to six weeks. 
• Faster performance metric attainment: The blended environment period between certification and full production was cut in half. 
• Stronger employee engagement: Gig workers reported feeling more supported and engaged throughout onboarding, upskilling, and ongoing production. 

The Three Pillars of a Scalable Continuous Learning Strategy

1. Integrated Learning and Performance Systems

Effective employee training and development depend on integration. Arise has aligned its learning strategy with: 

• Quality management systems
• Performance metrics platforms 
• Real-time feedback tools 
• Course catalogs and resource libraries

2. Performance-Driven Learningand Upskilling

Instead of generic training schedules, on-the-job upskilling can be triggered directly from performance data, ensuring development happens exactly when and where it’s needed. 

3. Lifecycle Learning Integration

Employee onboarding best practices don’t stop after certification. 

LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report shows that 84% of employees agree that learning adds purpose to their work, highlighting the critical connection between continuous development and employee engagement. An effective learning journey should include: 

• Pre-boarding preparation 
• Structured certification 
• Blended learning periods 
• Ongoing production support 
• Career growth opportunities for employees 

Key Takeaways for CX Leaders Building Learning Programs 

1. Abandon the “set-and-forget: mentality: Continuous, on-the-job learning requires ongoing attention and iterations. 
2. Leverage technology strategically: AI, gamification, and performance management should be used together, not in silos. 
3. Measure business outcomes: Focus on KPIs such as speed to proficiency, performance-focused metrics, and employee satisfaction. 
4. Build connection and community: Even in remote environments, foster community and peer initiatives. 
5. Orchestrate everything: Your performance intelligence platform should serve as the central hub connecting all performance, development, and engagement initiatives. 

What’s Next: Building a Continuous Learning Journey 

The success of organizations like Arise stresses the importance of building an exceptional employee training and development strategy. 

By creating integrated, engaging, and measurable learning experiences, organizations can shift workforce development from a compliance requirement into a strategic differentiator. 

FAQ 

How do you identify which performance gaps should trigger learning interventions? 

Start by analyzing your key performance indicators (KPIs) and the underlying skills and behaviors and identifying patterns in underperformance. 

Focus on metrics that directly impact business outcomes—such as call resolution times, sales conversion rates, or quality scores. Use data from your existing systems (CRM, quality management, etc.) to pinpoint where individual employees consistently struggle. 

The goal is to identify skill-based gaps that can be addressed through targeted employee training and development and timely upskilling. 

For example, if an employee’s average call time is 20% longer than the benchmark, that may signal a need for additional coaching or microlearning on efficiency techniques or product knowledge. AI Role-Play simulations can help here as well. 

What’s the difference between performance-driven learning and traditional scheduled training? 

Performance-driven learning is personalized, while traditional training is standardized across all employees. 

Traditional training follows a fixed schedule (quarterly compliance training, annual product updates) regardless of individual needs. Instead, performance-driven learning kicks in when performance data shows an employee needs support with a specific skill. 

For instance, instead of enrolling everyone in a course, the system might automatically assign the relevant microlearning or role-play modules only to reps whose KPIs in a specific area have dropped. 

This approach makes continuous, on-the-job learning more efficient, relevant, and effective for upskilling employees where it matters most. 

How quickly should learning interventions be triggered after identifying a performance gap? 

Ideally, interventions should happen soon after identifying the gap, depending on the severity of the issue. That’s why relying on an AI-powered performance intelligence platform helps surface those gaps right away and can automatically trigger next best actions. 

For critical skills that directly affect customer experience—such as compliance violations or safety procedures—immediate intervention is essential. For longer-term trends, such as declining productivity metrics, learning can be triggered within a few days. 

It’s important to balance urgency with employee workload, so upskilling feels supportive rather than overwhelming. 

AI can help determine optimal timing based on schedules, workload, and learning engagement patterns. 

How do you measure the effectiveness of performance-driven learning interventions? 

Track both leading and lagging indicators. 

Leading indicators include: 

• Learning completion rates 
• Knowledge retention scores 
• Time-to-completion 

Lagging indicators measure real performance improvement: 

• Did KPIs improve after the assigned learning? 
• Did quality scores rise? 
• Did speed-to-proficiency accelerate? 

For example, if an agent completes microlearning on first-call resolution, track whether their FCR rate improves over the following 2–4 weeks. 

Learn more: How Arise Virtual Solutions Transformed Upskilling for Gig Workers