Building an Employee Upskilling Strategy for Dynamics 365

Small and Medium enterprises that invest in Dynamics applications will not see real return on their investment until their team has fully learned to use the new applications. The tech stack is only one part of the equation that determines how much efficiency and productivity companies can gain by implementing new software. Upskilling employees is equally important, but in most cases, IT leaders don't focus on employee training, and they assume the team will learn as they go once the new software is live.

In this post, I explain how an upskilling strategy is essential to make the most of Dynamics 365 applications in the workplace.

Assessing Skills Gaps

Begin your upskilling efforts with a thorough evaluation of current competencies against the technical and functional skills required for key teams. This part is often overlooked because it is treated as an IT skill assessment.

In this phase, you must measure the skills required to use the apps to complete tasks and processes with three primary goals: SOP compliance, KPIs and employee professional goals.

For example, take a manufacturing company that has just implemented Business Central. Before completing the implementation, the planning team used spreadsheets to run the production schedule. After go-live, the skill gap assessment must include the ability to use the planning worksheet or order promising in Business Central.

Designing Role-Based Structured Learning Paths

The next step is to create a phased approach to training that allows employees to advance at a pace.

In this phase, you must include the preferred learning methods, which can include instructor-led training, self-paced eLearning in a dedicated LMS, and hands-on trials in sandbox environments, to accommodate diverse learning styles and maximise retention.

Most organisations we have helped go live assumed that one method for employee training can work for all employees and roles, but that is not the case. Take a purchasing team new to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. New hires can learn the basics like user navigation, workspaces and purchase orders by watching prerecorded video lessons in an eLearning platform. Managers working on process improvement initiatives learn better if they can use a sandbox environment with demo data so they can try new processes and configuration options. Even better if they work with a senior consultant as an instructor.

Embrace a Continuous Learning Mindset

Promoting ongoing skill development in your company or team is the best way to upskill your team. Regardless of how many modules or features your organisation uses, Dynamics apps have thousands of features, and Microsoft keeps shipping new capabilities with every new release. That means your team must keep learning to make the most of the software they use every day.

A strategy we recommend when we develop custom training plans for our clients is to gamify the learning experience by introducing the Process Improvement of the Month prize for employees who find features they can use if they improve a process.

Integrate Upskilling into Dynamics 365 Adoption Roadmap

Upskilling is a core pillar of your Dynamics 365 roadmap, which starts at go-live, but does not stop there. Your sales goals, cost reduction, growth objectives as a leader, manager or business owner are the pillars of your organisation's adoption plan for Dynamics applications. These apps are not just tech, are strategic tools. As such, upskilling must be embedded into that roadmap.

For example, the sales team's skills must progress with your goal to use CRM lead management and AI customer categorisation for campaign management. The warehouse team's skills must align with the rollout of licence plating.

Measure Progress to Improve Learning

You can measure the effectiveness of employee training using key metrics like course completion rates and KPIs you set up in the Dynamics apps your company use.

If your company has a cloud learning management system (LMS), IT admins can create dashboards combining data from Dynamics 365 via Power Automate or Dataverse to generate reports and recommendations.

Next Steps

If you are evaluating upskilling options for your team, reach out, and one of our consultants will reach out to discuss how we can help create training plans for your team. Employee Training