Between a global pandemic and the Great Resignation/Great Reset, it’s clear to see that the workplace is changing. As unemployment rates have declined, employees consider career changes, and automation/AI is revolutionizing the way we work, employers are looking for ways to retain and attract talent. This is where reskilling and upskilling may be useful to your business.
What is reskilling and upskilling?
Upskilling is learning additional skills or enhancing existing abilities that will support and improve an employee in their current position. This type of training provides opportunities for upward mobility, such as a retail associate moving into a management role.
Reskilling is learning an entirely new set of skills or training for a new role. This type of training provides opportunities for lateral moves and new career prospects. An example of this would be training an assembly-line worker for an IT position.
Why is reskilling and upskilling important?
As many companies struggle to find enough talent to hire from outside the company, looking at the untapped talent already working for your company provides many benefits.
As the individual is already employed, there are none of the costs regularly associated with hiring a new employee, such as background checks or posting job ads. The employee is also familiar with how the company functions and may have already picked up on some skills for lateral or upward movement, which would be a learning curve for an external hire. As the employer, you also are familiar with the individual yourself so would have a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses and what areas to focus on, which you would not know if hiring someone new.
With the rate that technology is progressing, advances in some areas will eventually force employers to reskill their workforce, so getting a head start on developing this process would benefit your company and put you ahead of competitors.
Finally, reskilling or upskilling employees can contribute to employee retention; an employee who sees their employer making an investment into their future and having a clear view of where their career may lead with your company can lead to the employee sticking around longer.
How do you start the reskilling/upskilling process?
Reskilling and upskilling can be introduced to your company by creating a career pathing program. Career pathing is the process of aligning opportunities for employee career growth with organizational talent priorities and is driven by the individual’s skills, interests, and career objectives.
To begin, you should evaluate the specific skills needed for each role and understand the type of training required for employees moving into the role. What abilities are needed coming into the role and what would the training program look like to get someone to the level necessary to be successful? You should also conduct a skills gap analysis to compare the skills your current employees have to what skills your company will need to remain competitive.
Next, you will need to understand your individual employee’s career goals and existing skills. Having your employees assess their own skills can reveal potential in them that could have gone unnoticed. Without having these conversations, you may not be aware that the 24-year-old you recently hired as an office assistant is finishing her MBA or the new general laborer spends his evenings teaching himself coding.
With this information in hand, you can develop a clear path of what steps to take to get your employee from their current position to the role that would best benefit both the employee and the company. Discuss the type of training or mentoring that would be provided, steps the employee should take (including any necessary certification or formal education), and milestones the company will look for.
Reskilling and upskilling your workforce may take time and planning but the payoff will lead to lower employee turnover, a better-trained workforce, and futureproofing in the face of technological advances. It is also a good tool to protect your company from falling victim to the Great Reset as many people are looking for a career with a future and not a dead-end job. Why not show your employees how bright a future with your company could be?