Tackle Constant Changes by Reskilling & Upskilling Your Employees

It is safe to say that tackling the ever-changing requirements of your consumers will always offer challenges. Every wave of change comes with its requirements and the need for employees with various skill sets to handle them.

In the short term, it is easy to hire new candidates to fill roles. However, it is also equally important to be prepared for the changing times. It provides opportunities for your current employees to learn and grow to the adapting market.

Reskilling is the process of an employee learning new skills to broaden the range of their expertise and adapt to a new role. When the old role has become outdated, employees are encouraged to learn more to move to a new role.

Similar to reskilling, there is another method of employee development that enhances their skills and improves the organisation, which is upskilling.

Upskilling is having the employee improve their existing skill set to help the employee scale up and take on more responsibilities. Employees add more value to the company when the previous role is upskilled.

Reskilling vs. Upskilling

The main difference between reskilling and upskilling lies with the skills the employee acquires compared to their existing skills. In reskilling, employers train their employees in new skills that are more closely related to ones they already possess. On the other hand, upskilling means acquiring new skills to close the skill gaps between employees.

Importance of Reskilling and Upskilling

Reskilling and upskilling your employees work well when someone with a similar set of skills or an active employee interested in scaling up is already present in your organisation. Although it is a long process, the rewards are worth the time.

Increased Employee Retention

In an employee life cycle, the retention process depends on employee engagement. Employees are usually looking for development in their careers. Most of the time, the experience they acquire in the job should suffice. But there will always come a tipping point when an employee has nothing more to learn on their job.

Such instances will happen sooner rather than later. The employee should be engaged in a continuous learning process within the organisation. Employees will stay in an organisation that helps them improve their skill set and advance their careers. Assisting employees to learn new skills will enhance their job satisfaction and help in increasing their retention.

Handles Growth Transition

The growth of an organisation is not a spontaneous process. It will take a considerable amount of time to plan and execute. Hiring plays a significant role in the expansion of an organisation. Finding new hires for your jobs takes time. There is a substantial reduction in time if you have already groomed someone from your organisation.

The transition from developing your organisation and expanding always seems like a daunting task. The shift could be made easier for an employee familiar with your organisation to handle the new roles and responsibilities.

Reduces Cost and Time in Hiring

Sometimes a new role in your organisation might open up that does not have a fixed responsibility, or there might not be candidates ready to take the position and heighten their skills with it. In such cases, finding candidates and training them to help them get job-ready would cost a lot of time and money.

An employee who is already a part of your organisation and understands your needs and requirements will be of great help and would often require the most miniature training to adapt themselves to the new role. The employee can also provide insights into the candidate profile the job needs after spending some time working on that. Getting the vacant position filled by someone from your organisation saves time and money compared to hiring someone entirely new for your organisation.

Improves Employee Engagement

Employees usually adapt to their roles in a short period. The employee will then find the environment stagnant. But when employees are learning a new skill, they need to constantly contact their peers and employers. They would constantly develop their skills and improve themselves as employees and individuals.

It would offer a change of pace with their work and keep them engaged with their learning process. It would increase employee engagement and improve your company brand as well. Any organisation that helps its employees learn new skills will be considered a desirable place to work by new candidates.

Methods for Reskilling and Upskilling Your Employees

Constant Development

The development of an employee should not be something that happens occasionally. Learning should be imbued with your culture. Make use of internal resources that are already available to you. Slowly, the employees could be tasked with more responsibilities, taking and sharing their reviews and ideas on how it works out. Having a training model that works, along with the job, will be most efficient.

Job Shadowing

Having the employee shadow someone from other departments of your organisation can help them understand their work process and get them to increase their knowledge of those departments. The employees can take turns, shadow employees, and share their insights. Alternatively, employees can also swap teams and get different ideas about their tasks. It can help them increase their knowledge and expose them to a different strategy to get their job done.

Courses and Workshops

To encourage the employees to increase their knowledge and skills for your organisation, you could provide them with courses and conduct. The courses and their certifications will go a long way in helping the employee’s career growth. A certificate from a reputed organisation and a workshop from an expert will be a good offer for an employee, as they are more likely to get engaged while developing their skills.

Reach Out to Employees

During recruitment, you would get an idea of the employees and the skills that are only useful to your organisation. It is easy to turn a blind eye to the skills they might have acquired in the past. The employees in your organisation would already possess a basic knowledge or interest in a specific skill required for your organisation. It is essential to put the word out and get an idea of your employees’ untapped skills. Having the employees come forward with their interests will make it easier to train them and fulfil your organisation’s goals.

Conclusion

Building a reskilling and upskilling program should be customised to suit your organisation’s needs. If more employees know about it, there might be specific skills that your organisation can benefit from. The employer must prioritise such skills and conduct soft skills training to help the employees grow as employees and individuals. Pick out instantly rewarding skills and the skills that would work well in the long term for your organisation. The employee must have an interest in the skills they are training. Educating them on the importance and the need for such skills should come before engaging them with training.

LogicMelon

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Email: sales@logicmelon.com or call LogicMelon (UK) +44 (0) 203 553 3667 (USA) +1 860 269 3089