Upskilling has been a part of companies across all industries for decades, however in recent years, CEOs are finding the initiative more significant than before.
A few factors and changes across the workforce have contributed to upskilling being more relevant than ever before. COVID-19 and its aftermath, an overarching skills gap, and the rise of AI are all issues that have made upskilling become a priority for companies.
What is Upskilling?
Upskilling is when a company provides training and education so its employees are up-to-date with trends, technology, and other skills that contribute to a productive and competitive company.
How Upskilling Can Make for a Strong Company
Understanding how upskilling can help your employees and your company is essential so you can come up with the right way to implement this initiative.
Save Money
When changes in processes or technology come about, instead of looking to hire a new employee, training your current employees is a better idea. Not only will training your employees in updated skills better prepare them for the long run, but it also costs less than hiring a new employee.
Stay Competitive
Employees who are trained in the most recent skills and developments can keep a company competitive and performing at its best. Instead of falling behind or feeling the negative effects of a learning curve, a company that keeps upskilling at the forefront of its initiatives is able to stay agile and competitive.
Increase Employee Satisfaction
When employees continue to learn relevant skills and are able to contribute to the company in meaningful ways, this helps them feel valued and satisfied in their work. Employees don’t like to feel as though their company is ignoring change and causing them to lag in their own successes. By allowing them the opportunities to continue developing skills that keep your company successful, you also increase their job satisfaction.
Attract Top Talent
Passive or active talent notices when a company invests in its employees. When word gets out (and it will thanks to social media) that your company is providing upskill opportunities for current employees, top talent will seek out the chance to work for you, making your company even more competitive.
Steps to Get Upskilling Started at Your Company
Assess the Skills You Have Today
Before beginning your upskilling initiative, it’s important to first collect information on what skills are currently strong in your company. This can be collected from individual employees and then put together into a matrix to show leadership the hard and soft skills are strong already at their company.
Determine What Skills You May Need in Five Years
Based on your findings from the current skills of your company, you will be able to determine which skills your employees need to learn in the near future. The company’s long-term goals, strategy, and other big-picture items will play a large role in which skills will be your focus for upskilling. Having your list of current skills along with your needed skills is what then can be referred to as the “skills gap” and this is why upskilling can be crucial to a company’s ability to stay agile and successful.
Ensure Employee Buy-In
Even if upskilling is a smart initiative, it won’t become much if your employees don’t understand the value and benefits of it. Once you have an idea of how you want to implement the upskilling initiative, talk to your team to get them enthusiastic to learn new skills and knowledge.
Set Upskilling Goals
Even though upskilling may happen throughout the company, the goals you create should not be general. Instead, each employee should have specific goals for upskilling. These goals will be created based on the skills analysis you conduct in addition to the feedback and input from your employees. It’s important to remember that the best goals for employees, even when it comes to upskilling, should be specific, time-based, and realistic.
Decide Which Learning Format is Best for Your Company
The structure of your company will determine the format you choose for upskilling your employees. The format you choose may resemble your onboarding process if you’ve found success with it. Ultimately, you should implement your teaching with what resonates best with your employees. Videos, presentations, hands-on, or all of the above – this is entirely up to you.
Monitor Progress
One of the most crucial pieces to upskilling is never complete. Monitoring the progress of your upskilling initiatives is ongoing but extremely important. You can utilize the information you collect to improve your training, alter it, and also for motivating other employees to take advantage of upskilling.
Hire the Best Talent for Your Team
If you have open positions to fill, contact Expert Staffing for help finding the most skilled workers for your company.