No one can deny the fact that the economy of the world is changing at a rampant pace. A lot of it can be credited to the rapid evolution of technology. However, how far are the workers able to cope up with the increasing demands of the industry? The stagnant economic growth reflects that the workers need to Upskill to keep up with the needs of today, let alone tomorrow.
According to Gartner, 58% of the employees need to upskill themselves to do their current jobs successfully. Upskilling, in its full effect, means the expansion of the knowledge bank and skill sets of individuals.
The “Upskilling for Recent Prosperity” report by the World Economic Forum calls for a global upskilling revolution for the brighter future of workplaces. The benefits of upskilling employees aren’t just visible on the macroeconomic level.
Why is Employee Training Critical for Your Organization?
Here are some reasons why you need to take stringent steps in favour of upskilling your employees.
1) Increased Employee Retention If we go by a study by Gallup, a perceived lack of growth opportunities is the top-notch reason why the best talent resigns from companies. If you don’t wish to hand over your star performers to your competitors, you need to provide them with a pathway to increased career growth and lend a helping hand as they work towards honing their skills further.
2) Foster a Healthy Work Culture Where 77% of the workers wish to reskill or upskill, a sound plan to help them will foster a healthy work culture. Once your employees notice that you are prioritizing their efforts to upskill, there will be phenomenal growth in employee morale and engagement
3) Lucrative Recruiting Tool Even if your organization is in the initial stages and you wish to hire the best people in the industry, upskilling opportunities can be a great recruiting tool. With almost 75% of the employees willing to work outside their work hours to enhance their skills, job training can be a great way to boost the productivity of your existing employees, and hook new talent.
These reasons prove why upskilling is the need of the hour. Though it may seem like a daunting task at first, a carefully curated strategy can help you sail through.
Ways to Upskill your EmployeesIf you make planned and carefully targeted investments in employee training, it can yield fantastic results. A holistic strategy will help your workers achieve high targets in surprisingly little time.
1) Offering Stretch Assignments as Challenges By offering stretch assignments, or assignments outside the job descriptions or the current work scope of your employees, you can provide them with the opportunities to move beyond their comfort zone and learn additional skills. For instance, an individual contributor can be asked to oversee a project team for a specific duration. However, it is also crucial that you build the right environment for the employees to develop the required skills for the assigned stretch projects and have the resources to overcome the challenges.
2) Align the Interests of Your Employees with the Organizational NeedsWhile most employees will gain out of reskilling and upskilling programs, an organization will enjoy the highest ROI if they are aligned with its vision. For instance, if you want your sales team to embrace the power of social media to increase your revenue, you can integrate it into the upskill and reskill program.
3) Emphasize How Upskilling Will Help the Careers of Your Employees You can build upskilling into employee performance and development plans to get the wider organization on board. You may tie certain skills to the promotion of an employee or other benefits. Yet, it is pertinent to consider the time it takes to upskill and provide the employees with the bandwidth to pursue the same while doing it.
Rather than a challenge, the increased demand for employee training presents employers with an opportunity to increase their revenue, improve their brand image and boost their bottom line. If you are looking for a program that has been well-crafted to suit the needs of your employees, reach out to UniKaksha. We would be glad to help you out with a plan that serves your needs the best because your organization deserves it.
2 replies on “Upskill Your Employees – Why it’s Important and How to do It?”
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