Empowering Growth: Effective Strategies to Upskill Your Employees
Upskilling employees is essential for developing their careers. In order to do this, a fine support system for continuous learning is greatly needed. This enhances the employees’ skills and adds value to the organization. Effective upskilling needs to be designed for every employee mainly on basic skills like communication, along with specialized skills such as data interpretation.
The bottom line for any business requires the proper talent. However, workers retire, and technologies are evolving. The market’s demands change as well, hence challenging companies to keep up with all that’s happening. Therefore, it is essential to be continuously upskilled. Companies can create training programs that help employees grow when their roles at work change. A more adaptable, skilled workforce enables leaders to more effectively execute strategies and achieve growth and performance improvements. In this guide, we will share some tips on how to upskill employees and how employees have benefitted with upskilling.
What Does Upskilling Employees Mean?
Upskilling is a process of learning a new skill to enhance one’s performance at work. For example, it may be a factory worker who learns about the technologies of automated machines, a software developer picking up a new programming language, or even a healthcare aide who trains for a position as a certified nursing assistant. On the other hand, upskilling can also be accompanied by leadership and soft skills training.
Reskilling is conceptually similar. It’s when an employee acquires a new skill set in preparation to take on another job. Upskilling and reskilling can be utilized by companies to support the growth of the employee and meet the needs of the individual.
How to Upskill Employees
Upskilling employees is considered one of the critical investments for companies seeking to enhance their talent and productivity. Here are some ways companies can upskill their employees skills:
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Identify Gaps and Priority Areas
Find out what specific skills your company has now and in the future. Start with carrying out a skill gap analysis that lets you adjust the upskilling program to meet the needs. To determine the current skill gaps of your employees, you can do the following:
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Review Key Performance Indicators
KPIs measure how well your business is doing in the key areas. This allows you to judge the performance of individual employees and the skills that may be missing from them.
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Conduct 360-degree Reviews
Obtain employee performance feedback through reviews from the manager, peers, clients, and vendors.
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Analyze Workforce Data
Collect data from various recruitment networks and analyze what are the current technologies trending on the market. Based on that you can provide the latest training to your employees to upskill their knowledge and experience.
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Observe Industry Trends
Observe the current industry trends to identify the new skills that will be needed for your employees. Upskill your employees accordingly to stay ahead of your competitors.
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Employee Personal Development Plans
As a manager or business owner, you should consider what your employees want to achieve in the near future, mid-term, and long term. Learn which skills every employee is interested in learning and his vision for his job in your organization.
The best and simplest approach to getting the information is by creating employee development plans. Such plans help ensure your employees’ professional goals match those of your organization. In this way, you provide your workforce with professional goals that probably have a chance of being achieved within the company.
Benefits of Upskilling Employees
You can see many benefits of upskilling employees in your organization. Here we have mentioned key benefits:
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Adopt New Technologies
Due to the rapid advancement of technology, employees' skills must be developed continuously to be able to keep abreast of new tools and software. Upskilling allows staff to adapt to new technologies and use them more efficiently, as it is estimated that by 2025, half of the total work tasks will be completed by machines. One of the biggest effects of automation is that many routine or low-skilled jobs might get automated, impacting low-skilled workers. Therefore, it becomes critical to reskill or upskill millions of employees.
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Increase Employee Satisfaction
Employees are likely to stay in companies where they feel satisfied. Satisfaction of the employees depends on several factors such as salary, work-life balance, work environment, and opportunities for skill development. Willis Towers Watson's study reported that 70% of the employees leave their job because they see no future advancement in their current job. So, make sure they feel valued and have clear career progression goals to make them happy at work.
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Increase Employee Retention Rates
Keeping workers happy will ensure continued productivity and reduced turnover. Upskilling employees plays a crucial role, as research finds, 32% of UK employees left their jobs because their employer did not offer any training or development opportunities. Employees satisfied by their work are less likely to move out, and upskilling employees can also improve engagement and commitment. This also shows you care for employees' growth; therefore, they are likely to feel valued and appreciated, thus helping enhance retention and keep your team strong.
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Attract New Talent
Upskilling and reskilling opportunities rank as top valued perks by job applicants, including the generation under 25 years old, who missed on-the-job experience because of the pandemic. You can make your business more attractive to candidates by offering upskilling opportunities. Offering such programs makes your company stand out from the competition, and only high-calibre candidates who want to grow their skills and advance their careers will be attracted.