Effective Reskilling And Upskilling

2 years ago

2020 has been a tough economic time, a lot of what happens next in the global economy and job market is out of our control.

For many people, job security is on the decline, and unemployment is on the rise. The best any of us can do is anticipate what may come, and begin strategically planning our next move for business leaders now is a crucial time to be upskilling and reskilling your employees,

Today's article is to tell you about reskilling and upskilling your employees for the future of work, there are new buzzwords in the human resources arena, "reskilling and upskilling"

What’s The Difference Between Reskilling and Upskilling

Re-skilling is when we develop additional skills that can help move to a new role, and upskilling is about training that enables someone to become better at a job they already perform.

First Let's Define Reskilling:

It helps employees learn 21st-century technologies and skills to perform a job.

Reskilling brings the perspective of both sides; your customers and your business together to understand how you have to reskill your employees to meet your customer's demands in the future.

Reskilling is an effective way to help employers keep pace with new skills needed, but employees must buy into the concept for the training to be effective,

Re-skilling Barriers

Time poverty is the lack of time and inability of re-skilled workers to move from one career track to another

The disconnect between perspectives of management and their workforce, for instance, management, feels that a limited amount of their workforce, could adapt to the new world of work but employees are in support of re-skilling

HR professionals not knowing what skills current workers possess and not linking reskilling to their company's goals

And Now Let's See Upskilling

Upskilling improves employee skills that are supplied in their current roles. It requires a marriage between hr and business unit leaders to decide which employees need what skills by:

Upskilling is no longer a trend but a survival strategy that fuels or sustains. Upskilling and building new skills to match evolving work environments are the top challenges they are facing today in managing work in the workforce

When To Upskill

If you can develop your people, so they continuously react to the market needs and gain new skills, they will be an adaptable force, that can shift and bend with any changes in your market; your business can leverage their skills to carry your organization across really murky waters; so if your business or industry has had to scale back or slow down, then the best you can do is to try to optimize your workforce to the best of your ability, and set yourselves up for success for when everything picks back up

Why upskill?

Employees are making a conscious choice about where they want to go work, and oftentimes they're making that choice based on whether the company is going to help them get new skills, whether they're going to give them new opportunities to learn and to grow in their careers

It can be a huge competitive advantage for a company to say; look we offer lots of development opportunities, we want the best and the brightest to come work for us, so it's a recruiting tool and it's a branding thing

The cost of replacing an employee can be as high as 150 percent of that person's annual salary, therefore training current employees is a cost-effective alternative.

Employees who benefit from upskilling are better to leverage automation tools, but more importantly, move to more value-added activities. Thus driving more output for the organization

The Risk Of Upskilling And Reskilling

a lot of employers would see upskilling and reskilling as a risk, meaning after they upskill and reskill, perhaps they won't be able to retain those employees, like okay what if we train these people, and then they leave, and take their skills to another company, and it's ironic though, because if you don't train them, then you're stuck with people who don't have the right skills, and potentially you have to have a reduction in force, which is never fun.

Whose Responsibility Is It

Is it the responsibility of the employee or the employer, I think it is both and most of us agree that in today’s economy where changes are happening so rapidly, the employee has to take initiative and see to it that he or she is continuously reskilling or upskilling as the job demands

What To Consider When It Comes Reskilling and Upskilling

Follow Industry Trends:

For the employees to keep track of how the job market is evolving, how the industry is shaping, and what are the changes happening in the industry.

When we become aware of these things we take the initiative and we understand that let's look at this particular thing and trends that come off and then we try to learn and adapt ourselves and grow in that particular role, so I think the most important is keeping track of the job market, the industry and also understand the big picture in which these changes are happening.

Strategy For Reskilling And Upskilling:

This is from the employers perspective, the employer also has to have a strategy about understanding the changes that are happening in the industry and what are the new job roles that are coming in, or the skill gaps to fill in the job role and these have to be mapped with the business plan and strategy, and only then they will be able to proactively understand what kind of reskilling that needs to be done for a certain people.

Skills Of Tomorrow:

To understand that the skills that are living today and what will be relevant tomorrow, requires a little bit of research and knowledge about the technologies and how it is impacting a particular industry and the job role, and once this is done. People will understand their skills are going to get outdated or they’re going to get redundant.

Change Management:

When we talk about reskilling or upskilling it has to do with the kind of change that we have to manage positively, take it in the right sense to go and learn new stuff, it could be learning from a junior in the organization or online even

Continuous Learning:

To have the attitude of understanding the importance of continuous learning to survive and thrive in the job market, or in a particular job role and build a career from there, means for the employers also to create, and facilitate the culture of continuous learning, when the employeE is continuously encouraged to pick up the new thing, gives them enough times to learn and also learn from the mistakes they make.