With the rise of new upskilling technologies, workplace skills needs are shifting rapidly. People will need to both upgrade their skills and acquire new ones to stay relevant in their careers. Companies will have to reskill and upskill their existing workforces to address these changing needs and will also need to tap new talent pools, including younger workers and reskilling initiatives.
Welcome to the 3rd part in our 3 part Upskilling Series. 1. Defining the Skills of Tomorrow: Reskilling and Upskilling, 2. Defining the Skills of Tomorrow: What Are They and What Makes Them Important?
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 375 million workers will have to learn new skills by 2030 in order to stay relevant in the job market.
Reskilling and upskilling are not new. In a changing economy, workers have always had to learn or relearn how to do their jobs or acquire tools that enable them to perform differently. However, the pace of change across all industries is accelerating and has been affecting even blue-collar work. Thus, many workers feel they can no longer rely on their existing skills and knowledge to take them as far as they would like, creating a sense of urgency around reskilling.
Companies and organizations play an important role in helping their workers reskill. In fact, the responsibility to reskill and upskill should not necessarily fall solely on the employee as businesses have a significant role to play by providing reskilling opportunities. Not only do they need to develop the skills of their existing workers but also offer to retrain new employees who bring different skill sets or perspectives from their previous employment or educational experiences.
Metrics, Measurements & Impact of Upskilling Technologies
One of the ways to raise awareness about the need for skill development is to put a higher value on creating metrics that illustrate how skill development can assist or what will happen if the issue isn’t addressed.
One should be able to look at their own organization and how it impacts business processes, customer experiences, or even what new products or services they are launching. Organizations have to be willing to put a metric system in place that will allow them to measure the impact of skills development. For instance, to measure the effectiveness of a reskilling and upskilling program, these metrics can be used:1
1) Skill Identification
As an employer, you should have a clear idea of each worker’s skills and what they can do beyond their job title. This will allow you to identify which workers need reskilling and upskilling to be successful in their current role as well as the future of your business.
2) Cost Avoidance
Hiring someone from outside may be significantly more expensive than training employees for a role. Unfortunately, many organizations do not factor in the cost of salary and other expenses that come with a new hire. On the other hand, training employees is much less expensive and can be spread over a longer time, providing the organization with more value at the same cost. Depending on their role, some workers may also have skills that are transferable to other parts of your business, allowing you to retain them even if they are unable to do their current job for some reason.
3) Business readiness
By closely cooperating with the sales and operations leaders, you can easily identify the skillset needed to cater to your customers’ needs and wants. Then, you can take a look at the current employee skills database to make sure your workforce possesses the necessary skills to deliver on those needs. Once you have completed the analysis, you can create a plan for reskilling and upskilling your workforce and embed it into your yearly business goals.
Conclusion
It is essential for businesses, individuals, and society to pay attention to the need for reskilling and upskilling. This will require constant assessment of training needs, commitment from organizations to provide training opportunities, as well as a willingness of workers to continue learning. Keeping up with changes in upskilling technologies and your industry is not only necessary for survival but it is also the only way to take your business or career to the next level.