Upskilling is the process of elevating your knowledge and skill to a better level. In the context of the workplace, it is the continuous learning of your Employees by providing them training and development opportunities that expand their abilities and minimize skill gaps.
Why upskilling is the Key -
- As the competition and technology in the market continue to grow, organizations need to ramp up their game in the industry to stay relevant. And for that, companies and their employees must consistently add to their technical knowledge and skillsets.
- Through upskilling, companies can be more efficient by upscaling the abilities of their current employees, instead of spending time and money on hiring new workers.
- By providing employees with opportunities for upskilling, organizations can make workers feel that they are valued and have a dedicated future within the company
So overall, upskilling plays a very important role in business, its growth, employee engagement and retention.
Upskilling Strategy can be on the basis of -
Job Specific Upskilling -
- Learning and development programs based on the analysis of roles and responsibilities. For example, Training and Certification courses on a specific subject that needs improvement.
- Designing specific training sessions for one or one to many for mentoring and coaching.
- Incorporating Job enlargement program where additional activities are to be performed by the same person that can enhance the competencies and skills and build additional experience.
- Peer mentoring and peer coaching where personal experiences and interactions with colleagues are exchanged. It can be done through a formal training program or an informal discussion under a standard operating procedure.
- Outsourcing or hiring specialists and experts to train the employees.
Personality Development Upskilling -
Unlike Job-Specific Skills, Personality Development Skilling is more related to your Soft Skills. . These are the skills which may or may not be related to your job but can help you a lot in other ways. It can be done by creating a list of essential soft skills that can help you in working smarter and efficient.
A few of the examples are:
– Communication Skills
– The underrated art of active listening
– Time Management
– Adaptability
– Work-Life Balance
– Public Speaking
You can have so many such topics on your training program, once you go through the roadblocks your Employees are facing on the way to reaching their full potential.
These kinds of upskilling programs can be executed through internal group sessions, debates , and role-play training models.
Technical & Digital Upskilling
- As we discussed earlier, this is the generation of technology and digitalization. It is not simply a matter of teaching people how to use a new device. That device may be of any use by next year. The upskilling experience involves learning how to think, act and thrive in a digital world that is sustainable over time. It can include –
- The art of storytelling: The era of digitalization works on short term memory loss. Unless your content is attention-grabbing, you will not survive in this Era. For that comes the art of storytelling which is the basis of anything.
- Adapting the digital transformation in the area of your work – It’s important to upskill the workforce so that each employee is prepared to take pathways that weren’t possible before automation made its big impact on businesses. As more aspects of the business become automated, employees can attend to a broader spectrum of business opportunities.
For these skills, training can include:
- Online Courses and Certifications: Train your employees in intelligent automation, there are a number of accessible online resources and technical certification programs available that can help equip employees with practical digital skills.
- Incorporate more technologies in your employees daily work process and provide them manuals or training on them. It can include software to automate their small tasks or their overall work profile.
Conclusion
Upskilling is one of the most important ways for companies to equip their people with the skills and competencies they need to be prepared in the competitive world. The above mentioned are the basis of creating any upskilling program for an organization. The Analysis of your Employee’s skill and knowledge must be done before choosing the relevant method and strategy. Try to go for personalized training programs for each employee. Often, a combination of one or more of the upskilling techniques listed in this article will work best.
Upskilling is not an option but a necessity” – Ashoka Veda