Upskilling and Reskilling: The Key to Building a Future-Ready Workforce in 2022

Technological innovation and automation continue to reshape the business landscape, hence the need for skill development has been felt acutely across the industry. Organizations are increasingly focusing on skill development in order to attune their workforce to the ever-evolving job roles and business needs.

Business leaders have begun to rethink learning and development at the workplace. Many of them have brought in a talent strategy to upskill and reskill their employees and address the skill gaps within their companies.

In this blog, we will discuss what upskilling and reskilling signify, why they have become the need of the hour, and how you can effectively train your workforce.

What is upskilling?

Upskilling is the process of boosting employees’ existing skill set, so they acquire new skills within their current job function and perform at an optimal level. With upskilling, employees can feel more confident in their current roles and easily take on additional responsibilities.

What is reskilling?

Reskilling is the process of teaching employees new skills that are needed to perform a completely different role. An ever-changing business environment can affect economies and industries, making it necessary for organizations to adapt quickly. They can do so by training their existing workforce in skills they may need to fill up new roles.

Why have upskilling and reskilling become important more than ever?

The need for upskilling and reskilling their workforce has never been felt so strongly. As you may already know, there is a skill shortage in almost every industry, and the crisis will only worsen in the days to come. As per a skills gap research by SHRM, 83% of HR professionals face difficulties while recruiting candidates. At a time when organizations aren’t getting the talent they seek, they need to act proactively and develop it on their own.

Besides, it is expensive and time-consuming for an organization to hire a new employee. There are various costs associated with recruitment, training, and onboarding that make it a significant investment. So, it makes perfect sense to continue investing in your current employees by upskilling and reskilling them instead of hiring fresh candidates, even if you find competent professionals to fill in the roles.

Further, the shelf life of skills is getting shorter by the day. As technologies such as AI-ML become more mainstream, automation may take over, making certain categories of jobs redundant.

According to a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum, automation and economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic will lead to 85 million jobs being displaced and 97 million being created by 2025. Individuals who don’t reskill themselves and move into new positions and roles may be left out without a job. Organizations can prepare their employees for the future of work by duly equipping them with the necessary skills.

What are the benefits of upskilling and reskilling your workforce?

Higher Productivity

Around 93% of CEOs who have implemented upskilling programs witness higher productivity among their workforce. When businesses train their employees in skills they need to progress in their roles, the latter can spend more time on value-added activities including strategy formulation and problem-solving.

Business Agility

The recent pandemic made us realize that organizations can become vulnerable when change is thrust upon them. By providing their employees with skill development opportunities, business leaders can drive agility within their organization.

Employee Retention

Providing employees with opportunities for upskilling and reskilling boosts their job satisfaction. Employees are more likely to stay within an organization when they feel they are given a chance to upgrade their skills and elevate their positions. This positively impacts a company’s bottom line.

Cost Savings

Hiring new employees is an expensive endeavor. In addition to training, organizations need to spend on recruiting, interviewing, and background checks conducted during the hiring process. And even after they have been trained well, there is no guarantee that a new hire will be able to perform their roles successfully or won’t quit for a better job offer. Your current employees save you money right from the beginning, as they’re already aware of their roles and responsibilities.

How to upskill and reskill your workforce effectively?

While it may be difficult to determine the best way to retrain and upskill your employees, you can certainly follow a few steps to make it easier and more effective.

Emphasize Hands-on Training

Hands-on training or experiential learning can dramatically impact an individual’s learning curve. Skills such as AI programming or leadership development cannot be taught just by reading about them. In hands-on training, the learner moves beyond theory to get first-hand experience of practicing what he has been taught. As a result, he can better retain concepts and ideas while drastically improving his knowledge and skills.

At CellStrat, we believe in ‘learning by doing’. Unlike many of our competitors that rely primarily on traditional classroom methods, we strongly encourage our students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. Students are made to practice on the developer tools platforms right from the beginning of their training program. Likewise, interns are pushed to build modules and projects on the platform, an exercise that consolidates what they’ve learnt through practice and boost their confidence.

Focus on Personalized Learning

It’s vital to remember that employees in the same role and age group may be at different stages of their learning journey. For this reason, organizations need to ditch the cookie-cutter approach and offer personalized training where the content and learning experiences are attuned to the needs, learning styles and goals of the learner.

Personalized training programs can be especially helpful for individuals who have trouble understanding specific concepts. This training method allows them to slow down and thoroughly understand one section before moving on to the next. Such an approach ensures

the learner understands and retains the content better.

Engage Your Learners

Your upskilling and reskilling initiatives should be as engaging as possible. Techniques such as gamification have been found immensely useful in improving learner engagement and knowledge absorption as it appeals to our natural desire for competition and mastery.

Incorporating point systems such as experience points and badges in online training programs enables learners to watch their progress and receive feedback in real-time. Likewise, levels that track a learner’s progress encourage them to move to higher stages in their learning programs. This also encourages healthy competition while significantly improving engagement levels.

CellStrat-Your Gateway to Skill Development

At CellStrat, we offer world-class training programs in Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning to help your workforce prepare for the future of work. Most of these programs are self-paced and instructor-supported and offer compelling learning experiences that equip individuals with the skills and confidence needed to thrive in today’s rapidly changing workplace. To know more, please get in touch with us through email or phone.