Upskilling your workforce

Skills required in the workplace are rapidly evolving. Think AI, automation of tasks, digital communication, the changing expectations of generations entering the workplace, our crazy economic climate, and the importance of protecting our environment. All these factors will likely lead to adaptation and a need for upskilling within your workforce.

As employees return from their summer break, autumn is an ideal time of year to review your team’s learning and development goals and aspirations. Those plans and objectives set at the start of the year will not achieve themselves!

If your team is in need of a post-holiday skills refresh then this post is for you. We take a look at what’s involved in upskilling your workforce, highlight learning and development best practice, and summarise the huge untapped benefits of investing in your employees.

Upskilling your workforce focuses on adapting and upgrading skills

Upskilling is all about improving existing employees’ skills and abilities so they can advance in their current roles and careers within the organisation. The last part of that sentence ‘within the organisation’ is key. Upskilling allows employees to develop within their role, keeping them engaged and motivated.

Upskilling your employees helps to reduce skills gaps. We’re not just talking task-based skills like IT or public speaking. Upskilling also covers developing practical people skills such as emotional intelligence, self-care, resilience and learning how to lead and develop others. It’s about improving and becoming more productive in your current role rather than aiming for a promotion.

Employees might already be upskilling without realising it. When someone asks you to do something and you don’t know how, but take it upon yourself to learn, that’s upskilling.

• How to create a pivot table in Excel? Let’s Google it and teach ourselves!

• Preparing and rehearsing an interview scenario to improve your confidence. That is upskilling.

• Training existing engineers to build electric vans in place of diesel. That’s upskilling too.

Upskilling strengthens the whole organisation

Organisations may be wary of investing in upskilling, mainly through a fear employees will take their newly acquired skills and move elsewhere. There is always a small risk that this could happen, however this won’t be the sole reason why anyone leaves an organisation. There will likely be other factors at play.

Look at it this way... Why would an employee seek to progress their career elsewhere when they already work for an organisation that lives and breathes a culture of learning and development?

Employee retention is one of the biggest benefits of investing in upskilling, and there are plenty more reasons why it should be a priority. Here are some of other ways upskilling strengthens organisations:

• Attracts talent - tangible learning and development opportunities are a huge plus for people assessing a new role or employer.

• Improves engagement and morale - it’s refreshing and rewarding to learn something new, whether that’s skills or knowledge.

• Increases productivity and job satisfaction - not only because employees are adequately equipped for their role, they also have a sense of purpose and feel wanted and valued by the business.

• Equips employees to move elsewhere in the organisation in the future, reducing the cost of recruitment.

• Helps maintain an economic and competitive advantage in the marketplace.

• Allows your people to service customers more efficiently and effectively, increasing client satisfaction and improving their experience.

Learning and development best practice

Every organisation should pro-actively encourage their people to seek out learning opportunities and develop their own skills. The responsibility lies with the whole organisation, not just with HR. Promoting internal job opportunities, secondments or training courses is important, but managers should also be discussing learning and development in career conversations with their team.

These are our top tips and considerations when planning to upskill:

• What are your business plans and have you met the targets you set for your people? Skills gaps can emerge at any time. Regular reviews of your plans and performance against target will help you to identify development opportunities.

• Is there any budget left? There are only four months of the calendar year remaining. How much you have to invest will impact the type of learning and development available to you. It is possible to upskill on a small budget. Think free webinars (we run them most months!), online learning, coaching and work shadowing opportunities. Government support may be available for smaller organisations.

• Review skills regularly. Frequent, open discussions about training and development are much more effective than annual reviews. Build these regular conversations into your appraisal / performance review process.

• Equip managers to feel confident leading career conversations. This could present an upskilling opportunity in itself!

• React positively to changing needs. The need for upskilling often arises in response to a bad situation or an employee performance issue. Whether reactive or proactive, upskilling should also be viewed as a positive. Everyone involved should keep focused on the long-term impact and benefits.

Upskilling to future-proof your business

According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report, companies are likely to provide upskilling opportunities to 73% of their staff in the lead up to 2025. Are you one of those forward-thinking organisations? If you haven’t yet considered the possibilities of upskilling, perhaps we should have a chat!

In our rapidly changing economic and technological climate, employees are living with the stark reality of certain jobs becoming obsolete. Younger generations are fearful of the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence on their role, while older generations are concerned their skills are being superseded.

Upskilling presents a valuable opportunity. Organisations must embrace it and invest time and resources to reap the benefits. Use this opportunity to demonstrate a long-term view and to future-proof your business and your people. Professional and personal development is a huge selling point for businesses competing for the best candidates, and also for retaining existing staff.

Learning, development and upskilling harnesses the untapped potential of your employees, building on existing skills and capabilities to advance their career and satisfaction at work. It’s a subject we’re really passionate about at P3 People Management. Can you tell?

Further reading

If you’re interested in learning more on this theme we have lots of other useful resources you can tap into. Take a look at our ebook on Developing Talent, and our blogs on Emotional Intelligence and Being a Good Leader.

How we can help you

If you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog, get in touch with us today on 0161 941 2426. We’re here to help.