How can HR help upskill and reskill your workforce?

Any successful firm is built on its workforce, who use their skills and expertise to drive growth and improve business outcomes. So, how can HR make sure they’re not just hiring amazing new talent, but also helping the current team level up and adapt to all the rapid changes in the business world and tech space? As digital changes, global uncertainties, and shifts in the job market continue to challenge organizations and their goals, how can HR support workers in acquiring more useful and adaptable skills that will ultimately increase business flexibility and innovation? Helping employees develop more valuable and flexible skills can lead to greater business adaptability and innovation in the long term. The time when organizational success depended only on fixed skill sets and traditional practices is over. It’s likely that shortly, some jobs may disappear while many others will look very different. Roles that business leaders haven’t even imagined yet will become important. How can HR stay competitive, companies need to actively include ongoing learning and skill improvement in their overall plan.

What is reskilling?

Therefore, despite the frequent confusion between the terms “reskilling” and “upskilling,” they have different meanings. To put it briefly, reskilling is the process by which workers acquire new abilities to transition into an entirely new role inside the organization. It’s similar to providing them with new tools to tackle exciting new projects! Upskilling is about preparing workers for big changes in their current jobs. Employers frequently use upskilling as well as reskilling to support employees’ career advancement and future readiness.

What is upskilling?

Upskilling is to improve a worker’s capabilities so they can function more effectively and adaptably in their current position. People’s understanding of their jobs and skill sets usually grows as they gain more experience in the field. How can HR encourage employees to upskill intentionally by enrolling in classes and engaging in experiential learning opportunities? For example, a software engineer may elect to sign up for online courses to take up a new programming language.

Upskilling vs. Reskilling

Although gaining new skills is a requirement for both reskilling and upskilling, some people may mix them up. They are a little different, though. While reskilling entails picking up new talents for a different department inside the company, upskilling refers to enhancing your abilities in your present field. How can HR help employees concentrate on upskilling if they want to take on greater responsibilities in their existing position?

Why should you upskill and reskill your staff?

How can HR help when it comes to investing in the training and development of staff members to improve team morale, increase adaptability, and advance the reputation of the business? It also shows that you value and are there for your staff members, both internally and outside.  Investing in employee training and development is a wise decision for any organization. You’ll save a ton of money by keeping an employee with the necessary skills instead of acquiring a new one! How can HR help by offering training that enhances employees’ skills to handle more responsibilities, such as after a promotion, or to broaden their current abilities? Reskilling is a way to move employees into new roles, sometimes very different jobs within your company, by providing them with the training they need to succeed. How can HR help when investing in employee training? Investing in your employees’ training offers several advantages. When you create a strong upskilling program, you not only save money by not having to replace employees with outdated skills, but you also build a pipeline of talent from entry-level positions to management. Large-scale reskilling encourages employees to share ideas and work together across different areas to achieve goals. Ultimately, nothing can match the positive impacts that this type of investment has on performance as a whole, retention rates, and employee morale. How can HR assist employees gain the computer skills they need to excel in an increasingly digital and competitive world? Read on..

How can HR help upskill and reskill your workforce

There are several ways to help your staff become more and more skilled. All set to go?

1. Use budget-friendly online resources

The Internet age provides free and low-cost education options. How can HR leverage many free or inexpensive online tools available for formal workplace training? Many are made to help workers learn new skills or improve existing ones at a reasonable price. Here are some popular and affordable platforms you can join:

General Assembly

• Product management, data science tools, and digital marketing are all taught at the General Assembly. Additionally, it includes training modules for reporting and assessing user experience (UX). Employers of note, including Visa, Loreal, and Conde Nast, use the General Assembly to retrain or upskill their workforce. If you need to expand your marketing or customer support teams or are moving from traditional call centers to a more affordable online help system, give this platform some thought.

Coding Dojo

• Tech skills are emphasized heavily in Coding Dojo. Large tech companies utilize the platform to train their staff in highly specialized IT and coding skills. Customers of Coding Dojo include Uber, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, eBay, Cisco, and HP. For educating your software engineers in new languages like Java, Python, Mean, and Ruby, this is almost the perfect option.

2. Create a list of free resources for employees to explore

Besides the formal training available through online academies, how can HR encourage employees to explore additional resources in their free time? It’s beneficial to encourage employees to explore additional resources in their free time. Since these resources are used outside of work hours, they should be easily accessible online and free to use. Given that many of these platforms offer a wide range of content, your list should be very specific about which videos to watch or articles to read. You can even create playlists for training courses or reading lists on the company’s website and provide direct links to the materials for easy access. Some excellent free resources for learning specific skills include:

3. Build partnerships with training providers

How can HR enhance learning opportunities for employees by forming relationships with training providers? These partnerships can offer specialized courses and resources that align with your company’s needs and goals. Every successful company has its special skills, and there are ways to use other companies’ investments in training their workers to your advantage. Discuss the idea of skill sharing between employees of various employers. You don’t have to stick to businesses in your sector to take advantage of these kinds of beneficial alliances. For instance, if your business lacks marketing resources but has a large and tech-savvy IT team, a business in a different industry might be open to collaborating with you. They could temporarily let some of your employees join their marketing teams while your IT team teaches their employees about technology.

4. Train managers to be coaches

How can HR create a central place for training employees with different levels of experience within a company? It’s a good idea to create a central place for training employees with different levels of experience within a company. Emphasize the importance of a frontline supervisor in training and development. First-level supervisors should conduct regular training evaluations, such as weekly or monthly assessments, and create personalized training plans for each employee. The close relationships at this level enable team leaders to match employees with specific skills to those who need to learn them.

5. Form working/study groups

You can enhance team development by establishing formal structures for skill improvement and retraining. So, how can HR make this happen? Consider creating business resource groups where employees can meet and train each other, following a company-set curriculum. In this setup, a group of about a dozen workers can gradually share their unique skills, ensuring everyone becomes familiar with all the skills necessary for their job. For example, IT professionals can teach customer service representatives, who can then share customer insights with engineers, and so forth.

6. Hire external trainers

The field of corporate trainers is large and expanding, and there likely exists a trainer for any topic your employees need to learn. However, how can HR select the best one? Seek out trainers with experience in teaching the abilities you wish your staff to have, who can work remotely or visit your workplace. Although this may be costly, the skills your staff acquire will more than offset the expense.

7. Develop projects for skill enhancement and retraining

Lastly, remember that improving and retraining skills is a continuous process. How can HR keep the momentum going? Invest in refresher courses periodically to maintain critical skills. You could also adopt a goal-focused approach to training by creating projects for your teams to complete. For instance, you could give customer service representatives the task of creating a new order system. This helps employees learn new skills and, as a result, improves the overall abilities of the team.

Since we at UNLEASH believe that happy employees are the key to a successful business, we value their talents and knowledge highly to foster innovation and growth. In the rapidly evolving corporate world of today, how can HR ensure that their workers are always prepared for the next big thing? UNLEASH assists HR teams in concentrating on developing and imparting new skills so that their teams are capable of adapting and preparing for future developments.