Whenever you hire a new employee for your organization, you need to be sure they have the right skill set for the role. Their current level of experience and qualifications will determine their ability to get results. However, it won’t be long until employees feel like they’re spinning their wheel in a role or that skillset needs refreshing. Companies that help with reskilling and upskilling can enjoy a lot of benefits. So, what is reskilling and upskilling, and how can you help your staff?
What Is Upskilling?
When learning more about what is reskilling and upskilling, you will see that there is a big difference between the two. Both forms of employee support are designed to get people in a better position for both personal development and the goals of the organization. However, the difference lies in the direction in which they’re progressing. With upskilling, it’s all about giving people the tools to handle their current roles more effectively and efficiently.
For example, you have a team member working on a project within your marketing department. They are great at what they do and provide satisfactory results to help with product launches and conversions. They are also pretty happy with their role and have no intention to pursue anything else right now. That doesn’t mean you can’t help them grow within their role to become the best version of themselves they can be. They can get a lot more job satisfaction from their role as they tackle bigger challenges and interesting tasks from new perspectives. This new approach to their work and great efficiency can also have a knock-on effect on their work-life balance, making them much happier and more productive long term. Basically, everyone benefits from some much-needed growth within the role.
How Can You Help?
There are various ways that companies can get the best out of their employees and help them upskill without changing their jobs and overall responsibilities. This can include providing on-the-job training within the workplace or assisting people to get industry-specific qualifications outside of the company. If there’s an additional skill that would be useful, perhaps via a qualification that wasn’t readily available before they joined the company, you can help support that. Give them the time and resources to complete the training and gain those certificates. Learning about specific practices, software programs, and other tools could make their role much easier. So, the initial cost pays off in the end. You can also bring in guest speakers or have people give talks on corporate away days to help encourage new approaches to problem-solving, project management, and other crucial skills.
What’s most important here is that you do this on a personalized basis. Take the time to evaluate where individual team members are with their work, where they may show growth potential, and where they may be struggling. Some employees will benefit from certain skills and qualifications more than others. You need everyone to be a team player to get results, but they aren’t all going to achieve their goals the same way. Check-in with them and listen to their concerns or hopes for personal growth.
What Is Reskilling?
Reskilling is a little diferent than upskilling. You’re still providing people with tools and support for personal growth. This time, it’s all about getting them into new roles and offering more advanced career progression. The end goal is to get prime candidates ready for promotions and new challenges. Going back to that example of the marketing team. You may have someone who’s been an effective part of the team for years and shows management potential. They have the ideas and interpersonal skills to run the department or even oversee larger projects one day, but not the experience or training. They may have that drive to climb the ladder and progress into a new role with the right support.
This approach can prove to be highly advantageous on both sides. If you take the time to provide employee support, you can start promoting from within. This means you have someone ready to take on management roles who already understands the company ethos and past projects. You know what they are capable of and can let them prove their worth even further. Those team members then get the satisfaction of being recognized and appreciated and can experience a linear progression in a positive work environment.
How Can You Help?
Support with reskilling and upskilling is very similar. You have to start with the same level of personal evaluations and one-on-one support. Find out exactly what your employees want from their time at the company and how they feel they can make a difference in a new role. If you’re both on the same page about your aspirations and company goals, you can work together to get that employee in the best position for success. Off-site training courses and distance learning can prove to be valuable here if they would benefit from some extra qualifications. If you can agree to fund that and offer flexible hours to support their education, they’ll be more inclined to complete the course and use their qualification to stay within the company.
Another tool that works really well is in-house training on the job. There’s no better way to see how to carry out a specific role than to watch it in action. Job shadowing lets your employee gain hands-on experience and a taste of what’s to come. When this is paired with an effective mentorship scheme, you can pass on a lot of knowledge and make that transition a lot smoother. You also have to be prepared to let them make mistakes on training tasks and to give effective feedback. With the right approach, they will ease into a new role, and you can finally make it official with their new responsibilities, job titles, and changes in their salary.
Take Advantage Of Reskilling And Upskilling
Both reskilling and upskilling require a lot of time, effort, and resources to get the best results. Still, companies that pay for the right training, guest speakers, distance learning qualifications, and other tools will find it pays off. Managers who make the effort with evaluations, job shadowing, and mentorship can make it a lot easier for employees to grow and develop within the organization. You’ll then end up with teams full of skilled workers who are happier and more productive while also promoting the finest talent from within. So, talk to your staff about their needs and see how you can improve their skills and opportunities for career progression.
