Future-Proof Your Workforce: 4 Key Methods
Upskilling is the process of learning new skills to help your employees hone newer skills and improve their productivity at work. It is the process of retraining your employees. Upskilling allows your employees to perform better in their current job roles. Reskilling is the process of learning new skills so that an employee can do a different job or job role. It helps an employee shift to a new job or adapt to specific changes in the current job role.
As per the Upskilling for Shared Prosperity Report 2021 of the World Economic Forum, "upskilling could propel the transition to an economy where human labor is increasingly complemented and augmented by new technology, thereby improving the overall quality of jobs." [1]
The recent Global Survey on Upskilling and Reskilling of Employees by the International Labor Organization indicates that around 65% of enterprises and organizations worldwide took active measures to continue upskilling and reskilling their employees. [2] Reskilling programs covered a wide range of topics in technical skills and other skills, like digital skills, time management, socio-emotional skills, occupational safety and health, mental health and well-being, etc.
There are many benefits of upskilling and reskilling your employees. Upskilling helps your employees to fill the skills gaps within the team. Both upskilling and reskilling help to build efficient teams in the company. Employees who undergo skill training become more productive in their work. They can complete the tasks efficiently and effectively. It increases overall productivity. Therefore, it is very important to upskill and reskill your employees to equip themselves to successfully deal with the changing business needs.
Here are 4 ways of upskilling and reskilling your employees.
1. Use eLearning And Microlearning Modules
eLearning is a proven delivery model with the potential to upskill your workforce in an engaging way. A plethora of learning strategies are available in eLearning, along with a variety of tools and technologies for the implementation of the strategy. You can give your employees the opportunity to expand their skillsets by integrating upskilling into your corporate eLearning strategy.
Microlearning is a learning and training strategy that delivers learning resources to your employees in highly focused sessions. Microlearning modules of 2- to 5-minute duration offer bite-sized learning to your employees on various skills. When it comes to upskilling and reskilling, each module can be designed to cover a specific skill or a learning objective.
2. Use The Case Study Approach
Case studies are a great way of teaching complex strategies and ideas. Case studies serve as information-providing tools and they are good for upskilling activities. They help to improve the analytical and problem-solving skills of your employees by asking questions about the scenario presented in the case study. They enable facilitators to demonstrate real incidents/events that help employees understand the required skills, newer methods, and best practices.
3. Implement Personalized Learning For Your Employees
You can implement personalized learning for your employees as part of upskilling. Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs) are increasingly used by organizations to provide personalized learning experiences to help employees go to the next level. You can utilize LXPs to provide just-in-time and more experiential learning to your employees. Modern LXPs provide improved real-time tracking and reporting of learning pertaining to your employees. The reports help to identify the skill gaps in employees and help to provide more relevant content to them. You can provide targeted training for specific employees to build the competencies and skills required for their new job roles.
4. Organize Mentorship Programs
You can organize mentorship programs to upskill your employees. Mentors can be outside experts from the industry or senior managers in your company. Industry experts will help your employees enhance their much needed job skills or professional skills. Senior managers can provide on-the-job training to their team members. According to a report by Forbes, more than 70% of Fortune 500 companies have a corporate mentorship program in place. [3]
Mentors can identify the strengths and unique traits of the employees. They can give real-life situations to your employees to apply their learnings. Thus, mentors can groom your employees for leadership roles. Mentors can also informally discuss any issues or challenges that the employees are facing in their current job role and address to solve the same.
Conclusion
Upskilling and reskilling make your employees more adaptable, resilient, and versatile. With upskilling and reskilling, your employees become experts in their field, thus helping your company have a competitive advantage. By helping your employees improve their existing skillsets, you can retain the top talent in your company.
At Tesseract Learning, our learning and visual architects are constantly innovating and reinventing their approaches to design, develop, and deliver effective L&D programs. Leverage the services of the SmartChoice Preferred Solution Provider by Brandon Hall Group for the second year in a row. We provide end-to-end execution of the complete Learning and Development cycle and learning consultation.
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References:
[1] Upskilling for Shared Prosperity Report 2021
[3] Does Mentoring Still Matter For Fortune 500 Companies?
