Up-skill and re-skill; the best strategy to advance productivity and profits

Re-skilling and upskilling are terms often used interchangeably, but both terms have different literal meanings. Reskilling means coaching your employees to acquire the skills for an entirely different occupation. Upskilling means teaching your employees advanced skills for their current occupation. Both of the terms are the same about acquiring new skills, but the context of each varies. To explain more; re-skilling is more about enabling employees to perform an entirely new role, while up-skilling is about training the employees to perform the job more efficiently with more knowledge.

According to the World Economic Forum’s report titled “Future of Jobs”-

• 50% of all employees will need to be re-skilled by 2025 as the adoption of technology increases
• By 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines
• 97 million more jobs may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labor between humans, machines, and algorithms
• By 2025, for those workers who stay in their roles, the share of core skills that will change is 40% to 50%

Keeping the above in view, the report sheds light largely on the importance of re-skilling and upskilling. Because of changing technologies, skill training has become a critical activity for organizations, governments, and other businesses.

Advantages of re-skilling and upskilling:

• The cost and time associated with up-skilling and re-skilling often prevents organizations from investing time in training their current employees. In the short-term, it might seem flexible to hire a new talent; but in the longer term, it is found that reskilling and upskilling the existing talent is more beneficial
• There is a shortage of rightly trained people to match the requirements. And, if such an individual is discovered, they may need to be up-skilled at some point due to the ever-changing nature of technology
• An existing employee is well-versed in the culture and inner workings of the company or an organization, which helps them add value faster than a new hire
• Internal promotion and even horizontal mobility keeps employees motivated and more engaged

Re-skilling and up-skilling strategies may include:

• Identifying the right candidate
• Finding the correct method, strategies, and tools
• Allocating and setting a time frame for employee transition

Conclusion:

Upskilling and re-skilling could be more advantageous than hiring new talent. It requires a company to thoroughly evaluate if the skills required to perform the task really need a new candidate or if it could be fulfilled with the existing employees just by opting for appropriate strategies to upskill or re-skill them. Instilling a new skill could be very effective if it were made easily accessible, interesting, and simplified. Companies can benefit from using the right strategies, setting up the time frame, and utilizing the right tools to structure a learning environment. There are many tools available to help organizations bridge the talent gap. Edurigo, a learning experience platform equipped with game-based and micro-learning tools, helps in designing highly configurable and use-friendly learning experiences and supports in increasing knowledge retention. Whether it is a sales enablement program, corporate training, or academic learning, Edurigo provides full flexibility in organizing effectively and efficiently.