Covid-19 has jeopardized and limited our business growth to a great extent. The global economy has slowed down and has put one thing across for certainty i.e. unemployment. Businesses are uncertain of demand and supply. It is impacting employees with pay cuts, deferred payments, and sometimes job loss. It is sad to see the lives of people getting affected by the wrath of the pandemic. But it is important to understand that certain things are beyond our control. Organizations are cutting down on their production capacity and manpower. It will leave you with limited resources to carry on your operations. Understanding industry trends and gearing up to meet the new scenario holds the key.

Upskilling or reskilling your employees can be an ideal solution in this scenario. Upskilling refers to training your employees to perform better in the current job. Whereas reskilling is developing new skills to equip the employees for new job roles. Updated employees can respond to the industrial challenges effectively. Let’s see how upskilling your employees can benefit your business.

Retain Top Talents

One of the major challenges faced by organizations has been to keep the top talents. The impact becomes more severe with limitations posed by Covid-19 that can restrict the career growth of your employees. Upskilling & reskilling provides career progression for employees. It can help organizations to keep their best talents. The pandemic has forced many organizations to adopt remote working. Work from home will be the new normal even after the pandemic ends.

Your top talents understand that it is important to learn and upgrade their skills to adapt to the new scenario.

Upskilling and reskilling will encourage your employees to prepare themselves for the future like never. Moreover, if you must adopt a hiring freeze, your well-informed employees will be better prepared to take up more responsibilities. Once the economy and business get back to the track, these employees will contribute to the growth of the business.

Cuts Down on Hiring Cost

The cost of hiring and training a new candidate is much costly and time consuming compared to retaining existing talent. In present times, HR all over the world is looking at cutting down the hiring cost.

About 30% of organizations have reduced their hiring budget by implementing a hiring freeze.

Besides, more organizations are reporting hiring freeze. In such situations, employees quitting may catch you off-guard. HR can look inwards and identify talents to upskill or reskill them. Internal recruitment can lower the cost incurred on hiring recruits. It can also motivate your employees to develop their talents further. 

Encourages Employee Engagement

Employees are having a challenging time with the sudden change in their working atmosphere. Restricted human interaction can impact the emotions and mental health of your employees. This is further doubled when they are facing financial and job insecurity. Such a situation calls for an employer’s role in boosting the morale of employees. Upskilling & reskilling come as an ideal solution to keep your employees engaged and motivated for meeting the unprecedented challenges. It is also applicable to traditional employees who haven’t felt the need to upgrade their digital competency may use such an opportunity to upgrade themselves. Moreover, it can help your employees grow to be a better contributing resource of the organization. In the long run, improved skills can result in better teamwork and employee satisfaction.

“The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven” – Knute Kenneth Rockne.

Cross-functional Team

Teamwork and communication are among the most significant factors for the survival of the business. It has gained more importance during the pandemic and is likely to be so after the pandemic too. In such a scenario, employers need to prepare their teams to come together and perform different strategic functions.

Facilitating upskilling and reskilling will help the employees to understand diverse job functions and their challenges for coming together to manage the tasks.

Furthermore, it will also improve employee experience and loyalty.

Prepares for the Future

Economic instability is lurking around with most of the buyers staying at home. The World Bank, reports

“The baseline forecast envisions a 5.2 percent contraction in global GDP in 2020, using market exchange rate weights—the deepest global recession in decades, despite the extraordinary efforts of governments to counter the downturn with fiscal and monetary policy support.”

This calls for proactive employees who are willing to adapt to change. The concept of upskilling and reskilling gains significance here. Building a team of knowledgeable employees prepares for meeting the challenges. Moreover, futuristic insights help your employees understand the industry trends better. It can help steer their efforts in the right direction.

Wrap Up

To engage your employees in upskilling and reskilling you must analyze the future demands of your industry. Based upon this you can prepare the list of skills that your employees may need to work upon. Arrange or schedule suitable training and development programs for your employees. Furthermore, providing a morale boost driving the employees for participation is also important considering the scenario. Employees and organizations focused on learning and improving their skills are much likely to experience better growth.

Do you have other ideas on the importance of upskilling and reskilling your employees during this pandemic? Share your thoughts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Alternatively, drop your comments below.

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