Hiring the right talent cannot alone guarantee an organization’s success. Your talent should be aligned with your business goals. In addition, adapting to the dynamic environment and being agile are great skills to possess. But how can you ensure that your entire organization is agile and adaptable? Are they operating in a manner that is evolving with the ever-changing business world and technological advancements?
Did you know that as per a Gartner survey, almost 80% of employees feel that they do not have the requisite skills to succeed in their current roles or in future careers?
Another research from Deloitte states that about 74% of companies identify the readiness gap in their business and agree that reskilling their employees by the end of 2022 is very important.
Thus, businesses need to design creative and engaging learning experiences and opportunities for resource upskilling to determine if they are future-ready or not.
What is Retraining and Resource Upskilling?
Resource upskilling and retraining enables employees to learn newer skills or be up to date with their competencies as per the current requirements. This also helps to improve their performance and overall efficiency. For example, an employee may be finding it tough to put some newly learned skills into application in real life. Retraining or resource upskilling helps them to recognize its nuances and easily bridge the performance gap they’ve been facing. Resource upskilling is also recommended for those employees who may have the potential to grow and take on a bigger role or position. What’s more? Resource upskilling allows a continuous learning process through well-designed training programs and learning and development opportunities. Thus, retraining helps to expand and diversify the portfolios of your workforce. It not only improves their skillsets but also enables them to take on multiple types of roles and responsibilities. Now let’s understand why organizations should implement them.
How to Forecast Your Workforce Needs?
It is very important to forecast the needs for retraining or upskilling for your employees for efficient project and resource management. This is how you can do this.
- Project your organizational or business goals for the coming few years.
- Forecast the number of employees you may need as per the pipeline and what are the skills required to achieve those goals.
- Analyze the roles that could be impacted by automation or any technological augmentation.
- Estimate the impact of technological advancements and digitization across all departments and roles.
- Forecast what soft and hard skills may be required along the way as core tasks or activities change.
Always remember that the key goal is to properly identify the skills that your organization will need to meet any future goals in short- and long-term projections.
How to Know if Your Employees Need Upskilling or Reskilling?
According to a recent BCG survey, there are two major trends in the job skills adaptation area: technological changes and globalization. Almost two-thirds of respondents stated that their existing roles will be impacted in a big way by these trends. So, what is the answer to the challenge that these trends pose? The first is resource upskilling, which means teaching employees some new skills that may help them to do their current work roles more efficiently. The second is reskilling or training them with skills that could be used in an entirely new role or job. These days, it is very important to gain awareness about digital skills along with good interpersonal skills. Hence, organizations need to think of ways to help improve their employees’ skills to work with new technologies, and also their soft skills to manage interactions.
Top 7 Ways to Manage Resource Upskilling
- Prepare a training and upskilling calendar
After identifying the skill gap, the team supervisors or managers need to think of a strategy. This strategy details various learning methodologies they can use to upskill the workforce, what is a suitable budget for this, and the retraining or upskilling timeline. You also need to mention the key objectives of the training. Before implementing this strategy, it is important to make sure that your training material or content is up to date, and aligns with the exact role and demand of the job. In addition, the training timeline should be made considering employees’ availability and work schedules. A resource management tool can come in handy here. It can help in checking the employees’ current skills, schedules, and bandwidth, and then the training sessions can be planned accordingly.
- Invest in the latest learning technology
A learning management system or LMS is very important for upskilling and retraining your workforce. Not only is a fast return on investment assured, but you will also notice instant improvements in productivity. Data shows that almost 54% of companies that invest in leading learning technology experience an immediate rise in employee engagement and productivity. You can design programs that could be tailored to each team member’s strengths and identified development areas. By designing unique and tailor-made learning experiences, businesses can avoid time wastage and hone those skills of their employees which can be helpful to their career advancement.
- Explore various learning methodologies
The workforce in any organization is bound to have varied competencies. Obviously, their training should ideally be personalized so that it aligns with their skill set, development needs, and career goals. Therefore, the project or team managers should aim at framing individual training and development plans. They should also combine various training methodologies and execute the ones, which are most suitable for the employees. These strategies could include online courses, buddying or peer-to-peer coaching, blended learning, reverse mentoring, on-the-job training, etc. A mix of learning options allows employees to choose programs and modalities of their interest, ensure more engagement, and gain better exposure.
- Offer opportunities for job rotation and cross-department transfers
One of the most effective methods of resource upskilling is providing experiential or hands-on training. This can be done through job rotation and giving cross-department movements. This way, employees can move between various verticals or departments for projects or assignments at regular intervals and get an opportunity to get upskilled or reskilled. This also offers your employees a chance to implement their knowledge and competencies in different areas of operation. Not only that, but it also reduces the boredom of one repetitive job and gives them a holistic experience.
- Focus both on technical acumen and soft skills
Mostly, companies end up training people in new technical skills. However, they forget that honing their soft skills is an integral part of their growth plan and for the organization as well. For instance, you may be a team manager and may be good at operational tasks and various resource planning software you use. But your communication, people’s skills, and leadership also need to be effective so that you can deal with clients and your team effectively. Thus, a good blend of conducting upskilling programs in technological areas, and coupling it with soft skills like emotional intelligence, diversity, leadership, etc. is the key.
- Assess the success of the program
After the resource upskilling is done through training programs, it is vital to assess its success and the progress that employees have made. This can be done by discussions, collecting feedback, and post-assessment tests. After that, the upskilled resources can be aligned to projects or departments that require those new skills. This will help in finding if the employees are proficient or require additional training. These post-evaluation strategies help organizations identify the gaps in the existing training programs and enhance them accordingly.
- Leverage the gained knowledge
Providing resource upskilling opportunities is just the first step. After your workforce has completed the required training program, you should leverage their new skills and enhanced value for their career advancement and the organization’s benefit. You should aim to create resource upskilling and retraining programs that fill the knowledge gaps and give you the employee readiness you need. This will enable you to considerably decrease the hiring and onboarding costs. It also helps to minimize employee churn or attrition and enhance staff loyalty.
How can eResource Scheduler Help You with Resource Upskilling and Efficient Resource Management?
eResource Scheduler has various top features that not only help you with resource management but also with resource upskilling. The tool helps you identify the candidates that require retraining and upskilling and also provides an insight into the skills that are likely to be in demand in the coming few years. You can also do resource comparisons instantly by checking their profiles with the help of its advanced filters. This leading resource management tool also helps to find what each employee is working on, their productivity, utilization, experience, areas of interest, and more. By finding the employees who have high potential, you can create a plan for their retraining and development. This will not only future-proof them but also substantially increase your revenues. The tool also comes in handy to gain foresight into pipeline projects, and then you can determine the required skill set and competencies, and bridge the gap between capacity and demand. So, take a free trial and easily manage resource upskilling.
