How Reskilling Can Vastly Improve Your Business

Changes in technology and growing industry and consumer demands can cause swift shifts in job requirements which can sometimes result in talent gaps across an organization. So, in our ever-evolving economic environment, it’s important for companies to prioritize keeping their workforce fully staffed and thoroughly trained.

While some employers may seek to onboard new hires, others turn to approaches like reskilling to fill those talent gaps. Let’s take a deeper look at what reskilling is and how your organization could benefit from using this method to build a resilient and adaptable workforce.

What Is Reskilling?

Unlike traditional training and development, reskilling equips employees to take on roles that may be completely unrelated to their previous positions. The purpose of learning these new skills may involve either facilitating an employee’s transition to a completely different role within the organization or enabling them to assume additional responsibilities while maintaining some of their current duties.

Benefits of Reskilling

Reskilling can bring a whole new dynamic to your business, primarily because it can help your organization manage its talent needs efficiently while keeping personnel happy. According to the Pew Research Center, one of the key benefits that keeps employees satisfied is the opportunity to learn and grow through training and skill development programs.

Consider the following practical examples of how companies can benefit from reskilling to resolve staffing issues. You might spot a few that apply to your organization’s current needs!

Filling a Talent Gap from Within

If you choose to reskill, you can avoid having to recruit and go through the hiring and onboarding processes to find a candidate to fill that position. Not only are you bridging a talent gap through an existing employee, but you’re also investing in someone who already has a wealth of knowledge about how the company operates, its processes, and its direction— saving time and resources usually reserved for onboarding a new hire.

Retaining Staff

Automation, AI, and other advancing technologies are eliminating the need for humans in certain roles. Some of the more obvious ones include:

Toll booth workers
Bank tellers
Travel agents
Cashiers
Parking attendants
Assembly line workers
Customer service representatives

Invest in the future of your loyal employees and your organization by exploring reskilling opportunities for positions that are becoming obsolete. This allows them to gain new skills and continue contributing their expertise, while strengthening your talent pool with future-proof skillsets.

Advancing Careers

People are constantly changing and developing their career paths, whether they’re unhappy with their current role or looking for higher growth potential. If you have some employees who are itching to take on new challenges, reskilling could re-motivate them and allow you to secure their long-term talent.

Tips for Reskilling Employees

Reaping the benefits of reskilling employees requires being aware of your organization’s current and future needs, which can include:

Observing the existing talent in your staff
Keeping track of department turnover rates
Assessing the type of talent the company may need in the future

Also, consider asking yourself these questions based on your employees’ needs and goals:

Do any employees express interest in learning new skills and transitioning to different roles within the company
Are there employees who demonstrate a desire for career growth and possess the work ethic and potential to learn new skills and take on more responsibilities within the organization?
How can we leverage reskilling initiatives to create a win-win situation for both employees and the organization?

Explore all of your options for internal talent development before using external recruitment. Try creating an awareness throughout the organization of its willingness to reskill so your employees know how to share their career-related goals and help you get the most out of this process.

Reskilling vs. Upskilling: What’s the Difference?

While reskilling prepares staff for tasks that are unrelated to their previous work, upskilling improves their capabilities within the same or related role. It enables employees to enhance their current skillset while learning new skills that can make them more valuable to the organization.

Examples of Upskilling

Many companies offer a variety of options to help their staff upskill. Some of the more popular examples include:

Providing soft skills training
Teaching digital literacy
Investing in employees’ field-related certificate or degree programs to learn new skills (if possible)
Offering leadership training to candidates who are eligible for managerial positions

Professional development workshops, conferences, and other similar events are all great ways to help upskill your employees.

Improve your Organization Through Reskilling

Investing in reskilling your employees can cultivate loyalty and empower them to grow within the company, readily providing the skillset your business needs for success.