Reskilling and upskilling have become the new buzzwords in the modern workplace, referring to the practice of training employees for new roles or providing them with additional skills to keep up with changing job requirements.
However, these terms are really just new ways of describing old practices – treating your staff right by providing them with opportunities to learn and grow.
Staff need stability, not stasis – over the long term even a specialised skill needs compounding, updating, validating.
To successfully reskill and upskill staff, it’s important to focus on both retention and training. While it’s crucial to keep your workforce up-to-date with new skills and technologies, it’s equally important to retain those employees by providing them with growth opportunities and a clear career path within the organization.
To prepare the workforce for the future, companies should prioritize reskilling and upskilling efforts as part of a larger strategy for talent retention and development. This can be done by identifying skills gaps within the organization, providing relevant training and development opportunities, and promoting a culture of learning and growth.
At Jacksonstone, we’ve consulted with our clients over the years on reskilling and upskilling patterns. Our view across industries gives us unique insight into the approaches that work and those that don’t.
Reskilling and upskilling at a basic level, leads to an engaged staff base. The recent acquisition of cork-based employee engagement platform Workvivo by Zoom is testament to the strategic importance of employee engagement. According to a study by LinkedIn, companies with high levels of employee engagement are 21% more profitable than those with low levels of engagement. Reskilling and upskilling isn’t just for the top percentile. It’s an across the board necessity for the workforce.
