Upskilling, reskilling key for organisational grow...

Upskilling, reskilling key for organisational growth

Nhamo Varaigwai

Zim Now Special Correspondent

Faced with a situation where the future economic environment is dreary and a high risk of unknowns is involved, organisations may not be prepared to invest in upskilling and reskilling employees currently on their books.

However, in eras of economic uncertainty, organisations are encouraged to use this time to upskill and reskill their employees so as to save money on recruiting new staff.

This also pays off in the long term through the retention of key employees and avoid retrenchments. It also leads to improved operational efficiency and helps organisations prepare for automation and digitisation, while at the same time future-proofing the business.

Having the opportunity to learn and grow within an organisation is an important factor that brings an exceptional work environment, enabling the organisation to remain able to attract, retain motivated and productive employees.

Organizations are encouraged to embark on programmes that help employees pursue their linear paths by strengthening skills relevant to their current roles or departments.

For instance, a software engineer looking to further his understanding of artificial intelligence could take courses on advanced machine-learning techniques to make himself a better candidate for promotion.

Furthermore, companies can also start training them so that they are equipped with skills not directly linked to their current roles, but still valuable to both the company’s business priorities and the employees’ personal ambitions.

The same software engineer might try to leverage his expertise in software engineering and decide to apply to marketing roles as well as opportunities to train in copywriting and editing skills.

When you upskill and reskill your employees, you are preparing your organisation for the future and it helps you gain a competitive advantage in stagnant markets.

Amazon is currently investing US$1.2 billion in free training programmes and college tuition for around 300 000 of its employees. What Amazon is simply trying to do is to keep its employees newfangled, which helps the organisation to stay relevant in tomorrow’s market.

In Zimbabwe, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we faced a very deplorable situation where employees went for months without salaries, companies closed, some for good, massive lay-offs, and schools, universities and colleges were forced to close. This is a clear indicator that all these institutions were not ready for such eventualities to circumvent such future challenges lying ahead of us.

But during the sample period, some companies like Seagate moved away from the traditional way of doing business to digital systems. Seagate is a massive inexorable force in the data storage solutions space. It made sure even before the pandemic that its employees could not only be trained in emerging technologies but also made sure they were ready for talent redeployment both simpler and scalable for its global workforce and it stayed relevant under those circumstances.

Even during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company leadership decided against instituting mass layoffs in favour of strategic internal redeployments, putting workers in places to contribute with their full set of skills and strengthening the skills needed for the future of work. They realised they had to lift and shift their human resources to a new era of business to grow and saw smiles on their faces as both parties enjoyed the new operational environment.

That commitment materialised because the company managed to create US$13 million in savings from reduced external hiring costs, US$20 million in savings from minimised termination costs, and 30% of their full-time roles were being filled internally.

In the future, the company is planning on using the platform to engage employees in increased mentorship opportunities, dynamic sourcing, succession planning, dynamic planning and many more.

Upskilling and reskilling is more cost effective than hiring considering the cost and work involved in hiring new employees, the time and money spent on checking resumes, shortlisting candidates, interviewing them, conducting reference checks to ascertain their suitability and even going as far engaging employment agents to do that for you.

By avoiding all this, the company is sidestepping these costs. Having employees with a broad knowledge of different areas of your business, that is, multi-skilled workforce across teams and departments it brings forth higher engagement and operational efficiency.

The best practices to upskill and reskill are:

· Perform a skills gap analysis

· Assess employees’ skills regularly

· Recognise when employees are ready for more responsibility

· Priotise on-the –job training

· Think about hard skills and soft skills

· Personalise the process

· Involve team leads

· Promote your opportunities.

Therefore, better upskilling and reskilling programmes start with the foundational knowledge of where your company’s skills currently stand, where your industry is headed, and which people within your organisation are capable of making a jump. Finding ways always to bring your workforce forward with the changing needs of the future of work is an inevitability and one of the strongest ways to create engagement within your employees.

Nhamo Varaigwai is a seasoned Human Resources Practitioner, educationist and Labour Consultant. He can be reached on nvaraigwai@gmail.com