How can an organization upgrade its Workforce for Industry 4.0

The world has entered the fourth industrial revolution, which is also known as Industry 4.0. The transformation to Industry 4.0 will be unmatched in scale, complexity, and scope. The need to reskill workers for Industry 4.0 and new emerging skill requirements is an ongoing topic in this position. Equipping workers with the necessary skillsets is not easy and quick, but it should pay off the companies by upgrading them to the business needs.

McKinsey & Co. has determined the automation potential of different industries. Here are some actionable strategies your organization should follow to reskill your workers and get them ready for the future:

Choosing Appropriate Training Models

Providing skill training programs through various devices like computers, tablets, or mobiles can allow employees to successfully finish their training on a phone or tablet anytime, even if they don't have access to desktops or laptops immediately.

Learning Management System (LMS) can help adapt the content to the employee's current skill level and tech-savviness. Finding the best solution that can be helpful for the majority of the employees is a good option for offering smooth training. The management should not forget that providing hands-on experience is also necessary, along with digital means.

Help Employees Recognise the Benefits of Upskilling and Technology Upgrades

People fear the industrial revolution, and it has always been the same! Even when you strive to reskill your workforce, employees might be skeptical about machines taking up their job. However, it is necessary for organizations to encourage employees on the importance of human labor and to make them understand the mutual non-exclusivity of technological contributions and human labor.

For example, repetitive and dull tasks can be done by collaborative robots (cobots) alongside managing by humans, which would give employees more time to devote themselves to work that is more rewarding and enjoyable.

Acknowledge Different Learning Styles

When you plan to upskill people for industry 4.0, it should be kept in mind that people absorb content differently; hence understanding workers' learning styles is necessary. Accommodating different styles of learning doesn’t mean that you have to take different approaches for each of them. Instead, you can create the training materials using different media types like videos, written materials, etc.

Utilize Local Workforce Education Resources

Relying on only Internet-based materials and sources is not viable for providing training. Deciding on which parts of the training programs can be better handled by external training providers and which can be more competently handled by an in-house team is necessary. For example, GE Appliances has utilized some of the Industry 4.0 technologies in their multi-million-dollar refrigeration plant, including 50 robots handling heavy lifting tasks, rapid prototyping equipment, and 3D scanning. In this scenario, the reskilling effort involved relying on a local training company and allowing the employees to be exposed to on-site education.

Terafac Technologies is a start-up training institution founded with a vision to empower smart learning and manufacturing, recognized by DPIIT. The aim is to prepare the workforce to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution.