Upskilling Employees: Equipping Employees With Skills They Need
Patricia Morgan, Ph.D.
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If someone started their professional life in the 1960s or 70s, it's quite possible that they had the same job their entire career. However, recent technological advances and industry changes necessitate that the modern employee undergoes a series of changes throughout the course of their career.?
Yet 92% of executives think that Americans aren’t as skilled as they need to be. This has created a massive skills gap across various industries, such as healthcare, education, and technology.?
It’s not like American workers are complacent; the vast majority of Americans want to learn new skills and future-proof their employment. The issue is that they aren’t offered or can’t easily acquire the skills they need while working a 9-5 job.?
This is where employers come in. By upskilling employees, they no longer need to look far and wide for individuals with a specific set of skills. Instead, they can train employees they already value by giving them the skills that both the employer and employee want them to have.??
What Does The E In DEI Stand For?
The E in DEI stands for equity, not equality. This is an important distinction to make, especially within the context of upskilling.?
When using the DEI framework to create an upskilling program that works for all, managers and executives must remember that not all employees are the same. This means that a so-called equal upskilling program would, in fact, create unequal outcomes.?
In practice, this may look like giving employees free access to e-books. Offering free books will no doubt encourage many employees to read and thus learn new skills in the area of expertise they aspire to master. Perhaps an overlooked issue could be that not all employees enjoy reading, or that learning disabilities mean that certain employees prefer hands-on learning or video lessons.?
An upskilling program that adheres to DEI means creating an upskilling program that personalizes how each employee learns a new skill. Using a DEI approach might mean that each employee can choose whether they want to learn via free e-books, after-work training programs, or on-demand video lessons like those offered by Udemy or Coursera.??
Equity means each individual is given access to the specific tools they need to thrive. When creating your upskilling program, you must keep this main tenet of DEI front of mind.?
What Is The Skills Gap?
The skills gap refers to the gap between the skills a worker has and the skills they or their employer want them to have. In certain industries, this gap is wider than in others. For example in the cybersecurity industry, nearly 5 million roles are unfilled because employers simply can’t find candidates with the skills needed to adequately do the job.?
There wasn’t always? skills deficit, but with a rapidly changing workplace, employees are forced to adapt to the times. New technologies and new economic industries have blossomed at a pace that has made it difficult for the workforce to keep up.?
One of the biggest challenges is identifying what these skill gaps are and which employee is willing to step up and be upskilled or, in some cases, completely reskilled.?
Identifying Gaps In Skills
Take an analytical approach to identifying the skills your company needs as well as the skills your employees want. To do so, you first need to gauge the skills your employees have. Do not assume that employees have or don’t have certain skills. Give employees the chance to show you the underutilized skills they have in their arsenal.?
Once you understand your workforce’s skills, it’s time to identify the skills your company is looking for. Think about the innovative projects you’ll be working on and consider the skills necessary to bring those projects to fruition.?
Giving Employees The Skills They Need
After you’ve identified the future-proof skills employees need, it’s time to equip them with these in-demand skills.?
Support From Leadership
You can build the best upskilling program in the industry, but if employees don’t know it exists, don’t know how to take advantage of it, or don’t see the value in it, it won’t accomplish its goal.?
Leadership and HR should do their part to promote these new programs. Both should work in tandem to get the word out and create flexible schedules that allow employees to enroll in these programs. Not only this, but leadership must stress the importance of upskilling. Leaders have their finger on the pulse of the industry. They understand the value of learning new skills. This value and urgency must be imparted to their employees.?
Create Personalized Career Plans
After understanding the career goals of your employees, create a blueprint they can follow to achieve these goals. Doing so will give them the motivation needed to learn new skills and fill talent voids within your company. Make it known that your company wants to hire from within and that there are opportunities to move up within the company. This ensures that you will keep the talent that you invest in.?
Mentorship Program
It’s natural that some employees strike up mentor-mentee relationships, but to ensure every employee who wants this relationship gets one, you’ll want to create a formal program. A mentorship program gives mentees the guidance they desire while giving mentors the gratification they crave. Additionally, it will boost retention rates and make it easier to identify who is worthy of a promotion.
Make Time To Learn
How do you balance an employee’s current duties with upskilling? This is a question each company has to answer for itself. Some may allow employees to learn for an hour a day on the job, whereas others may only want employees to learn after work.?
Each company has unique skills gap challenges and priorities to juggle. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to equipping employees with the skills they need to continue to be an asset at your company. To learn how to give your employees the skills they need, let’s discuss your company’s culture and goals on a call.?