Top 5 Benefits of Upskilling and Reskilling Your Employees

Introduction

With the world waking up to a new tech discovery every day, with the rising increase of future work prospects, it has become imperative for organizations to keep their employee skills up to date to constantly adapt to the changing market dynamics. While tech advancements have helped create more business opportunities, it has widened the skill gap. 

According to recent statistics, more than 50% of employees will need to upgrade their skills in the next five years to fit into the evolving job roles and meet skill requirements. 87% of McKinsey Global Survey respondents agreed that they are already experiencing gaps now or are expecting them within a few years. These alarming statistics emphasize why upskilling employees is the only solution to bridge the dreadful skill gap that has been slowing down tech innovation and digital transformation of almost every organization today. 

While Upskilling teaches new skills to employees to help them perform better in their current position, on the other hand, reskilling employees trains them for different jobs in the same company. The two-way beneficial aspect of upskilling and reskilling makes these learning processes essential to employee training and development strategy. Upgrading skills add value to employee resumes and career prospects and helps organizations remain competitive in a constantly changing work environment. 

Upskilling – the Hiring Differentiator

Moreover, according to a PwC survey, for more than one-third of job candidates, upskilling is so important that they are ready to take a pay cut if given the opportunity to learn new skills at the expense of being less paid at the workplace. The survey concluded that after salary and benefits, upskilling is the deciding factor based on which candidates decide whether to take up a new job or sustain with the existing employer. 

Benefits of Upskilling your Employees

Let’s have a look at the key benefits of upskilling employees: 

Bridges the Skill Gap

Gartner’s report states that about 70% of professionals today lack entry-level skills, leading to 50% vacancy in the cloud domain. This growing global IT talent shortage and skill gap within the existing workforce has been slowing down tech and cloud projects, causing the loss of millions of dollars and disrupting business expansion and innovation.   

While hiring new talent may seem convenient to many, it is surely much more expensive than upskilling or reskilling your current employees through goal-oriented and employment-based skilling programs.

Boosts Employee Productivity

Lack of right skill training often leads to unutilized human potential. It is common for most companies today who fail to unleash the true capability of an employee due to not giving them the opportunity to acquire new skills. 

Upskilling workers helps organizations make them more efficient and well-skilled for a particular job role or project. According to reports, 90% of companies that invested in employee upskilling agree that they have witnessed a sharp increase in employee performance and productivity. Therefore, if you want higher profit and better work results, then start enrolling your employees in upskilling programs that are aligned with your business objectives.

Helps Build Confident Team

Inability to match up to the latest technology requirements often demotivates employees who end up feeling underconfident. Upskilling your workforce can make them feel valued and confident about their ability to perform a given task.  

A confident team can take up any challenge and solve it successfully. For this reason, organizations must upskill workers to upgrade their current skills from time to time to make them future-ready.

Increases Employee Retention

As per a survey conducted recently, it was found that 72% workers feel more involved and engaged with work whereas 69% feel happy when their employer invests more in training. Therefore, if you want to retain talent, then offer them opportunities to learn and develop their skills. Failing to do so would make your employees believe that other employers offer better career opportunities, and the result is they leave you. 

Losing out on talent is something you would not want, and the only way to prevent it is by investing in employee education. When you upskill your staff, you make them feel valued. As a result, they not only continue working at your firm but also give their best performance.

Ensures Better Customer Satisfaction

The goal of every business is to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction. Nobody would want a complaining customer or a disappointed client. This is because if your customers are not happy, they will give negative feedback influencing other customers not to buy from you, and thus your overall business prospects would be affected. Happy customers bring in more business and revenue and serve as loyal brand advocates encouraging others to trust your offerings and give them a try. 

It is only through employee training that you can build a highly efficient team with some amazing behavioural and communication skills that can serve the purpose of driving greater customer satisfaction. Training employees in soft skills help them better handle customers and address their expectations in the best way possible. 

Start Upskilling Your Workforce with CloudThat

The pandemic forced companies to rethink their employee retention and engagement strategy. As executive leadership teams focus on creating their post-pandemic business models, they’re putting equal and perhaps greater emphasis on workforce training and development. 

Upskilling can help your employees stay relevant in a fast-changing digital world. Not only learning new skills helps the employee, but also, through their well-shaped skills, you can maximize your business potential. 

You can get to upskill your employees with CloudThat. Sign up for our FREE Consultation on employee training programs to let us help you with customized corporate upskilling programs aligned to your unique business needs.

WRITTEN BY CloudThat

CloudThat is a leading provider of cloud training and consulting services, empowering individuals and organizations to leverage the full potential of cloud computing. With a commitment to delivering cutting-edge expertise, CloudThat equips professionals with the skills needed to thrive in the digital era.