The modern workforce is constantly being challenged by technological breakthroughs. Additionally, the Great Resignation's effects after the epidemic are worsening the issue of digital skills across businesses.
Companies all across the world need to quickly upskill their workforce if they want to remain competitive and relevant. Businesses with personnel who can adopt new technology and are digitally mature will be more flexible and productive.
On the other hand, staff members want to work for organizations that are progressive, provide training in digital skills, and promote career development. Therefore, it is vital to not only determine the capabilities you need internally but also to determine where the gaps in your skill and knowledge delivery are.
Let's examine six practical methods for
developing a business
and staff that can use digital technologies to boost expansion and income.
1. Constant Professional Growth
Continuous professional development offers your workers the chance to obtain certifications throughout their career in addition to providing them with skills training.
But as opposed to more conventional training programmes, why concentrate on offering professional qualifications for your workforce?
Having team members complete well-known training courses guarantees they have the expertise needed in their line of work to outperform your rivals. Professional certificates can significantly improve your
digital skills
and provide a depth of knowledge that is unmatched by many other learning methods.
Some people make the error of assuming that just because you're offering a certification, it must be generic and intended to provide anyone with a broad range of digital skills. However, one advantage of ongoing professional development is that it gives your personnel the abilities they need to meet your unique business needs.
2. Micro education
Even more specific than CPD, microlearning. It entails providing brief training sessions on specialized abilities for your staff members.
This will enable you to focus on your workforce's major problem areas or close the skills gap without expending excessive resources or requiring important personnel to take excessive time off from their duties.
You can save time and boost productivity by having staff learn what is essential for their tasks. You can provide staff with access to training as needed by using microlearning. Employees can access more modules as they take on more duties.
3. Re-education
You might need to hire workers with new talents when your company makes investments in new technology or modifies the way it conducts business.
However, you might find that there aren't enough technically gifted people to go around when you try to hire them. Technology skills, according to Gartner, "no longer are rooted in IT, but rather need to be marbled across organisational functions and businesses, coupled with soft skills to achieve transformation success."
There are certainly talented individuals in your company who haven't received the training necessary to fill the new skill gap in your business. You can get technical ability for less money by investing in retraining some of these workers. They have relevant information from their current role and are already a part of your company culture.
The advantages of retraining staff for positions within your business are obvious, from avoiding rivalry to luring in technical or digital expertise to preserving staff loyalty. You cannot, however, afford to concentrate solely on your staff with the lowest technical aptitude.
4. Refresh Your Knowledge
Some of the workers you have are already comfortable using technology, and they actively seek out new education and in-demand skills on their own. These workers are vital, but research shows that if you don't provide them with the chance to develop their talents further, you risk losing them.
Employees who feel that their abilities are not being used effectively in their present position are 10 times more likely to be seeking for a new position than those who feel that their skills are being used effectively, according to LinkedIn's 2022 Workplace Learning study. This demonstrates how crucial it is to value your employees in order to encourage retention and keep talent within your company.
The same study discovered that leadership and development, upskilling or reskilling, and digital upskilling or digital transformation will be the top three emphasis areas of learning and development (L&D) programmes in 2022. Your HR or L&D team needs to make sure to develop your most experienced people as well, even though you may be concentrating on updating employees who are behind. This will assist you by increasing loyalty and honing your talents.
5. Programmes for Peer Support
Internal training options shouldn't be disregarded in your ambitions to upskill your personnel. Make the most of your technologically aware employees' abilities by implementing a peer assistance programmer.
Employee skill-sharing is possible, and since they are already familiar with your workplace, they can make the training extremely applicable to your company.
Programmers for peer assistance are wise for another reason. In 2022, 49% of organizations will raise their spending on learning and development, up from 41% in 2021 and a 20% year-over-year rise, according to a Capterra poll of HR leaders.
However, if you're under financial strain, this kind of raise might not be feasible, therefore a peer support programmer would be the best option for you. Investing in outside training requires more resources than using your current personnel to train your employees.
You can upskill a greater section of your workforce for a cheaper total cost if you can bring your least experienced employees up to par with your other employees.
6. Present new career options
Automation and the emergence of artificial intelligence may cause some career routes in your organization to dry up, but they should also lead to the creation of new ones.
Early investments in providing those options can assist you in keeping employees on board rather than letting them go. If the necessary training is made available to employees to upskill them in the necessary skills, flexibility and career advancement should be attainable given that we are in the era of hybrid and remote working.
Conclusion
Improve employee skills to promote loyalty, growth, and retention. In today's technologically advanced world, it is crucial to have a mature digital organization. Provide learning that is specifically tailored to the demands of your workers and organization.
