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Jannik Weichert
Managing Director
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Upskilling employees can benefit a company in many ways. It can increase productivity and efficiency, improve the quality of work, and enhance problem-solving abilities. Upskilling can also make employees more adaptable and flexible, and enable them to take on new responsibilities and challenges. Additionally, it can improve job satisfaction and morale, and enhance a company's ability to innovate and think critically. Overall, upskilling employees can lead to a more competitive workforce and contribute to the success of the company. But we often see that many companies do not train their employees effectively and/or efficiently. It is often not understood why training programs are so important and what benefits they bring.That’s why we’ve compiled 10 benefits you will experience when upskilling your employees.
Upskilling is the process of acquiring new skills or knowledge in order to improve job performance or advance in a career. This typically involves learning new technologies or techniques that are relevant to one's current or desired line of work. Upskilling can be done through a variety of means, such as taking classes, attending workshops or seminars, or engaging in personalized online-learning platforms. The goal of upskilling is to increase an individual's value and competitiveness in the job market, and to enable them to take on more responsibility or higher-level positions within an organization.
Many people suffer from FOMO, the fear of missing out on great opportunities. If your employees are not presented with a huge variety of opportunities for learning and development in order to move up the corporate ladder, they believe that other employers offer better career opportunities.
The result: they leave you.
Job-hopping is not great for any company. But by investing in your employees’ education, you increase their value to the organization, on the one hand, but also give them the feeling that they are worth the investment, on the other hand. They truly feel they have a place in your company’s future, then, and that there is no better career opportunity out there.
As a result, they stay and advance their career in your business.
Experts say the most lacking soft skills are, among others, critical thinking and problem solving, leadership, and teamwork whereas data analysis is one of the most lacking hard skills.
With every employee that sticks with you, you have another chance arising: filling the skills gaps within your organization.
But why should you care?
Because it’s often easier and cheaper to address skills gaps in your company by training your current employees, rather than going out and hiring new ones.
When employees are leaving your organization, you have to replace them. So recruiting and hiring processes start over again. But that also means that associated costs arise
and many more
In fact, it can take up to six months or more for a business to break even on its investment in a new hire. Experts even estimate that the cost of replacing a single employee can range from 1.5x to 2x the employee's annual salary - and that's a conservative estimate. Also, 52% of employees say their organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job.
Especially with the highly competitive and tight labor market we are currently experiencing, many companies cannot afford to lose good people.
Good upskilling programs are one thing you can do something against job-hopping and loss of talents and, thus, can also realize a high return on your time and money.
The reasons for an employee leaving your organization can be diverse. Therefore, not all job-hoppers do so because of a lack of opportunities for growth. When key employees depart suddenly or unexpectedly, it could jeopardize your business operations.
But employee upskilling can prevent you from more disastrous consequences. By providing the right company training, you pave your workers the way for leadership roles. That means, you always have a qualified successor ready to start in case a leader leaves.
To remain an auspicious employer in today's challenging labor market, companies need to change the way they develop and invest in their human capital. One thing that can have a dramatically positive impact on this is a supportive learning environment.
“Organizations with neglected learning cultures experience high talent turnover, struggle to keep customers, and ultimately fall behind competitors."
Britt Andreatta, Ph.D.
A good culture of learning is essential to keep employee satisfaction high and staff turnover low. At the same time, it can give your company a competitive advantage in the market you are operating in.
People, especially millennials, want to develop quickly, contribute to a vision and see themselves adding value to their career very soon.
By having a unique upskilling training, you communicate to your candidates that they can do just that in your company. This will attract candidates who have a personal growth mindset and, in turn, make you a more attractive employer in your industry.
In addition, you can integrate learning into your recruitment and hiring process: For example, during an interview, have in-depth conversations about your candidates' learning commitments and goals. If you do so, you can already filter and recruit passionate and ambitious learners into your company, who can contribute to a fantastic learning culture, then.
The worst loss of all you could encounter in business is probably the loss of knowledge and experience former employees took with them when they left your company.
Many people wonder why companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are so powerful. This is for two reasons: On the one hand, it is the amount of data they possess and, on the other, it is the workforce that can analyze and interpret the data. In other words, these companies have all the knowledge they need to succeed in their industry.
"Knowledge itself is power."
Sir Francis Bacon
As you see, skills and knowledge themselves can give you a competitive advantage in the market. Thus, if your employees have the relevant skills for today's world, you can strengthen your company's position in the market and be successfully positioned for the future.
In another blog article, we showed you which skills you should increasingly focus on when training your employees in order to be best prepared for the future.
One of the main reasons why you should invest in upskilling programs is that you want to increase your workers' productivity and, as a result, grow your business success even further.
To get the best output from your workers, they have to be the best in their field. And to be the best in their field, they need the best workplace education they can get.
However, keep in mind that upskilling for the sake of increased productivity is a long-term game. But the results are definitely worth the time and effort.
Many employees need the motivation to feel good about their jobs and perform well. No matter what the motivation factors are for each employee, the motivation within the workplace itself has a direct impact on employee productivity.
Any time you invest in upskilling programs, your workers feel more valued and, in turn, grow more loyal to your business. Typically, these workers are more excited about their jobs and, as a result, do better at increasing their numbers.
As already mentioned in the previous section, the more valued your workers feel, the better the results of your business success can be.
That's because of one simple reason: Happy workers lead to happy customers.
Let us explain this.
When your employees are happy with their work at your company and truly believe in what they are doing, they do a better job. And the better the job is done, the better the quality of the output will be. And when the quality of your products is good, your customers will be satisfied and it's more likely they retain.
As a result, you increase customer loyalty and get a better Customer Lifetime Value.
The range of training programs on offer is enormous. but only a few are really effective and lead to the hoped-for results at an early stage. One of the most common reasons for this is that the learning content is not designed to meet the needs and current level of knowledge of the learners.
The pandemic has left many organizations with a greater number of challenges than before. In this new candidate-driven market, it is crucial to respond decisively with measures to attract and retain talent, as well as protect your organization against a skills deficit. One effective way to do this is through upskilling your employees effectively, which can help you attract, retain, and develop talent. The question is, how can you effectively use upskilling to achieve these goals?
If you are still at the very beginning, we have put together a guide for you that shows you step by step how you can implement further training in your company. You can access your e-book directly here.
edyoucated is funded by leading research institutions such as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
