In recent years, we’ve noticed that alongside every statistic about recruitment, retention, resourcing and all other synonyms of the same, has been an entreaty to organisations to focus on upskilling.
But what does ‘upskilling’ mean? Intriguingly no one ever really expands on this, presumably with the belief that talking about it is sufficient. Upskilling by osmosis perhaps? Now that is something that most CFO’s (finance directors) would love to hear about 😀
Whatever the thinking in respect of the key skills that organisations require, let’s take a moment to explore the requirements we think organisations will typically have this year …
5 key upskilling requirements for 2023
- Leadership capability – to ensure the right ‘fit’ and the right ‘behaviours’ for 2025 and beyond.
- Programmes for existing staff to prepare them for roles that don’t currently exist.
- Ongoing training to ensure your current teams remain ‘current’ which, in turn, will ensure ongoing competence and confidence.
- Rigorous personal and professional development for ambitious employees. Train them up and you might lose them, but don’t train them and they will leave anyway.
- Continual learning around technology is essential at every level, to allow your people (and business) to take full advantage of digital innovations.
1. Leadership capability
Just because your leader/s have been successful across the last 10 years doesn’t guarantee success for the next 10. Leaders, like everyone else, need to invest time into development to ensure they are learning and adapting as they go.
That said, our experience at Jaluch is that leaders’ in the business can be the first to excuse themselves from training, or simply not turn up, believing that doing the job is more important than skill building. We know, we know … you’re very busy and we do understand the job demands, the occasional ego and the numerous status issues relating to learning alongside those you manage, but this is not the time for leaders to dip out of learning in the vain hope they will be still seen as ‘current’ in 5 years’ time.
Perhaps the focus here could be to get leaders to identify what soft and leadership skills they want to develop (ideally based on some of the great research that has been coming out of the large global business schools) and get their input into the plan to make that happen … And if your questions about ‘soft’ skills development fall on deaf ears, some are now calling them ‘power’ skills – is that word more appealing to your leaders?
2. Entirely new skill sets for entirely new jobs
We first came across this article ‘21 jobs of the future’ from Harvard Business Review a few years ago, but it’s still a brilliant wake up call to remind ourselves just how much we need to run to keep up if we want to be in a great role in a few years’ time. Standing still with our skills is simply not an option.
Just three of the HR job titles from this article for you to consider:
- Director of HR analytics
- Algorithm bias auditor
- Workplace environment architect
We have also seen how checkout operators have been replaced by self service and may have heard how lawyers may soon be replaced for standard issues with Bots, or will it be that our delivery drivers roles disappear first, replaced with either drones or self driven delivery vehicles?
It will take time both to envision what’s needed in your organisation in the future and to identify how to train up your existing employees so they will be ready for those roles. Skills needed for this may include complex problem solving, transformational thinking, emotional intelligence, and inter organisational collaboration … to name just a few.
The cost of having competitors storm ahead of you in the market because they were all over this early and have already re-trained their staff, might be a price too high to pay for many organisations.
While Jaluch can support with recruiting many of these different and often more techy or analytical roles, we encourage you to start thinking and planning now so your existing staff have the opportunity to retrain and retain their employment with you, despite their current roles transforming or disappearing.
3. Ongoing training to ensure your current teams remain ‘current’
Don’t let your business turn into the next ‘Met police service’ with brutal headlines about you operating with an out-of-date culture, not being in tune with your customers, not understanding current behavioural expectations, not to be trusted.
Let’s be clear that we feel desperately sorry for all those in the Met who are now being tarnished with the brush as a result of a few bad colleagues, but if ever there was an incentive to get our own houses in order, then the Met is a good reminder.
Think about your own organisation and your existing workers. Train them up so they are the shining lights of the future, new tech, new techniques, soft skills training, continuous learning and development so they are both confident and competent to do their roles both this year, and next year, and the year after that.
A few topics for you to consider in addition to on the job/technical/specialist training: respect in the workplace, confidence with tech, self-esteem and self-confidence, feeling comfortable with change.
4. Personal and professional development for ambitious employees
This one is as much about retention as it is upskilling. But be careful not to have upskilling needs dictated to you by a workforce, who may not be with you in a year or two’s time. If you outsource your security eg ethical hacking, there is no point in paying to put someone through a course to improve their hacking skills.
That said, there will be times when it’s your stated policy to encourage your staff to do degrees, MBA’s, and other qualifications that have no relevance to their current role. This is great provided your policy is clear and you understand this is about the EVP (employee value proposition) and staff retention as much as it is about development.
When deciding where to invest your time and money, what does your training needs analysis (TNA) indicate you need? What does your strategy indicate you need? When agreeing to upskill someone threatening to leave be sure to spend your money wisely and carefully. Skills for life that may be valued include effective communication, self presentation, negotiation, influencing skills etc. Skills for immediate greater productivity may include tech skills, project management skills, time management skills, delegation skills, adaptability etc.
You might also consider making the development opportunity a shared responsibility – you offer some training during working hours, but ask them to do some training outside of hours, or you pay half and they pay half, or you pay it all but they commit to refunding you if they leave within 2 years etc. If they refuse to contribute whilst demanding that you pay it all, is that someone you want to retain anyway?
5. Continual learning around technology is essential at every level
There is no need to repeat what we have said several times above. Developing tech skills is a no brainer! We live in a world of tech innovation and millions of employees across our workplaces are struggling to keep up.
Your upskilling plan ideally will include opportunities for your staff to learn/develop tech skills in a safe environment, recognising that many are out of their comfort zones, but encouraging everyone to give it a go and keep giving it a go until they feel more comfortable.
Whether it’s an automated supermarket checkout, some new project planning software, a new roll out of quality software, an updated CRM (customer relationship management) system or even just some iPads/tablets in the recreation room … never assume people will just get it, never assume everyone is confident, never assume that people will use your new software to its full capability and most importantly, never assume that your business can survive if everyone who struggles with tech leaves you to go elsewhere … or retire.
Tech is changing so fast and there are simply too many in the workplace who very quickly find themselves struggling with new digital devices/programmes etc. So use your upskilling programme to help your staff keep up. Weekly ‘lunch and learns’, 10-minute coffee break knowledge busters, a little bit of eLearning on a niche topic, little by little with some careful planning and great use of internal resources you can train your whole team up across the year.
Last month, a Jaluch team member delivered a 15 minute ‘great Googling skills’ session for the rest of the team – how to find what you want faster and without all the distracting rubbish that comes up with every search. We used Kahoot for a little quizzing fun to learn our Googling tips! How about you ask your team members what little bits of niche knowledge they might have and are willing to share with the rest of your team? Upskilling does not have to cost the earth if you use your existing resources wisely.
A summary of our upskilling suggestions
Different things for different people:
- Leadership behaviours for 2025
- Adaptability
- Tech quizzes/boosters
- Building confidence
- Managing time
- Project management
- Respect in the workplace
- Feeling confident with change
Comfort Zones
Of course, a major reason why some people say they want to develop, but then recoil when you set the wheels in motion, is fear. The fear of stepping outside our comfort zone. Feeling comfortable with discomfort is an important conversation to have, as no one develops unless they step outside their comfort zone from time to time.
An offer for you – at Jaluch, we have a 15-minute eLearning module on Understanding our Comfort Zone – this is the first module in our 12 and 24-month leadership programmes, which is delivered through both live-online training and eLearning with a dash of gamification thrown in 😀
While we can’t offer you free places on our leadership programme, we can offer 3 complimentary comfort zones eLearning licences to the first 6 companies that apply*. If you have someone in your team who you think would value a 15 minute focus to help them understand why they don’t want to step out of their comfort zone and why the fear zone sits between comfort and growth, send us an email.
*3 of 6 reserved for Jaluch clients.
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