Revaluate the role skilling programs can play for your team and organization
Many of the top startups and large companies are now flush with cash after having gone through a landmark year, and they need to deliver results — the war for talent is set to turn into a battle royale! Quality talent would be a cornerstone on which the next phase for growth will be built on.
In such a dynamic talent landscape HR and TA teams have to rethink the role reskilling and upskilling can play. If done right this can solve some of the key challenges faced by HR teams i.e. Unable to attract candidates, inability to fill niche tech vacancies, prepare the workforce for future etc. In the next few points I will try to highlight how these objectives can be done through effective use of skilling activities
1.) Define the type of activity — Before setting out to build and scale your skilling program identify the key objectives you are aiming to achieve through the program. Broadly they would focus on reskilling and/or upskilling
Upskill — existing teams/employees learn newer skills and consequently work on newer problems or use cases within the same job role of job family
Reskill — this involves training a professional to work on a different job role or domain. This usually take longer than upskilling
2.) Build an internal pipeline for talent — plan to fill future vacancies from internal talent mobility. Since COVID-19, internal hires made up a greater share of all hires 16.5% in 2019 vs 19.6% in 2020
Data Analyst professionals can be reskilled to work as Python Developers — by picking upskills on SDLC, distributed systems and networking coupled with their existing knowledge of python programming and DBMS (SQL) they would be able to successfully work on software development
similarly Business Development Executives can be taught data visualization tools such as PowerBI or Tableau, and basics of SQL, which married with their existing business knowledge can allow them to function as data visualization analyst.
Recruiters often cite the long time commitment required to undergo reskilling — however both the above skills can be imparted in less than 40 hours (less than one month if 2 hours are spent daily)
3.) Skilling activities help in talent retention and talent attraction —
Companies that invest in learning and development of their employees have employees reciprocate the investment by staying 41% longer compared to companies which have no internal mobility mechanism. In the current tight labor market the ability to retain talent adds a lot of value to any organization and can be achieved through having a robust skilling and internal mobility path for employees.
Skill building and internal mobility programs make talent a renewable resource
Promotion of employee skilling programs can help attract the new talent which is increasingly valuing the growth opportunities when deciding the next company they want to work at.
4.) Build new revenue pipelines
Upskilling employees allows the company to take on new projects and thus bring in a new source of revenue. Tech consulting companies in India such as PwC, Deloitte, TCS etc. are increasingly paying for their employees to get certified in AWS/Azure/GCP to allow them to win cloud related projects.
Being able to attract and retain top talent was the key differentiating advantage in 2021, and this trend will only get amplified in 2022. HR and TA teams must leverage all the tools at their disposal to address the talent needs of their organization
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