So, what is upskilling? Upskilling is the practice of teaching current employees new skills to succeed in their current job. An employer will invest in continuous learning efforts to teach employees new skills that are needed to succeed in their current role. For it to be successful, upskilling must be considered an ongoing effort, especially in today’s digital world. With a proper upskilling initiative, employees will learn new skills that will help them develop professionally and minimize any existing skills gaps.

Upskilling can provide a variety of different benefits to employers and employees. Here are some of the most common benefits of upskilling.

Employer Advantages

Upskilling can be beneficial to the growth and longevity of your company, among many other lasting benefits, such as:

Improved Retention By providing employees with higher learning and development opportunities, employees are more likely to stay with the company knowing there is room for growth.

Reduced Skills Gap By identifying the skills employees need to succeed in a role and designing an upskilling initiative to help them learn those skills, your organization is improving its workforce and closing the skills gap.

Increased Employee Engagement By giving employees opportunities to improve their skills, it improves overall morale and engagement by boosting their job satisfaction and outlook.

Improved Recruitment When your workforce is happy, they’re more likely to recommend working at your organization to prospective applicants. Moreover, having a successful upskilling initiative can be promoted online.

Increased Customer Satisfaction Upskilling employees can result in a more efficient and knowledgeable workforce and can better equip them to service customers, leading to more satisfactory interactions.

Photo by Pekic from Getty Images Signature

Photo by Andrey Popov from Getty Images

Employee Advantages

Upskilling isn’t just beneficial for employers—employees can greatly benefit from it too. Here are some of the top benefits employees can experience through upskilling initiatives:

Growth Opportunities By implementing upskilling opportunities, you are equipping employees with resources to achieve personal development goals, while also providing workers with new growth opportunities.

Greater Employability With the constant development of new technology, the more adaptable and collaborative employees are to the new age of technology, the more likely they are to be successful at your organization.

Increased Job Security By investing in upskilling initiatives, employers can communicate to employees that their job is important and that they’re committed to providing training to preserve job security.

The tight labor market and the skills shortage are affecting every industry today. Advancements in technology have both created and taken away job opportunities, as automation simplifies portions of jobs, but creates a need for maintenance of that technology. Beyond closing a skills gap, upskilling can be used as a means to engage employees and improve retention. The costs of turnover can be devastating to businesses. For example: an employer can use upskilling as a means to offer personal development. When used this way, employees are challenged to learn new skills without a monetary investment from their own pockets, and employers can simultaneously close skills gaps, increase employee engagement and retention, and reduce turnover costs.