If there’s one thing we can be absolutely certain of, it’s that the world doesn’t stand still. We are perhaps, as employers, aware of this fact more than most, which is why learning additional skills should be a core component of our toolkit. But what does it mean, and how crucial is it that we upskill people at all?

Technology development and digital innovation seems to happen in weeks rather than years. The pace of change is relentless. With this in mind, it’s worth considering what leaders can do to help employees keep up, and to explore what options are available to help them achieve their goals.

In this article, let’s unpack the nature of teaching, look at its influence and benefits, and the steps leaders could take to put a growth strategy in place.

What is upskilling?

In broad terms, upskilling is furnishing yourself or another person with new skills or knowledge. To develop new skills is to fill a knowledge gap – to know something you didn’t know before, and actively learn. It sounds like a business term because it’s a word we typically use in a formal context, such as in education or training.

You may have heard of soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills are commonly described as being interpersonal skills, demonstrated best by how well we interact with people. Hard skills are easier to measure, being proficiencies you may learn in a classroom or through books.

According to Business Leader, the most in-demand soft skills in the UK are communications, management and customer service. The most in-demand hard skills are finance, auditing and accounting. The UK economy needs people with soft skills and hard skills, so providing employees the opportunity to gain additional expertise is a significant topic we should all pay more attention to.

Why is it so important?

A successful post-pandemic economic recovery is crucial, and 80% of UK leaders think we should invest more in digital skills to achieve this success. Employees realise the importance of digital skills too, with 65% of UK professionals recognising they need to acquire a new skillset, placing digital skills at the top of the list.

The UK government describes digital skills using these five categories:

  • communicating
  • handling information and content
  • transacting
  • problem-solving
  • being safe and legal online.

You may be surprised to read the above list. I wonder if you thought digital skills would be all about code development and knowing your low-code from your no-code? While advanced development skills will indeed help address a talent shortage, there are fundamental digital skills you can put into practice to boost your organisation’s competitiveness.

Upgrading your digital knowledge is essential for several factors, such as future employability (59% of UK employees think this). People could improve their salary prospects (roles requiring digital skills pay 29% over those that don’t). Employees could even be happier at work thanks to improving their knowledge and skills to achieve more autonomy in the workplace. This could help employee mental health.

Yet, UK workers are not as willing as employees in other countries to learn new skills, particularly in response to new workplace technology. This presents an opportunity for leadership teams to empower employees, to create a culture of continuous learning and development that will benefit organisations as well as the UK job market.

How to inspire growth

Step one in preparing your organisation for success is to lay the foundations of a learning and development programme. The first thing leaders can do is encourage a culture of learning. This means including your communications teams in developing a plan around learning opportunities. You should identify what people already know, to conclude what you don’t know. This is the discovery phase, where you find workforce skillset gaps.

The next step involves assessing training needs, formulating a strategy to help you match knowledge requirements with business outcomes. You should ask yourself questions such as what exactly do you want to achieve? What do you need people to know to be able to be a better business?

From here, you can begin to set clear objectives against the needs of the business. The benefits of your new learning and development plan should be communicated to your employees so that they are fully onboard with the changes ahead. The most significant cause of stress among employees is poor communication with internal colleagues, so leaders should ensure the workforce communication box is ticked as a priority.

Objectives set, you can begin to design courses tailored to specific requirements. The courses should directly correlate with missing knowledge, as the whole point of this exercise is to fill knowledge gaps. The courses could be in-house sessions that cover particular practical skills, while other courses may help employees improve soft skills.

The delivery of training can take many forms. You could engage a training agency or consultant, or hire different training providers to help with different topics and skillsets. You should consider remote learning options, as well as financial assistance for college studies, professional workshops and training courses that take place outside the organisation.

Finally, the crucial element of a successful project is monitoring progress. This should be done frequently, so you can determine the efficacy of your training and development efforts. In keeping with the spirit of communication and motivation, employees will enjoy hearing about success stories. Share the progress of your training and development programme, and stay in continuous evaluation mode to keep things on track.

What outcomes should you expect from your programme?

Done well, your training and development programme has the potential to boost your organisation in numerous ways. The obvious outcome is having more knowledgeable, proactive employees who are unfazed by digital innovation, with increased confidence in their abilities.

Organisations could retain talent thanks to having more satisfied, knowledgeable employees. 74% of workers who don’t receive upskilling training would prefer to work for a company that provides these learning opportunities, so it stands to reason that more people will stick around if you nurture a culture of learning. And with more specific skills gaps attended to, you should expect higher standards of work and higher levels of productivity.

By creating a culture of learning, encouraging the value of growth and adopting a communication-first approach to developing a strategy, leaders can instil positivity and empower employees. This could help organisations be more competitive as technology continues at breakneck pace.