According to HR Magazine, 50% of L&D professionals have seen the skills gap in their organisation widen over the past year. A staggering 67% of employees are hoping to change jobs in the near to medium future. Clearly, there is trouble ahead.
The article also claims that 41% of UK companies are planning to implement large-scale upskilling or reskilling programmes by way of response. Allocating meaningful resources to employees’ professional growth and career development will go a long way to plugging the skills gap. But it also doubles as an effective way to boost employee loyalty and retention.
A fascinating Fortune Magazine article focused on digital upskilling specifically, delves deeper. The key points it makes are summarised below, for your convenience.
– Success in a digital-first world is impossible without digitally-savvy employees. Workers need to know how to collaborate virtually, automate workflows and exploit artificial intelligence. Continuous training programmes must be put in place to ensure that employees’ skills keep pace with related technology progress.
– Companies that offer digital skills training are more likely to attract and retain talent. Showing employees that they care about their career progress also boosts engagement, productivity and morale.
– When introducing digital skills training, it’s best to conduct a trial with a small group before fine-tuning the programme and rolling it out company-wide.
– Companies should invest in training that delivers bite-size, personalised learning opportunities accessible throughout the day. Employees no longer have the time or the appetite for long, drawn-out formal sessions. The content needs to be engaging, accessible and tailored to an employee’s role.
– To ensure the success of training programmes, companies need to identify and measure desired business outcomes (both quantitative and qualitative) before and after a programme is implemented. This provides clear data on the payoff, making it easier to justify the continued investment to C-suite decision-makers.
While upskilling and reskilling programmes are effective tools for dealing both with the current skills crisis and boosting employee engagement and loyalty, recruitment remains a high priority for HR professionals. Working hand-in-hand with trustworthy recruitment experts to find talented professionals that will stay for the long term is more important than ever.
ABL Recruitment is the UK’s leading multilingual recruitment agency. If you’d like some support filling your open vacancies with top talent that matches all your exacting requirements, please email us at info@ablrecruitment.com or call us on 020 7092 3911 to brainstorm the options.
