According to Oxford Economics and Unum, if your company replaces an employee earning approximately £25,000 pa, the turnover cost of that employee would be £30,000 in one year.
What would you rather do with this money? Invest in new systems? Buy new equipment? Expand your marketing efforts? The options are endless.
Moreover, if you replace someone within your organisation you will bear further costs to interview and train the new employee. It will take additional time and effort, impacting productivity and affecting your net income. Instead, a long term, cost-effective and more beneficial option to your business would be to provide training and development and upskill your employees.
What is upskilling?
Upskilling is the process of retraining your existing employees. Through this process, they will gain new skills that will help them perform better in their role or, even fill skill gaps within other departments.
Here are seven benefits of upskilling your employees:
1. Build efficient teams
Upskilling helps employees to fill the skills gaps within a team. For example, if a member is not proficient in HTML or any other coding software, there might be another colleague who has attended a training course and now has more knowledge and experience to make up for that skills shortage.
2. Increase productivity
Employees that undergo training become more productive in their work. They gain more confidence and additional skills that will help them complete tasks efficiently and effectively. An increase in productivity results in better workflow, employee engagement, collaboration, communication and reduced costs.
3. Gain advanced knowledge
Learning is a never ending story as technology develops and trends change. Every employee needs to keep up to date with any changes and learn new skills when necessary for their role. Upskilling can help take their knowledge to a higher level and become experts in their field. Having this type of expertise in your business is a great competitive advantage.
4. Motivate top talent
Employees leave businesses when they don’t foresee any career development opportunities. If you provide training and continuous learning options, they will improve their existing skill set, increase their loyalty and be more likely to stay with the company longer. That’s a way to retain the top talent and keep them away from your competitors.
5. Focus on soft skills
Upskilling is not only about developing employees’ technical skills, but also shaping them as a whole. They can be experts in marketing or web development but if they are confrontational, can’t cope with stress or are bad at managing a team, you need to offer soft skills training. Focusing on your employees’ personal well-being will only benefit your business.
6. Prepare for changes
As a result of the global pandemic, businesses had to make the hardest decision to let staff go in order to survive. Essential roles were lost resulting in other employees taking on additional workloads and responsibilities with little to no knowledge in that field. Resulting in upskilling requirements throughout businesses worldwide. Companies should be prepared for any changes and ensure employees have a diversified set of skills.
7. Shows a sense of belonging
Employees are humans with feelings that need to be heard, not just cogs in a machine. Some of them may not feel included within a company if managers do not listen to their requests or issues. A good initiative, would be offering development programs or send surveys to enquire about learning needs. It shows that employees are being valued and will improve their connection to the business.
How to upskill your employees?
There are a few ways to train employees efficiently and obtain the best set of skills:
Classroom Training. Trainers will provide face-to-face upskilling sessions where employees can brainstorm with other delegates, gain hands-on practical experience of new software and take part in group activities.
Online Live Learning. Upskill employees from anywhere in the world. As long as they have access to a laptop, WIFI and necessary software, virtual training has no limits. With today’s advanced technology, participants can take surveys, work in teams, break off into private rooms, watch tutorials and more.
Onsite Learning. Many training providers offer the option to come to your place of work and teach your employees in the comfort of their own office. You need to ensure you have suitable equipment, training room and setup then they’ll take it from there.
Internal Coaching. If you have access to expert internal talent, you can provide them with the opportunity to develop their leadership skills. Being familiar with your company’s needs means they can tailor the training material better than anyone externally. This is also a great way to improve and build multi department relationships.
Whatever training options you choose, the benefits of upskilling your employees is monumental to its success. Saving you time, money, improving productivity and employee retention will ensure your business goes from strength to strength.