Upskill & Reskill Talent - The Way Forward

An average vacancy can take 3-5 months to fill. It is always costly to lose good talents as companies would have already invested in their training and development. Additionally, the relationships and networks they’ve built, knowledge acquired on the job may be lost when they leave an organisation. So what can companies do moving forward to retain their valuable talent?

Reskill/ Upskill Existing Talents

Reskilling/ upskilling is crucial because with the advent and growth of technology, many functions can now be done through automation or robotics. As such, workforce now more than ever needs to be reskilled/ upskilled to remain relevant and support new functions or development strategies that are envisioned by the company’s leadership due to growth of tech and automation.

Management has to work the idea of skills development into their digitalisation master plan as it will benefit them in the long term to convert their existing manpower who have knowledge, agility and experience to carry forward their business and product development plans. Existing staff would have inculcated strong corporate culture and have a clear understanding of on-ground challenges when implementing change due to their experience and relationships internally and externally.

The company needs to identify the potential within the company and offer talents a chance to improve their soft or technical skills in the course of their job. Training can be provided to improve complex problem solving skills, creative thinking skills, or combination of skills such as finance supply chain or innovation that requires both technical and creative competencies.

New skills are also emerging consistently and today’s talent will benefit greatly from remaining relevant and staying ahead of the game. As such, talents with cross functional skills will have an edge.

As an example, Finance or Engineering talents with innovation experience will be valued, a business development professional with finance experience gives a good balance of front line commercial assertiveness as well as balance of risk management. Hence, while reskilling and upskilling is important to ensure companies remain competitive, cross skilling will enhance the value of a talent’s contribution in the company. However, the company alone cannot be responsible for the implementation and success of talent development efforts.

Buy in from talent & Management

Management and HR departments of a company need to work hand-in-hand to create clear communications on the changes to take place and the company’s commitment in ensuring that the staff can find more opportunities to grow their career during the transition to newer technologies.

Staff needs to understand why reskilling/ upskilling are important and how it makes them continuously relevant in the market. HR needs to let staff see a long term view of how reskilling/ upskilling is personally and professionally advantageous for the staff. Quarterly reviews and clear progress documentation is crucial to ensure that employees understand the value of the training provided to them.

On a reverse note, if there is lack of conviction from the Management to invest in talent development, HR needs to illustrate to Management how a company’s future growth/ scale might be impeded if talents are not developed. Their competitors who are agile, embrace technology and reskill/upskill may then be able to respond to and serve market needs better and faster. This will eventually erode business margins which is always a concern for top management.

While these needs are more prevalent in industries with high technology involvement or driven by digital platforms, other industries cannot afford to be dormant in this aspect. People need to be continuously developing and acquiring new skills. For example, a HR talent becomes more powerful if he/she is able to use data analytics to glean insights to formulate HR/ organisational policies. A finance talent with RPA (Robotic Process Automation) experience is compelling.

This is an interesting phase for recruitment and talent development and we hope to see more commitment from companies and talents alike to make upskilling and reskilling a norm moving forward.