These are challenging times for business. Recruiting continues to be hampered by The Great Resignation. Meanwhile, a sizeable number of employees who aren’t leaving their jobs are scaling back their engagement at work in a phenomenon known as “quiet quitting.” In addition to coping with this talent acquisition crisis, 90 percent of businesses say their industry has gotten more competitive over the past three years, according to a study by the business intelligence organization Crayon.
But what if we told you that one practice could help your company strengthen recruiting, increase retention, and gain an advantage over the competition? That practice is a proven employee development strategy with a new name: “upskilling” and “reskilling.” Upskilling refers to building on and increasing what employees already know to prepare for expanded roles. Meanwhile, reskilling relies on cross-training to get employees ready for lateral moves to meet special staffing needs.
Why is Upskilling Important?
Upskilling and reskilling can yield benefits for both your company and its employees, from the bottom line to your top performers.
Lower Costs
Before you consider any other benefits of filling your staffing needs from within, you have to start with the savings it provides in money and time. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports employers pay an average of $4,129 and take an average of 42 days to fill an open position. Upskilling and reskilling save a hit to your budget and prevent a slowdown that can steal your competitive edge.
Employee Engagement and Retention
The opportunity for professional growth keeps employees engaged and productive. As a result, employee retention increases. A 2021 survey by Monster reported that 45 percent of employees would be more likely to stay at their current jobs if offered more training. A separate study by ClearCompany found that 94% of employees surveyed would be more likely to stay longer at a company that made a serious investment in employee development.
But funding employee growth programs does more than help you keep employees. It keeps them engaged. Team members who are given a higher frequency and a greater diversity of training opportunities have more job satisfaction, company loyalty, and motivation to innovate, which in turn makes the whole company stronger.
Upskilling or reskilling programs can help position organizations as employers of choice. They can also help attract top talent and customers by demonstrating you value your employees and are committed to helping them advance their careers.
Efficiency and Productivity
So, investing in upskilling and reskilling helps you keep and engage employees. But the benefits don’t end there. A 2019 report that appeared in The International Journal of Business and Management Research found that 90% of employees either agreed or strongly agreed that training and development programs improved their performance on the job. And the relationship between growth and productivity isn’t just a matter of opinion. A Gallup study found that organizations that foster the development of employee strengths improve employee performance between 8% and 18%.
What Role Does a Staffing Agency Play in Assisting Organizations in Upskilling Employees?
As internally-driven as the upskill and reskill strategy is, it may surprise you that implementing it might come through collaboration with an external partner: a Minneapolis staffing company. But this unlikely partnership has a lot going for it.
Staffing Agencies Conduct Skill Assessments to Identify Skill Gaps in the Workforce
Bringing in a staffing agency allows you to get a high-definition picture of the current skill tree in your organization. The additional resources the agency offers for skills assessment can help you develop staffing solutions with confidence.
- Staffing companies can administer pre-skill assessments to explore your current employees’ interests and discover traits that reveal unrealized potential fit for upskilling opportunities.
- Video applications, resumes and interviews allow you to evaluate more holistically how candidates might fit in available opportunities.
- A collaborative employee upskilling committee can develop customized assessments to help you screen and rate applicants.
- Staffing companies can engineer simulated situations that can evaluate candidates in and prepare them for new roles.
Recommend Essential Training and Development Programs
Once you’ve benchmarked skill sets within your company, a staffing agency can recommend a variety of development solutions, both casual and formal, to take your employees to the next level. Depending on your company’s needs, you can reach your goals through any of the following approaches – or use a combination that makes sense for your development program.
- Virtual and online courses – What used to be considered cutting-edge has become an industry standard, and webinars, interactive training modules, and other online tools are more the rule than the exception. This approach has the added benefit of enabling remote, on-demand instruction.
- Mentoring – As convenient as online learning is, there’s nothing like hands-on instruction from your company’s subject matter experts to build skills. Even the act of shadowing skilled veterans can provide meaningful knowledge boosts.
- “Lunch-and-learns” – Scheduling training opportunities over the lunch hour benefits employees who might not otherwise have time to participate. Plus, these sessions’ casual nature provides a relaxed learning environment.
- Microlearning – If free time is even more scarce, you might choose the option of 5–10-minute learning sessions punctuated by quick quizzes. These sessions are surprisingly powerful: Research from productivity website Thrive My Way indicates that:
- 80% of employees prefer microlearning over traditional coursework.
- 70-80% of microlearning modules are completed, compared to a completion rate of 20-30% for traditional programs.
- Microlearning increases retention of learned material rates by 25% to 60%.
Provide Industry Insights to Employers
Another way your business can benefit from collaborating with a Minneapolis staffing company is the industry intelligence the agency can provide. Working with a local staffing company can get you information on the size and composition of the workforce in your area. In addition to candidate information, you can also get industry-specific wage information for Minneapolis so you can properly benchmark the competition.
Support Organizations in Strategic Workforce Planning for Anticipated Challenges
Once you have upskill and reskill program options and local industry data in place, you can rely on your staffing partner to help you develop a blueprint for optimizing your workforce to meet the challenges on your horizon. This can involve assessing risk, recruiting new employees, selecting the development programs that best meet your needs, implementing succession plans, and more.
What Are the Key Benefits for Minneapolis Employers of Having an Upskilled Workforce?
Now that you understand the benefits of working with a staffing company consider the advantages your company will derive from newly upskilled employees.
Enhanced Productivity and Improved Workflow Processes
When you give your employees development opportunities to acquire the skills and tools they need to streamline everyday work, you help them empower themselves and the company. This happens as team members reduce errors and increase productivity. Upskilled employees not only work harder, but they also work smarter.
Upskilled Employees are Adaptable to Change
Your employees demonstrate their adaptability the moment they embrace the upskilling opportunity. And the more you broaden their horizons through training, the more their minds will be open to the benefits gained by approaching old problems in new ways.
Encourages a Culture of Continuous Learning and Creativity within the Workforce
As more and more of your workforce opens their eyes to the opportunities that developing their skills creates, they’ll develop creative problem-solving skills. And once the fruits of their labors start appearing, from promotions to bonuses based on company performance, they’ll become enthusiastic proponents of a culture of learning. As researcher John Bersin pointed out, “The single biggest driver of business impact is the strength of an organization’s learning culture.”
Organizations Gain a Competitive Edge
Research by Zippia indicates that companies with comprehensive training programs experience 24% higher profit margins than companies with a lesser commitment to learning. The Association for Talent Development has found that companies with fully realized employee growth programs have 218% higher income per employee than companies without formalized training.
Increases Employee Satisfaction and Retention
We’ve already discussed how upskilling opportunities can improve employee engagement. But it’s worth emphasizing that for millennials, the potential for professional growth is often the determining factor when they’re choosing companies they want to apply with. Research reported by TeamStage indicates learning and training at the workplace are important to 87% of millennials. And 59% say development is an extremely important aspect they consider before applying for a certain position and for overall job satisfaction.
Collaborate with a Premier Staffing Agency in Minneapolis for Workforce Upskilling
If you’re looking for a staffing expert to help your company capitalize on the potential upskilling offers, consider The Vision Companies. We serve the North, Northwest, and Southern territory of the Twin Cities. The Vision Companies are constantly evolving and working toward providing a better experience for our clients and candidates, and we’d like to help you. To get started, visit our website contact page.
