{"id":60340,"date":"2024-03-12T09:48:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T13:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?p=60340"},"modified":"2024-03-26T22:51:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T02:51:12","slug":"how-to-upskill-your-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/how-to-upskill-your-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepare for the Future of Work: How to Upskill Your Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Allen wants to retain employees and achieve business success. Who doesn\u2019t? But understanding the importance of preparing for the future of work is not the same as knowing how to upskill your employees. Allen\u2019s professional development efforts need to focus in the right areas to ensure the company has the best talent in place. In this companion piece to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/top-job-skills-for-skills-based-resumes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">roundup of top skills for 2024<\/a>, we discuss the role businesses can play in developing employee\u2019s job-specific skills.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Drawing on several predictions, we recently put together a list of key skills employees need for 2024:<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Communication<\/li>\n<li>Generative AI<\/li>\n<li>Data literacy and analytics<\/li>\n<li>Adaptability<\/li>\n<li>Creativity<\/li>\n<li>Problem solving<\/li>\n<li>Collaboration\/teamwork<\/li>\n<li>Sustainability literacy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you\u2019re like Allen, you might read this list and say \u201cGreat, but how do I help my employees build their skills in these areas?\u201d If you&#8217;re ready to focus on growing these key skills and improving job specific skills in the workplace, keep reading to see how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/professional-development-evolution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">intentional professional development<\/a> can help foster these characteristics among team members.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>Professional skills evolution<\/h2>\n<p>Professional development has always had to evolve. Today, keeping up with the pace of change can be more challenging. But refusing to adapt is not a viable option. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westmonroe.com\/perspectives\/signature-research\/the-upskilling-crisis-effectively-enabling-and-retraining-employees-for-the-future?atrkid=V3ADWED098667_141298029985_kwd-948112237647__625101191991_g_c___&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAi6uvBhADEiwAWiyRdkkH99JmzXWsl0sJyXcvTxRCJEZzM7PBuTmobPUIHCCjaW0iP42oFRoCgyUQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Monroe survey<\/a> of 432 HR professionals and 1,000 U.S. workers, both employers and employees recognized the importance of upskilling. The study found, \u201cEmployees are aware of their own abilities, and they expect their employers will reskill them.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Respondents identified a \u201csignificant skills gap,\u201d as the workplace shifts to a more digital-first mindset and employees are required to be more tech-savvy. The management consultant and product engineering firm concluded:<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Employees (58%) expect their employers to tell them what new skills are needed and invest in their development<\/li>\n<li>Managers need more training in enabling professional development<\/li>\n<li>The business must engage employees in technology enablement and work to ensure employees feel comfortable about change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With these insights into employee training and development, you may be able to remove some of the roadblocks to upskilling your people. Next, we\u2019ll discuss strategies specific to the in-demand skills of 2024.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-60347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"training professional development\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash-50x33.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/christin-hume-Hcfwew744z4-unsplash.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"div-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>Upskilling employees for 2024<\/h2>\n<p>Job skill training has long encouraged communication and collaboration. Both are essential to effective teamwork, which underpins business success as well as innovation and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/prioritizing-employee-experience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">employee engagement<\/a>. Continuous learning in these areas can help your people advance their professional communication skills and confidence. It\u2019s a win-win as that, in turn, can support enhanced collaboration.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Offering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/mentoring-vs-coaching\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coaching<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbusiness.chron.com\/coach-employee-communicate-better-16035.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">importance of communication<\/a> and the need for attention to word choice, body language, and voice modulation could expand the employee skillset. You might also offer training in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/eq-leadership-emotional-intelligence-can-be-learned\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">emotional intelligence<\/a> as a lack in this area is often at the root of ineffective communication.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>To build the collaboration muscle among your employees, a study in the Harvard Business Review recommended <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2007\/11\/eight-ways-to-build-collaborative-teams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">encouraging supporting skills<\/a> such as \u201cappreciating others, being able to engage in purposeful conversations, productively and creatively resolving conflicts, and program management.\u201d So, instead of Allen and other corporate learning teams trying to tackle collaboration head-on, they might encourage a gratitude culture or offer access to an online certification in conflict management.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Creativity, problem solving, and adaptability are other in-demand skills that can leave training professionals at a loss. Many individuals look at these as innate attributes. If employees don\u2019t already have these strengths, how can an HR professional encourage it? Yet, it is possible to expand these abilities through effective job skills training programs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>The traditional methods of reading a book or taking a class can help. But instead of enrolling team members in Resilience 101, create opportunities for people to flex their creativity, adaptability, or problem-solving skills. Strategies for upskilling employees are wide ranging! You could:<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Sponsor innovation challenges<\/li>\n<li>Require cross-functional collaborations<\/li>\n<li>Allocate time for employees to brainstorm<\/li>\n<li>Set up a platform for team members to ask for and offer input into business problems<\/li>\n<li>Offer workshops in design thinking, creative writing, human-centric innovation<\/li>\n<li>Provide flexibility and autonomy to encourage experimentation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>Tackling tangible skills development<\/h2>\n<p>The intangibility of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/employee-soft-skills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">soft skills<\/a> just discussed can make it more challenging to train in these areas. When it comes to encouraging the in-demand hard skills, HR professionals often feel more sure-footed. In-house training has long been the go-to solution for building job-specific skills for your industry. Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/upskilling-hard-soft-skills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">self-paced, online learning<\/a> is often a more attractive option. Benefits include:<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Autonomy to learn when it is convenient<\/li>\n<li>Time saved when you can breeze through what\u2019s easy<\/li>\n<li>Ability to focus on mastery of skills that challenge<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3079256\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Improved memory performance<\/a> from lowered pressure setting<\/li>\n<li>Efficient, consistent global reach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Everywhere employees and development professionals like Allen look, there\u2019s a report or news story touting the <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2024\/03\/why-adopting-genai-is-so-difficult\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transformative power<\/a> of AI and data. Yet in the hurry to take advantage of this technology, intentional planning and introduction of a measurable program can get short-shrift.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Creating a skilled worker job training plan starts with providing your employees with a clear path to proficiency in generative AI, data literacy and analytics, or sustainability literacy. When you take the time to establish context and the overall impact of these skills, you can improve motivation. Providing employees with time to study and practice skills on company time can also emphasize how much your business values this skills acquisition.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Finally, make adoption and expansion of any of these hard or soft skills a top-down initiative. Sure, frontline <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/customer-satisfaction-ultimate-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer service<\/a> workers might not need the same data analytics prowess as the manager digging into trends to determine business opportunities. Yet, by encouraging skills development across your entire organization, you can foster team work and innovation while nurturing your next generation of leader.<\/p>\n<div class=\"div-minispacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"div-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Want to focus your own upskilling programs?<\/strong> Run a\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/survey-templates\/professional-development\/training-needs-assessment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">professional development needs evaluation<\/a>\u202fand find out where you stand. Then, regularly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/assessment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">assess success<\/a> to ensure you\u2019re headed in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allen wants to retain employees and achieve business success. Who doesn\u2019t? But understanding the importance of preparing for the future of work is not the same as knowing how to upskill your employees. Allen\u2019s professional development efforts need to focus in the right areas to ensure the company has the best talent in place. In this companion piece to our roundup of top skills for 2024, we discuss the role businesses can play in developing employee\u2019s job-specific skills. Drawing on several predictions, we recently put together a list of key skills employees need for 2024: Communication Generative AI Data literacy and analytics Adaptability Creativity Problem solving Collaboration\/teamwork Sustainability literacy If you\u2019re like Allen, you might read this list and say \u201cGreat, but how do I help my employees build their skills in these areas?\u201d If you&#8217;re ready to focus on growing these key skills and improving job specific skills in the workplace, keep reading to see how intentional professional development can help foster these characteristics among team members. Professional skills evolution Professional development has always had to evolve. Today, keeping up with the pace of change can be more challenging. But refusing to adapt is not a viable option. In a West Monroe survey of 432 HR professionals and 1,000 U.S. workers, both employers and employees recognized the importance of upskilling. The study found, \u201cEmployees are aware of their own abilities, and they expect their employers will reskill them.\u201d Respondents identified a \u201csignificant skills gap,\u201d as the workplace shifts to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":5042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,186],"tags":[947,208,701,1078],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.7.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prepare for the Future of Work: How to Upskill Your Employees - Sogolytics Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Upskilling your employees can help you retain talent and drive success. Learn more about the role you can play in job skills training.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/how-to-upskill-your-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prepare for the Future of Work: How to Upskill Your Employees - Sogolytics Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Upskilling your employees can help you retain talent and drive success. Learn more about the role you can play in job skills training.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/how-to-upskill-your-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sogolytics Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-12T13:48:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-27T02:51:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/emp-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"487\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"714\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenn Goddu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/how-to-upskill-your-employees\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/how-to-upskill-your-employees\/\",\"name\":\"Prepare for the Future of Work: How to Upskill Your Employees - Sogolytics Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-12T13:48:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-27T02:51:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e279d58fbb23148c5be4fdcb53b4a454\"},\"description\":\"Upskilling your employees can help you retain talent and drive success. 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