The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the rate of digitalization and flexibility in workplaces. Organizations are developing their existing HR practices to stay relevant. As the millennials (age 26 to 41) make up the maximum percentage of the workforce and remote working has emerged as the norm, HR professionals are forced to embrace upskilling of employees. Upskilling is the process of uplifting existing skills to the next level. Common examples of upskilling include digital skills, analytics skills, learning multiple foreign languages etc to close the skill gaps.
Typically, upskilling occurs along a set career path, giving employees clear opportunities for advancement as they level up their skills. Upskilling can include “soft” skills that can be advanced and specialized to fill workforce skills gaps.
Reskilling means teaching employees new set of skills. Examples of reskilling are digital marketing, public speaking, data analytics, multimedia modelling etc. It provides a creative approach to employees while solving problems. The World Economic Forum estimates that half of all employees will require reskilling by 2025 due to technological advancement.
Employees become the valuable assets of an organization, because of their abilities, knowledge, and experience that cannot be replaced. So, going forward, organizations need to place emphasis and importance on the contribution that employees that they have in order to drive themselves ahead.
According to Mercer’s 2022 Global Talent Trends study, the Human Resource departments in India Inc are prioritising workforce upskilling and reskilling post pandemic as they are faced with challenges that include talent acquisition, employee engagement, loss of employees and sickness and reduced productivity during and post pandemic. The study highlights that difficulty in hiring the right talent, at the right price, and in time remains a top concern to the effect of nearly 71 per cent in 2022. In response, organizations are reforming their talent strategies focusing more on internal talent.
In India, the leading private sector bank Axis Bank in 2019 teamed up with Coursera to offer world-class learning programmes to its employees. The course offers training in subjects such as data analytics, leadership, innovative thinking and many more. These courses are being offered by some of the top universities across the globe and all the Axis Bank employees are encouraged to take up the course.
TCS has teamed up with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) to establish an MTech programme in Industrial Artificial Intelligence (AI) for working professionals. It is an 18-month course to upskill corporate workers in AI applications.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced two new free training courses aimed at providing hands-on cloud computing skill training in a fun and engaging manner. The first initiative is AWS Cloud Quest, a new game-based role-playing experience designed for early-career or new-to-cloud adult learners. The second initiative is AWS Educate, which provides self-paced training and resources, and ten hands-on labs in the AWS Management Console, to allow learners to practice their skills.
According to a global talent search report 77 per cent of Indian HR professionals whose organisations undertook reskilling and upskilling had to request their employees to do so. Indian organizations don’t rely much on gig economy. They use gig employees just to fill gaps.
India’s New Education Policy 2020 has taken a significant step of shifting its focus to skill-based education. Skill based education is the need of the hour. Multiple reports of HRD ministry have indicated that more than half of employees will require extensive retraining and upskilling. Not just in terms of technical ability, but also knowledge of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. However, soft skills such as communication, attention to detail, and listening must also be improved. The list also includes manners and etiquettes, hygiene and knowledge of current affairs.
The employment opportunities in Industries such as intelligent automation and artificial intelligence are on a rise and it is said that these industries are expected to disturb the global workforce, necessitating the reskilling of up to 120 million workers. Organizations are always in search of employees with skillsets having both hard and soft skills are the ones who can lead the organizational success. Another fact is that the best candidates will always settle in organizations that offer upskilling and reskilling opportunities. Employers who provide professional development through on-the-job mentoring will attract better workforce.
A Forbes report says that the top trending jobs will be high demand: Blockchain Programmer, Specialist in Artificial Intelligence (AI), JavaScript Programmer, Robotic Process Automation, Back-end Programmer, Innovation Manager, Design thinkers, Engineer for Site Reliability, Customer Service Representative, Specialist in Cybersecurity, Python Programmer etc.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 60% of the formal employment in India will be prone to automation. Thus, automation implies at a micro as well as a macro level. Automation will also bring changes in skill demand, gender disparity in workforce and re-organization. The concept of ‘skill’ will increasingly denote worker’s adaptability to work with or around automation. Automation involves reskilling the workforce. Furthermore, the concept of ‘smart’ work and demand for specific skills will encourage educational institutions to redesign higher education and training and train students to be job ready. The challenges that this digital transformation taking places before the Indian policymakers is both technical and ethical.
Post covid majority of workforce is experiencing “Burn-out” which is a syndrome resulting from chronic job stress that has not been successfully managed. Employees are seeking new places because of burnout and also because they don’t feel respected and protected by employers. I am of a firm opinion that reskilling, upskilling or continuous learning is need of the hour. Lifelong learning is an indispensable tool for every career and organisation.
