The Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming the nature of jobs. With companies embracing new technologies and different work practices at an ever-increasing rate, employees will soon find that their roles within their companies have been either phased out or automated.
That means that those employees will need to be trained for new roles as a matter of urgency. According to the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF), more than one billion workers worldwide will need to be reskilled by 2030.
Organisations are gearing up for the future, and increasingly understanding the importance of closing skills gaps, too. In LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, more than half (59%) of L&D professionals cited upskilling and reskilling as their top priority.
Why Do You Need to Reskill Your Workforce?
Employees’ skills are no longer as relevant as they used to be. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, by 2025, automation and a new division of labour between humans and machines will disrupt 85 million jobs globally in medium and large businesses across 15 industries and 26 economies. Roles such as data entry, accounting and admin are becoming less relevant and, in their wake, automation and digital roles are increasingly in demand. Put simply, your current workforce will have skill sets that are no longer required and those workers will need to be retrained to fulfill new roles.
The report also finds that over 80% of businesses are accelerating plans to digitise work processes and introduce new technologies, and half of employers are expecting to speed up the automation of some roles within their businesses. For your business to survive, it’s imperative that you understand the skills that your employees need for the future.
Maximising Reskilling Efforts With Internal Mobility
Solving the digital skills gap doesn’t have to mean recruiting new hires. Research undertaken by Robert Half in 2019 found that 67% of IT professionals were looking to expand their IT teams, yet 89% said it’s challenging to find talent. Instead, the solution could lie in mobilising your existing talent. This shouldn’t be a surprise: many businesses have departments that are so interconnected that the only people with the requisite skills across all areas of the organization are people that already work for it. Hiring from within and reskilling where necessary is a way to address these issues.
Here are three benefits of internal mobility:
- Increased Loyalty
LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends found that employees stay 41% longer at companies with high internal hire rates than those without. Employees value companies who provide them with opportunities to learn new skills and progress within their careers. Hiring internally doesn’t only mean saving on the expenditure of recruitment. It means having access to a pool of increasingly skilled employees who are familiar with the company culture, who don’t require valuable time to acclimatise themselves to your expectations, and, since internal recruitment is a reward for work done, are more likely to stick around.
- Increased Employee Productivity
The same LinkedIn report shows that 69% of talent professionals agree internal mobility accelerates productivity in employees. Gartner also found that employee willingness to go above and beyond is 27% higher. A company that rewards employees with opportunities is one that, in turn, is rewarded by their efforts.
- Having a More Agile Workforce at Your Fingertips
Investing resources into reskilling your employees in the wake of the Fourth Industrial Revolution means that you have a well-trained talent pool to draw from when meeting future business challenges. Employees with a broad knowledge base will allow your company to quickly respond to such challenges and, put simply, employee agility quickly translates into a competitive advantage.
Addressing Employee Reskilling With Technology
Developing an employee reskilling strategy to help close skills gaps in your organisation is vital. One of the most effective ways to plan and deliver training is through a learning management system. An LMS can help to provide skills training curated for each learner’s journey and provide feedback on progress. This allows learners to feel more connected to their learning experience with clear feedback on their development in real time, lessons paced to their learning preferences, weaknesses diagnosed and addressed rapidly, and progress rewarded. With an LMS intuitively guiding learners to their reskilling goals, your company will quickly benefit from the advantages that a fully trained and engaged workforce will bring.
How Bridge Helps You to Reskill Your Workforce
Bridge’s Skill and Career Development combines learning and performance into one seamless employee experience. Employees are encouraged to take charge of their own learning and development pathways, play an active role in mapping where they want to go in their career and the skills they need to get there.
Bridge helps organisations close the skills gap by tailoring skills to job roles, delivering impactful learning to improve those skills, and creating tactical learning plans to help employees meet their career goals. This can help to assess where each employee is going and where their skills can be used in the future, making internal mobility a smooth experience for your business.
