3 minutes read

When to Upskill and Cross Skill? 

Upskilling is the process of identifying the relevant skills and competency gap that an employee has and training them to learn new skills to bridge the skill gap which is often used in meeting organisational competencies and successor planning.  Cross Skilling is the process of training an employee, new skills that covers different functions.

The pandemic has placed businesses in difficult situations with an increasing tight labour market and the great resignation looming. Operational dexterity is critical for organisation to succeed and grow. As resources tighten and disruption continues, you must be prepared to shift employee roles to focus on business priorities whilst retaining quality staff. Embracing cross skilling and upskilling gives you the flexibility to juggle employees across different functions with career progression options resulting in optimised business results and limit unwanted expenses that stems from having to hire new staff. 

Why Upskill and Cross skill employees?

Rapid environmental and technological changes is inevitable, which requires retraining to meet those needs and skill gaps. Upskilling and cross skilling has multiple benefits, including the following:

• Enhances employee engagement, productivity, motivation, and retention
• Great return on investment and empowers employees to share knowledge thus saving on hiring costs
• Retain quality staff in a ruthless hiring environment
• Fosters a collaborative environment
• Increases your business agility
• Improves efficiency and increases workforce sustainability

Potential Risks of Upskilling and Cross Skilling

• Employees may see upskilling and cross skilling as an additional burden with no financial perks. It is important to make sure that while each employee’s strength is leveraged, their workload must be balanced as well. Burnout risk must be mitigated.
• Company filled with generalists. Each employee must be specialised in their own fields even if they are cross skilled in other functions as expertise is crucial and hard to replace.

The importance of upskilling and training development

There is higher pressure on businesses to provide their teams with the necessary resources for success. Constant support, education and career building workshops help keep your employees flexible, productive, motivated, and engaged in problem solving and designing creative solutions which eventually improves your business results.

A business that emphasises on the training and development of its employees will be able to continue a eminent competitive advantage in this new digital era. Without constant development, your business risks losing quality talent resulting in costly high employee turnover and lagging behind more agile competitors.

Expanding the skillset of current employees provides your business with a diverse, flexible, creative and all rounded workforce that can adapt quickly to change.

Utilising Upskilling and Cross Skilling to meet Organisational KPIs

Individualised Career Pathing

Career pathing is the process where an employee spends time with their manager to create a personalised development plan to chart current skillset and the skills that is needed to get to the next step in their career growth. This developmental plan should align with your business goals to bridge the current skill gap and needs to meet your business goals.

Determining the capabilities available allows you to focus on the development of key skills in the workplace to meet future demand. Career pathing not only attracts talent to your business but increases motivation and retention levels among employees. It also creates central movement, both upward and sideways and exhibits that your business values its employees.

If you need assistance reviewing all your business KPIs, identifying areas needed for Upskilling and Cross Skilling or Individualized Career Pathing, please contact us at Catalyst Central:support@catalystcentral.com.au