What are the benefits of upskilling employees in your company?

In the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020, it estimates that half of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. While ICAEW Jobs has no idea what the future of work will look like, what we do know is it’ll be vastly different to the current ways of working that we have all gotten used to.

There are many benefits for companies upskilling their workforce, which can help give them an edge over their competitors. In this piece, we’ve highlighted some of the benefits of upskilling employees, which will help give your company a competitive advantage.

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Why is upskilling important for your company?

Upskilling is important for your company because it enables employees to learn new skills that can help them grow and develop in their current positions. For example, if an employee is looking to get promoted, upskilling provides that opportunity for them to become more skilled and eventually land that promotion they’ve wanted.

In the age of The Great Resignation, if you don’t provide opportunities for your employees to upskill, then they may leave your company. To avoid mass resignation, you want to make sure that you have a comprehensive upskilling programme in place. 

Upskilling means that your employees can build upon the existing skills they have, while also plugging skills gaps that may emerge overtime in their current positions. By prioritising upskilling in your company, it can enable you to create a workforce that’s both agile, innovative and diverse. 

Improves employee retention 

If employees are working for a company that doesn’t care about personal and professional development, their career development will stall. You want to make sure that the employees who are working for you are provided with opportunities for continuous learning and development.

Finding and hiring employees is not only difficult, but can cost your company a considerable amount of money. You’ve spent a considerable amount of time and resources in training your employees to become proficient in their positions, so the last thing you want is employee productivity grinding to a halt.

By showing that you are investing in upskilling your workforce, it makes it less likely that employees will want to leave you.

Allows you to plug skills gaps that exist within your company

Within your company, there is the likelihood that skills gaps will emerge in your workforce. That could be new technologies, artificial intelligence or soft skills where your team could benefit from upskilling. 

As a company owner, you will need to have an upskilling strategy in place so that you can identify and plug any skills gaps that exist within your company. Rather than hiring from outside your company, it’s worth putting together an upskilling strategy to allow employees to expand their skillsets. 

Increased productivity among your workforce 

When you upskill your employees, not only will they produce higher quality work, but productivity will also increase across the company too. Having regular training that allows employees to upskill in areas that they lack skills and knowledge in will benefit your company over a longer period of time.

If your employees know what’s expected of them in their positions within the company, they’ll be able to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. By prioritising upskilling in your company, it will have a positive impact on your company’s workflow and employee engagement.

Creates a culture of learning amongst employees and your business

Creating a culture of continuous learning within your company is absolutely essential if you want your employees to continue working for you for many years to come. If you don’t have this culture already embedded into your company, then your employees’ skillsets will stagnate overtime. 

Encouraging your employees to regularly upskill will not only expand their industry knowledge, but also promote innovation within your company. It may also mean that employees will recommend their fellow friends working within the sector to work for you as you have that culture of learning built into your business.

Upskill your workforce with ICAEW Jobs

There are many benefits of upskilling employees in your company, which can help not only improve productivity, but benefit your company’s bottom line. It can help you plug skills gaps that previously existed amongst your employees and create a workplace culture that everyone is proud to work in.

Looking to upskill your finance and accounting skillset to land a promotion at your current company or are you searching for your next job? You can check out the latest careers advice, as well as job listings on the ICAEW Jobs website today.