Employees working on their development
One of the major hurdles for companies in re-skilling employees is the considerable investment required in developing training and executive programmes. However, where companies do not take the initiative, employees are taking charge of their development. “They are re-skilling themselves by investing in learning outside of work. Online learning through MOOCs is making it easier than ever for employees to keep themselves updated,” says Vishalli Dongrie, partner and head, People and Change Advisory, KPMG in India.
HR teams need to identify the gaps in their workforce’s capacity and skills and instead of pushing standard learning content on to employees, they need to develop carefully crafted development modules targeting specific employee needs. “Learning needs to shift from being restricted to the classroom to being available just-in-time on mobile devices. Organisations need to think outside the box and leverage cutting edge of content design, using gamification, storytelling, scenarios and simulations to deliver a game-changing learning experience,” she says.
Constant re-skilling programmes can be a burden from a cost and time investment perspective. While the onus of developing their careers is on the employees, the top leadership must also invest time to give regular feedback on skills developed, says Jagjit Singh, chief people officer, PwC India.
Unlearning is another challenge. A balance has to be struck between new and old skills. As new skills become more relevant, the old skills are still part of the businesses and that needs to be managed. Companies are also undergoing major business transformation given the digital revolution. They are developing newer operating models to stay relevant for their customers. It can be impossible to predict with complete accuracy on how markets will develop and, therefore, it becomes difficult to predict which skills will be relevant in future.