Is Upskilling Just a Cool Perk Or a Key to Weathering the “Great Resignation”?

Over the long-drawn-out haul of COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like the economical processes are moving towards the inevitable post-pandemic phase. And even though the year of 2022 continues to surprise us with volatile political events and economical instability, corporate representatives are kept upbeat and substance while trying to keep authoritative goals at top need. And while the restless job market is huge, the significance of corporate training is ramping up, especially for hybrid workers.  

One of the main problems is that the Great Resignation continues. And it is more of a trend in a way now. It started back in February of 2021 and is still ongoing with 72% of the US workers having already resigned. At the same time, an unprecedented 70% of those who applied but didn’t “get the job” confessed that it happened because of the Skill gaps that got in the way of filling the job openings. Sounds like a real problem right there that needs attention.  

In 2022, most of the people, who decided to resign, are doing so because they want a career change. Since the Covid-19 pandemic made lots of people re-evaluate their skills, people have to take sometimes 18 months or more of paid time off to learn new skills so they could move into a job that was more meaningful. But do people need to sacrifice their paycheck for upskilling?

In this post, let’s talk about the importance of upskilling in our current remote culture of hybrid workers and whether the appropriate corporate training can become an effective solution to withstand the Great Resignation. Or whether it’s just a perk that delivers enough preparation for achieving singular corporate goals.  

What’s an Impact of the Great Resignation on the Workforce in 2022?

The Great Resignation is a statistical finding that had skilled and very valuable workers increasingly willing to leave a workplace rather than remain in place, costing corporations huge amounts of money and driving some from profitability to loss. What are the negative impacts of this process? Here are some significant ones: 

• Limiting employees’ progress through a corporate infrastructure and corporate caring. 
• Fighting workers with disabilities rather than recognizing it as a means of retaining good employees. 
• Allowing middle management to lead pipe valuable employees, personal perception of power becoming more important that talent management. 
• Failing to find ways to train employees for internal hiring. 

In 2022, professionals in strong positions resign from their jobs and look for better opportunities. Which leaves corporations with a necessity to plan how they’re going to cope up with this skill shortage in the nearest future. Most have already found viable means to address this issue through collaboration with staffing agencies. Companies and organizations collaborate with staffing firms to enable them to carry on with their pool of skilled workforce. 

When the pandemic just started, employees working with different organizations experienced massive layoffs. Thousands of employees were left jobless, while some managed to sustain their employment. Now that the pandemic is cruising towards an end, employees in strong positions within organizations are looking forward to quitting their jobs to move on. However, the ones who don’t have in-demand skills and could be easily replaced don’t see much of any increase in employment even with the great resignation. Many of them are now feeling upset that they have to take a pay cut for jobs that didn’t pay that well in the first place. 

So, on one hand, the Great Resignation defines the situation where a significant number of employees would be quitting their jobs following the end of the pandemic. On the other hand, it becomes crucial for businesses to explore the impact of the pandemic and Great Resignation on their employment rates. And assess how they can retain skilled professionals. What can contribute to better retention of staff? Let’s talk about it!

How Reskilling and Upskilling contributes to Having a Robust Workforce?

It’s not a fallacy that those who learned new skills or did some upskilling get more opportunities or have more chances to move up. And don’t mean to be snarky, those who didn’t would just settle back into their mundane day to day jobs dealing with the question that corporations ask their staff: Do you want to make money or not? 

Yes, the current job market is more demanding and people try hard to make their value proposition shine brighter compared to others in order to stand out from the rest of the competition. When it comes down to the corporate hiring politics, an agile, diverse and creative workforce which is able to adapt to rapid changes through acquiring and perfecting new skills becomes essential.  

As for actual workplaces, the problem is that it’s impossible for a company to instill a strong work ethic or new skills into an individual who doesn’t want either of them. At the same time, there will always be those who got their jobs as a courtesy from business to “give back” to the community. This makes the Great Resignation the leaving of skilled and lucrative employees who do not want to work for management that does not consider their success and best use on the job.    

Hence, employees’ engagement and motivation are the 2 most crucial components in building a productive and efficient workplace. Why is it so? Because motivated teams drive collaboration, nurture healthy working relationships, and promote knowledge-sharing. But as the remote culture came along with hybrid approaches to work, it has become even more important to take this more seriously. Some of the major uses of employee engagement are:

• productivity boost
• better customer satisfaction
• culture maintenance
• innovations
• exceptional management

In fact, some companies are really into team bonding and employee engagement now. However, every organization comes up with its own ways of keeping employees engaged. But why is it so important? The answer is quite obvious. Since employees are the building blocks of any business, without them the company’s survival becomes impossible. Therefore, to stay ahead of the curve, companies need to maintain a culture of upskilling and reskilling of staff to turn it into a valuable asset that allows quick adoption of new technological solutions and innovative business practices. 

Why is the new generation of Internet-enabled upskilling so important to businesses?

Since one of the most striking responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the sudden shift of most of the workforce to working from home, this “WFH” phenomenon went rather smoothly and even had a positive impact on employees’ productivity. Moreover, some companies said that their employees’ productivity increased by 13%-15% because of the hybrid approaches to work.

However, many people say that they often feel like they’ve been in survival mode while working remotely. A great number of hybrid workers confessed that somehow they began to care less about the company they work for or their customers. The only one thing they truly care about is keeping their jobs. But motivation comes from inspiration. Not agony. Which means that strict rules might wont work anymore the way they used to. And upper management has to rethink ways to drive employees to effective work and how to motivate through inspiration.  

Meanwhile, the number of workers who feel stuck in mediocre jobs without seeing the paths to satisfying careers and more lucrative jobs keeps growing. That’s one of the main reasons why organizations and businesses experience a boom in developing online tools and platforms focused on upskilling and reskilling workers and recognizing corporate training as an absolute necessity for achieving long-term success.

Long term success comes with a simple set of rules – in order to make a workplace productive, first keep the employees motivated. Since motivation requires a sense of togetherness, a company needs to make employees feel valued. Thus, by helping employees who are struggling with their work demands through the proper L&D training, businesses can encourage friendly competition, set a worthwhile goal for the team, and maintain a transparent communication.

It’s clear that forward-thinking organizations must take upskilling and reskilling seriously if they want to keep up with the times, and this makes sense at a policy level. But when it gets to the nitty-gritty reality of choosing the right teams for the right training programs, having the right answers to the following questions is important: Who should get re-skilled? What should they be trained in? When?

Can Upskilling At a Workplace Really Bridge the Skills Gap?

An answer to this question makes better sense if it has been addressed through the lens of career pathing and competencies. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report (2018) already predicted that by 2022, 75 million jobs across 20 largest economies will be displaced by emerging technologies. On top of all this, we are now undergoing the greatest financial crisis of our times. This fact requires companies to think fast and react even faster in order to survive. It makes upskilling and reskilling indispensable practices in any organization. 

Needless to say, the same report predicts that 133 million new roles are expected to be created by these very same technological advances. This doesn’t mean people are being pushed out of the job market. That’s good news for the workforce. But, again, these new jobs and requirements still require relevant training. 

Yes, providing instant access to self-paced educational resources can help staff keep their skills sharp and up-to-date. Hence, allowing employees to meet the company’s evolving needs. As an example, one of such effective learning solutions that provides most proper training to employees online is Grinfer for Business. 

This learning solution is chalked out either for every employee or the whole team with an instant remote access to the learning content based on the area of work and possible skill sets required to function more efficiently. For instance, any HR professional needs to have excellent communication skills, coordination skills, research ability on a topic, etc. So, based on the measure of skill gap, Grinfer for Business suggests best learning paths to undergo training for fastest improvements. Post training, a month time period is allotted to the employees to show improvement in their work. In case anybody fails or needs more specific actions for appraisal, Grinfer for Business provides a refresher training for them.  

Business teams get instant access to free live webinars and masterclasses on any topic from top instructors, 1,300+ online courses, workshops, authors’ exclusive publications & blog posts, podcasts, and more. But there is even more to this platform than just offering learning for career growth or bridging the skills gap. Mix your training with any e-learning courses on any stuff that you like to do outside of your job like crafts, arts, self development, yoga, meditation, etc. and get an endless enjoyment of learning about the things that you love! Even though Grinfer for Business is a 100% e-learning solution, it can definitely add human touch to learning. You can find more information about how we can help on Grinfer website.

Bottom-line

To sum-up, the skills gap is the difference between existing workplace knowledge and the knowledge required to fulfill business objectives. Closing the skills gap by aligning the current state of workforce knowledge with forecast potential needs can turn into a rather complicated proposition for C-level executives. So, along with the common approaches to closing the skills gap like recruitment process outsourcing, social recruiting, off-site training, employee mentor incentives, mentoring services, in-house turnkey training, companies should consider online L&D activities and e-learning solutions for upskilling/reskilling of staff (and less costly). 

Last but not least, with the timely upskilling, the skill gap becomes nothing but a gap between what the company needs from their employee to perform a certain task or job to what the employees possess in themselves. And that’s how you turn challenges into opportunities. 

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