There are several factors by which this problem has been triggered, one of them is the generational change. Most of the baby boomers, those people who were born between 1946 and 1964 and who make up about a third of the workforce, will retire in this next decade, and the younger generations will not have had the training to take charge of many of the jobs that will become vacant, whose expertise is not only related to technical aspects but also to issues of team management, management capacity, business vision and others that directly impact the success of any organization.
This panorama makes clear to us the great need that companies have to improve the skills of young talent, such as resilience, adaptability, critical thinking, reasoning and problem solving, remote leadership, creativity, among others; however, despite this urgency, not all organizations are prepared to close this gap. Globally, only 19% of companies are ready to do so, according to a Gartner survey.
As leaders we must be flexible enough to adapt to these new realities and make a profound change in terms of skills development and continuous learning, in response to talent shortages. It is vital that we focus on retaining valuable employees and achieving a solid base in the company’s talent, since in this way we will be able to have a workforce that can be available to fill other positions in the organization and, without a doubt, tools such as the reskilling Y upskilling are the keys to achieving it.
Although there is a difference between doing reskillingalso known as the process of learning new skills in order to be reassigned to a different position within the organization, and upskillingtraining related to the same job or in another position within the same area, both are extremely vital to overcome the retention and hiring challenges that lie ahead.
A clear example can be seen with highly strategic technology positions such as programmers and developers of all kinds, engineers in different branches, product managers, big data analysts, and others with digital approaches, who are increasingly important to stay competitive. faced with market trends and many companies have difficulty finding this specialized talent; so that organizations understand the need to improve the skills of their current employees.
Another strategy that is also being used in the corporate world is the creation of talent academies that not only aim to improve the skills of the company’s internal workforce, but are also becoming part of the company’s culture. .
Strengthening training processes is one of the activities of greatest value to employees; Evidence of this are the job satisfaction surveys where this factor is part of the top 5 of the reasons why a person decides to stay in a company and stay committed.
Human talent leaders know that to implement a strategy of upskilling Y reskilling In a company, it is necessary to work on a competency management model from its processes of attraction, selection, training and development, in coherence with each stage of human talent management. Those who do not consider it essential are at risk of failing in their attempt to implement these tools as part of their training processes.