The financial benefit of reskilling your employees
Technology is advancing at a rate faster than ever before. It’s not only FinTech, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence, but also the entire data computing system is on the verge of change with Google and IBM making quantum computing a possibility.
This poses a difficult challenge for businessmen. While they want their employees to have maximum productivity during work hours, and learn new technologies and skills on their own time, this is not a practical approach. Employers need to develop a culture of learning and support employees in their upskilling journey.
Else, they risk their employees being unable to cope with changing technology and scale back efficiency. This will inevitably lead them to become redundant in their roles as employers look to hire fresh talent that are more technologically literate. And businessmen know that the cost of hiring new employees, risking their organisational fit and work ethics, is an expensive endeavour.
And while every business wants to save money in today’s global economic climate, it is in fact worth investing in re-skilling and upskilling employees, in order to save money in the long run. Moreover, without companies across countries investing in upskilling employees, there will soon be a shortage of talented individuals who are up to speed with the latest technology and have the soft skills to work well within organisations.
"Companies are realising that actually, purely from [a] cost perspective, it is cheaper to retrain and re-skill own employees than hire next readily available employee.Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, UAE's Minister of State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills
Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, UAE's Minister of State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills, was reported saying at the annual meeting of the Global Future Councils, "Companies are realising that actually, purely from [a] cost perspective, it is cheaper to retrain and re-skill own employees than hire next readily available employee. We have seen it in a number of organisations here in the UAE who have put significant investments in retooling and retaining their own employees as opposed to sourcing the best talent."
He added, "No matter what we do, it is almost impossible for higher education to have employees ready for everything at [a] job. The hard skills are changing, whether it is 3D printing, quantum mechanics or something else. Our main challenge is developing lifelong learners that have right soft skills and be job ready not just for today but who can retool themselves."
A report from IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) suggests that almost 120 million employees from 12 of the largest economies in the world will need to be retrained or upskilled. It is up to employers to support the entire economy by cultivating a culture of learning, so that employees have opportunities to learn and apply new skills at work, as well as take initiative outside work hours to keep learning.
Is your company developing a learning culture to become future proof?
