Why should you Focus on Upskilling Employees in Your Organisation

Studies show that the cost of one worker leaving an organization could be expensive. This doesn't include costs associated with interviewing and hiring a replacement; it's a cost of time and money that goes into the training and development of a new hire.

Upskilling, or reskilling, is a smaller investment than hiring and training a new worker. As you reskill your employees, you create a more well-rounded, cross-trained workforce, and increase your team’s effectiveness.

94% of global learners perceive upskilling as an employer benefit, similar to paid time off and health insurance according to the 2020 LinkedIn Workplace Learning report. Employees want to learn, so the challenge for employers is to make learning convenient, useful, and most importantly, relevant.

In recent times, Indian startups have also started to focus a lot on employee upskilling. We got in touch with the heads of a few companies to understand employee upskilling helped organization.

upGrad

Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. Owing to its commitment of making a future-proof workforce, upGrad provides its employees with a number of opportunities to help them enhance their employability quotient. It not only educate employees of the products and services but also, help them upskill their existing skill-set and knowledge horizon. You can read more about upgrad here . We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, on how upskilling employees helped upGrad.

Companies on an average spend a minimum of INR 30K to a maximum of INR 1.5 lakhs per fresher, to hire and train them, before they become productive. Through upGrad, companies can reduce this cost by as much as 50-60%. The rigorous learning that a learner goes through allows them to be able to hit the ground running on day 0.

Plus, there's no training cost incurred by companies post recruitment. Future employees and employers are getting to know each other well in advance. This is enabling them to develop a professional relationship even before joining formally. Companies adopting pre-boarding programs will witness a lesser churn, as these learners are developing deeper connection and more ownership in their roles.

At upGrad, we provide training to new joiners of Fractal and Wipro. For these companies, a new joiner in Data role has to go through upGrad’s pre-boarding program, once the offer letter is rolled to the candidate. This allows the candidate to get acquainted with his/her role and be ready with the relevant job skills, even before he / she formally starts working for the organization as an employee.

This kind of program is reversed engineered – basis the requirement of the role, these programs have been customized for the specific role in a specific company. Constant feedback is shared by the companies on updating / modifying the program, basis the company’s needs.

On completion of the program, the candidate is absorbed in the workforce.

PolicyX

PolicyX.com is an insurance comparison portal helping consumers compare, choose and buy policies online. PolicyX provides health, motor, life, travel & corporate insurances from a wide range of insurers. We talked to Mahima Pandey, Founder, on how upskilling employees helped PolicyX.

Upskilling employees help the organization improves its productivity and the performance per employee. The focus is to upskill the employee in accordance with the competencies and knowledge required for that role and this is a regular process which is being held on a periodic basis which in turn improves the overall performance of the Company.

Rising Sun

Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. The company focuses on ethically sourced natural ingredients and drew inspiration from Ayurveda and Aromatherapy and ensured that every single product was crafted with Purity and Passion. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO, on how upskilling employees helped Rising Sun.

Yes absolutely training and upskilling employees works at all fronts. All of the employees stay positive and motivated. It further leads to increased productivity and employee retention.

CASA EXOTIQUE

Established with an urge to deliver incredible experiences, Casa Exotique has redefined a new benchmark for remarkable interiors and exquisite finishes. The company has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder, on how upskilling employees helped CASA EXOTUQUE.

As talented as an individual might be, there is always room for improvement and those who are hungry to learn more are the ones that end up on the top of the ladder of success. I believe by up-skilling our staff, we can produce people who are confident in their abilities. Consequently, they will feel motivated and would be able to attend to the customer’s needs in a better way – which helps both the customer and the organization.

Packman Packaging

Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on how upskilling employees helped Packman Packaging.

Packman has seen several positive results through employee upskilling training. We have witnessed once the existing employees get trained they tend to stay longer with the organization. Also, this leads to good productivity.

Once, the employees are working longer in terms of tenure it also means lesser time to spend for headhunting for new employees. The employees know that their routine will not be monotonous as the organization keeps on hosting such projects that also, keeps the employees motivated because they also feel that the company cares for them. And a content workforce is always a great asset.

CarveNiche

CarveNiche is an innovative edtech start-up, which is using latest technologies such as machine learning and advanced data analytics to personalise learning for K-12 education. We talked to Avneet Makkar, Founder & CEO, on how upskilling employees helped CarveNiche.

Upskilling is the need of the hour and specially with e-learning gaining prominence in today's situation. Ed-Tech companies have to be hands on in delivering the best personalized learning experience for students, at the comfort of their homes. For this, our employees have been trained in the latest technology and tools to help us deliver quality education to students.

Esper

Esper is a cloud platform that automates application deployment and management for Android devices. Using Esper, enterprises can configure and monitor Android devices for various use cases, keep them secure to help their business function seamlessly. We talked to Shiv Sundar, Co-Founder and COO, on how upskilling employees helped Esper.

Esper's employees need on-demand access to answers on how to do their job more effectively, but they also need content that's engaging, entertaining and sparks new learning journeys. Sometimes, this isn't related to their job responsibilities. Sometimes, it's related to future skill sets and work requirements or individual interests. Esper hires curious candidates and we foster this curiosity with a broad range of learning journeys.

We use peer-to-peer learning and social learning tools to spark new collaborations and the types of friction-filled exchanges that are behind real innovation. We're continuing to explore new ways to make learning more convenient and on-demand for younger employees.

Finally, Esper believes that preserving the human and social elements of learning is crucial —the same LinkedIn report found that the APAC region is doubling down on learning automation. Learning is ultimately about people.