Reskilling is turning out to be imperative in the coming decade. If you look at the latest industry statistics, you’ll be astonished at how much reskilling/retraining your employees will require if they are to remain relevant in the job market. According to the recent GO-Globe statistics, 70% of current works will find themselves out of employment by 2026 if they don’t reskill because their jobs will cease to exist. By 2022, nearly 54% of employees will have to upgrade or change their skills to stay relevant in the job market. That is because machines are increasingly replacing or complementing human labor in the market place. In other words, automation threatens to bring about major shifts in skills and occupations. According to another research by Qz, if the current automation pace is anything to go by, we can expect about 15% of the global workforce to be replaced by machines by as early as 2030.
The need to reskill or upskill is more urgent than you think
Business owners and company executives have already started seeing the need to urgently upskill or reskill existing workers, especially the most productive employees. The kinds of skills companies will require in the coming decade will require a major shift. This is a big challenge, one that can be likened to the industrial revolutions that took place between 1760 and 1840. Only that this time round the shift will be swifter and unforgiving towards those workers and companies that will be hesitant in leading the wind of change. In other words, there is no time.
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To fire or to reskill?
From the employer perspective, which is cheaper? Do you phase out existing employees and either outsource or hire a new set of employees with the required skills? Or do you take the route of reskilling, retraining or upskilling the existing employees to equip them with the skills you require?
Honestly, there is no straightforward answer to this. There are several factors that come into play. First, how much time do you have? Some skills require 6 months, 3 months or even a month to upgrade. About 35% of skills will require less than 6 months to reskill. In this case, a more pragmatic approach would be to reskill or retrain your employees. Other skills or occupation may need to undergo wholesale changes, hence you might find yourself in a situation where your current employees have become redundant or it is not possible to reskill them within a short time. About 10% of skills will require more than 1 year to reskill to required needs.
41% of employers say they are refocusing their efforts towards reskilling their workers, especially the high performing employees. It is important that companies emphasize on retraining and reskilling rather than firing employees in order to create a healthy work environment.
From the employee perspective, it critical to form continuous learning as your habit in order to continuously stay relevant in the ever-shifting workplace. There is always space for employees with the right skill-set.