Question

I have heard about Nationwide Insurance investing in re-skilling their workers because of changes in the nature of work due to automation and artificial intelligence. There is an article in the Economist about “Earning and Learning” that also speaks to these issues. Question 7: What is re-skilling and how would we go about implementing it at our company?

Answer 1

In this day and age, technology plays a big part in all aspects of business and is used by most types of roles in a firm. However, as technology changes dynamically and quickly the people using it need to learn new skills regularly to keep up with all the changes, just to be able to do their jobs and conduct business. As more and more work is being done online, digital and mobile technologies are being used in everything from manufacturing to sales, big data and artificial intelligence are being used to interact with customers. To keep up with these constant changes, employers need to reskill their employees to ensure they have the skills needed to execute the day-to-day activities. Employers need to periodically assess the skills within the firm, match those to the ones needed in the market today and create training plans to bring the two into sync.

Reskilling is something employees can choose to do even without employer intervention, in search for better roles or higher job levels. Employees/individuals can recognise that their skill set is outdated and can seek trainings or certifications outside the firm as well.

(Miller, 2018)

As it is in the interest of the employer to have a fully qualified and up-to-date workforce, it should be the purview of the firm (and its HR) to identify and conduct/arrange reskilling for employees, and especially so they do not lose their competitive advantage over other firms that have already initiated reskilling. As old jobs are being destroyed and new ones created rapidly, every employee will have to re-skill at some point to enable them to do their current job more effectively, or to take on new tasks which comes with new technology needs.

There are several suggested methods to achieve this re-skilling in companies :

1. Deploying training programmes through technology - Online trainings, simulations and AI are increasingly being used, along with human training, to coach people in new roles with how to deal with common or unusual workplace situations. Difficult customers can be programmed into simulations that the trainee needs to interact with to achieve the final outcome, which is a successful result and a happy customer. Scores are provided at the end of the training to help trainees understand where they score more/less and to identify areas of improvement. This option can help re-skill a significant number of employees in a shorter period than possible to achieve with classroom trainings and on-the-job trainings. Once the simulation is created and ready, it can be accessed by employees at any level/grade (people might be willing even if it does not directly relate to their jobs) thus allowing more people a chance to complete the training and be job-ready in a shorter time frame.  

(Gratton, 2019)

2. Through a dedicated manager who will drive the re-skilling of the firm - One way to ensure reskilling is given the proper importance and focus is to have a dedicated manager who will review and govern this policy and its processes. The regular training manager can deal with trainings that apply to all employees however this manager can be the one to create a roadmap for the re-skilling (especially in large firms this is a huge number of employees), create and maintain an inventory of skills so that requirements can be logically plotted, create and deliver a training plan (classroom, online, on-the-job) that will ensure the trained personnel are now fully able to take on new responsibilities and tasks. There are a lot of free resources available online and the manager can identify which ones will suit the firm's needs. Another hurdle is also that employees might be resistant to change and having a dedicated manager to oversee this initiative will ensure that there is a human factor that the employees can reach out to. Resistance to change, employees taking on trainings that are not relevant to their jobs etc. are examples of issues that the manager should carefully navigate to create a current and effective talent pool within the firm.

(Dua, Segel, Lund, 2019)

Either way, it is clear that there are firm requirements to enable successful re-skilling in a firm.

1. Form a specific team/sub-team to handle reskilling and take queries, handle conflicts, smooth over resistance to change, reduce non-productive re-skilling.

2. Formulate a roadmap/plan to achieve the same. Plan should include periodic reviews to update the requirements as they change.

3. Define and deploy policies and processes for employees to re-skill.

4. Communicate the initiative and its benefits to all affected employees.

5. Identify critical batches that affect current and future business and the building of the firm's competitive edge in the market.

6. Create and deploy training programmes for specific re-skilling topics.

7. Review the training feedback from all parties, incorporate back into step 2.

References :

Dua, Andre., Segel, Liz Hilton., Lund, Susan (2019) It’s Time for a C-Level Role Dedicated to Reskilling Workers. Harvard Business Review.

Gratton, Lynda (2019) New Frontiers in Re-skilling and Upskilling. Sloan Review MIT.

Miller, Bridget (2018) What Is Reskilling? HR Daily Advisor.