Workforce for the future – Upskilling and Reskilling

Image I – Upskilling & Reskilling

Source: (www.talentlms.com)

Providing current employees with additional skills is called as Upskilling. In other words, upskilling is the process of developing employees with new set of skills with modern technology which will aid them to carry out their routing functions in a smoother manner. With the changing world and the technology, upskilling has become an essential part for the workforce to continue their work without interruption. Workforce upskilling immensely helps the employers and business investors to uphold their businesses in the top of the list while facing the competition in a successful manner (Barnes, et al., 2006).

Learning new skills is called as Reskilling and the employees will be able to do a different job. Workers who anticipate to move forward in the same organization could get use of this method of talent management. Reskilling may be a good solution for the firing of employees and hiring new ones with different set of skills. Sometimes the employees could reskill their talents and end up in a whole separate section or a department of the same company (Boston Consulting group, 2019).

With the ever-changing technology and the world economic environment, workforce all around the world have faced modern problems which require absolute modern solutions. Workforce upskilling and reskilling have become more popular topics in the world specially with the dawn of current pandemic situation. Companies can retain their current workforce with these two types of talent management and also maintain the cost of new recruitment at a moderate level. Companies can use these methods to ramp up the skills of current employees and there may be several reasons for the same:

To manage the workforce cost at a moderate and an acceptable level
To boos performance, moral and motivate the current employees
To reduce the employee turnover
To generate or improve the expectation of the employees for opportunities in the company
To reduce the training and hiring cost
To retain the company knowledge and secrets within the company (Siebel, 2020)

How to create a proper upskilling and reskilling program

1. Determine the Knowledge gaps of the organization

In each and every company in the world, there are weaknesses and strengths related to knowledge of the workforce. In order to move the workforce forward or to different section of the company, first the management need to understand and identify the knowledge gaps. Employees will look for opportunities to advance internally based on what they learn.

2. Create a list of potential vacancies of the company where the selected workforce could be re-located

Based on the forecasted shape of the future of the company, management need to develop plans for the short run as well as for the long run of the company. Meanwhile designing and developing of new roles for the organizational structure need to be done, thereby the management could evaluate the positions of the company which need to be re-located

3. Build training programs and offer incentive schemes to encourage employees to learn new skills

If the company is able to provide a valid incentive scheme for the employees to develop themselves with modern technology and improve their talents through upskilling and reskilling, they will be more motivated to learn new skills. The management could offer financial incentives such as educational rebates, increased development and training budgets, employee grants to attend training and conferences. It's important to have external training to contextualize new skills as they relate to the business (Partridge & Sinha, 2020).

Example for Upskilling and Reskilling

John’s data analysis role is taken over by new software. However, many of his managers see his talent for communicating with customers and his fellow employees. He is also seen as very persuasive, and so the company trains him to take over a sales role (Insperity, 2020).

Conclusion

Upskilling and Reskilling both runs together to groom the current workforce of a company in order the face the future goals of the company which are being shapes with the change of modern technology and skills in the segmented market. Both upskilling and reskilling through employee training has a positive income of the investment made by the management of the company. These processes may involve a cost up to some extent but it could eliminate the need of the management to look for hiring people from the outside for a higher cost. Invest in upskilling, improve employee capabilities, and reduce the need to recruit to fill skill gaps in the organization.

Video I - Upskilling & Reskilling

Source : (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYFbVEzkSxw)

References

Barnes, S. A., Bimrose, J. & Brown, A., 2006. Older workers’ careers: upskilling, reskilling and transitions, UK: European Conference on educational Research.

Boston Consulting group, 2019. owards a Reskilling Revolution. 1 ed. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum.

Briggite Lawyer, 2021. Youtube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYFbVEzkSxw
[Accessed 24 08 2021].

Insperity, 2020. Inperity.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.insperity.com/blog/reskilling/
[Accessed 22 08 2021].

Partridge, A. & Sinha, G., 2020. Upskilling and Reskilling essentials: How to address the Emerging Challenges of the Future of Work. 1 ed. NY: Adobe.

Siebel, J., 2020. Empowering adults through upskilling and reskilling pathways, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Remote Work – The New Norm

Remote work is an operating model that enables the work force to do their duties away from the typical office environment. Flexible working arrangements have been a trend in the ever-changing world before the Pandemic. The remote working has been increased in significant way due to COVID -19. This outbreak has compelled countries all around the world to implement various restrictions to people movements due to partial or total lockdowns and imposed social distancing protocols to control the spread of the virus. Large number of workers has shifted to virtual ways of working and some workers cannot carry out their jobs remote as they worked in sectors like retail, child care, elder care and health care. Most of the employees shifted for this virtual working for the first time. Some companies not allow their employees to work from home (WFH) due to fears of reducing productivity, limitations of infrastructure, cybersecurity, data protection, lack of system access from home (Ganado, et al., 2020).

Image I – Work From Home

Source: (www.economictimes.com)

Pros of remote working

More independence and flexibility.
Cost saving for both employer and employee.
Increased productivity.
No office distractions.
Collaborate across locations.
Better work-life balance.
It’s a powerful recruitment tool.
Improved technical and communicational skills.
Reduction in work absence.
Increased job satisfaction.

Cons of remote working

Collaboration and communication challenges among remote teams.
Potential for isolation.
Decreased visibility.
Security issues (Cyber security/ Data protection).
Home office cost.
Risk of overworking.
Risk to productivity.
Distractions at home.
Workplace disconnect.
Disproportionate work-life balance.
Less face time. (Team, 2021)

How to keep Productivity when WFH or working remotely in the Long – term

Upholding standards – Keep the quality, security, confidentiality and exceptional service remain a key priority.
Dress for the day – Even when working from home, encourage staff to ready for the day. This helps to sustain the productivity and well-being.
Virtual etiquette – Ensure high engagement, limited multitasking and no massages or phone call reminders included prior to commence the meeting in order to ensure and maintain the online meeting is conducted on a timely manner to respect the time schedules of all participants.
Team alignment is most important – Ensure the team is set-out with required goals, expectations, preferred ways of working and communicating. Internal communication should be kept in an utmost manner to drive the team toward the goal.
Develop a ritual – Ensure all the employees who WFH are having a time schedule to start and conclude their office work and develop a plan to schedule the routine work of an employee. This is helps them to ensure the work life balance (Vitalsmarts, 2021).

For example, in Hopper, which is a Canadian technology company that processed trillions of data points, allowing personalized travel recommendations, remote work method has immensely helped the workers to manage their work-life-balance and also to achieve the company target in an enormous manner (flexjobs, 2021).

Image II – Hopper

Source: (www.hopper.com)

Conclusion

Physical location of a working place has been gradually losing its importance, since the information technology has become the major part of the organization. As most of the countries have been implemented fully lockdowns due to the COVID – 19 outbreak, the only alternative to organizations to perform their duties is WFH which adjusting their work activities to a different location but maintaining their goals and responsibilities. If there is a suitable work space at home, WFH is the safest and most productive way to perform duties in a crucial time and in regular time.

References

flexjobs, 2021. flexhobs.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.flexjobs.com/remote-jobs/company/hopper
[Accessed 21 08 2021].

Ganado, M., Lautier, M., Attard, C. & Bencini, B. P., 2020. www.pwc.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pwc.com/mt/en/publications/the-covid19-remote-working-experiment-final4.pdf
[Accessed 19 August 2021].

Team, I. E., 2021. www.indeed.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/the-pros-and-cons-of-working-from-home
[Accessed 21 August 2021].

Vitalsmarts, 2021. Work-from-home habits of effecrive people - How to be productive when your routine changes, New York: VItal Smarts.

Importance of Grievance Management Policy for an organization

According to Glueck (1979) a Grievance is a formal dispute between an employee and the Management of a particular company or organization which could occur due to violation in the employee contract. According to him, a grievance could also be arisen due to mismatch in interpretations of the contract by employees, stewards, and management, a violation of a contract provision, violation of law, a violation of work procedures or other precedents, and perceived unfair treatment of an employee by management.

The existence of a good grievance management policy supports immensely for an organization to maintain a good relationship with the employees of the firm and the practice of grievance management express the reality that conﬂict is inevitable in the management of workplace relations between workers and employers (Nurse & Devonish, 2007).

Image I – Grievance Management

Source: (www.tal.sg)

Methods of Understanding employee grievances in an organization

Opinion surveys

A survey could be carried out to evaluate what the employees think about the decisions of the management and also to measure if there’s any grievance related to any of the captioned decisions. These surveys could be conducted through physical or online methods. Most popular one is the online surveys conducted bases on set of employees of the company.

Gripe Box

This is a famous method mostly used in factories all around the world. Several boxes named Gripe boxes are kept at prominent location of the factory enabling the employees to lodge any complain related to work. Since the person lodging the complaint need not reveal his/ her identity he can reveal his feelings of injustice or discontent fairly and without any fear of victimization.

Observation

Under this method, there is no document or formal complaint involved from the side of the employee and any grievance is identified by preferably by the employer through the observation. Employer observes the worker for several days very closely and if he comes across any an employee who exhibits an indifferent attitude, experiences difficulties in getting along with people, mishandles or damages tools, equipment or materials due to carelessness or he/she is quite often absent then they infer such an employee has some serious grievances which needs immediate action and remedy (Opatha, 2019).

Objectives of Grievance handling procedure

Enable employees to raise their grievance.
Avail an opportunity to clarify the nature of the grievance.
To investigate the reasons for dissatisfaction.
In order to obtain, where possible, a speedy resolution to the problem.
Take appropriate actions and ensure that promises are kept.
To inform the employee of their right to take the grievance to the next stage (Taru, 2016).

Benefits of Grievance Management

According to Obiekwe (2019), there are benefits of Grievance Management to both employer and employee as well. A proper Grievance Management system motivates the employees to raise their concerns to the top management without any fear and reprisal thereby providing speedy solutions from the employer side. It prevents minor disagreement of employees developing in to more serious concerns or the disputes. It saves employers time and money as solutions are found for workplace, Problems and It helps to build an organizational climate based on openness and trust.

Conclusion

A good Grievance Management system allows the Management of an organization to understand the true feelings of their employees with related to the decisions taken by the management, policies and procedures of the organization and rules of the organization. Thereby helping them to make the necessary adjustments and improvement to the system as an when required. It also serves as a medium for upward communication to organization top management, and makes them become more aware of employee’s frustration, problems and general expectation. As a result, help an employee to release the pressures that has accumulated because of the grievance.

Video I - Grievance Management

Source : (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfPjCviTxA)

References

Glueck, W. F., 1979. Foundations of Personnel. 1 ed. Texas: Business Publications Inc..

Nurse, L. & Devonish, D., 2007. Grievance management and its links to workplace justice. Employee Relations, 29(1), pp. 89-109.

Obiekwe, O., 2019. Impact of Employee Grievance Management on Organizational Performance. IIARD International Journal of Economics and Business Management, 5(1), pp. 1-15.

Opatha, H. H. D. N. P., 2019. Defining a Grievance: A Theoretical Examination of An Old Issue. Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management , 9(1), pp. 22-33.

Mind Tools Vedios, 2021. Youtube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfPjCviTxA
[Accessed 12 08 2021].

Simple Learning Tips, 2021. Youtube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ47tgwhx3s&t=2s
[Accessed 22 08 2021].

Taru, R. D., 2016. Effectiveness of Grievance Handling Mechanism. International Engineering Journal For Research & Development, 3(2), pp. 195-225.

E-Learning as a better educational tool in organizations

Image I – E-Learning

Source - (www.syspro.com)

E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching and also it is known as international use of networked information and communication technology in teaching and learning. It includes; online learning, virtual learning, distributed learning, Network and web-based learning (Chithra & Raj, 2018).

Importance of E-learning to an organization

E-learning is beneficial for both employer and employee. At present, most of the employees are keen to learn and upskill. They are expecting personalized content at their point of need also prefer to access the content at any time and at anywhere. If Organizations want them to learn and update something new, they have to offer bite-sized pieces of information that do not take too much time (Puri, 2018).

Employees in their own to be engaged in what they are going to do to improve their learning outcome. They become thinkers and learners in a sheltered environment and they do not rely on teachers. They are independent and learning can be done at anywhere, any time and anyhow. It ensures consistent delivery covering all locations and time (Chithra & Raj, 2018).

Benefits of E-learning

For the Employer

Easiest way to bridge the knowledge gaps.
Lack of additional cost of substitution.
E- Learning is scalable and ability to control of learning progress.
Reduced cost and less impact on environment.
High efficiency of training.
Provide flexible time to follow the course.

For the Employee

Online learning offers personalized method via accommodates everyone’s needs.
Lectures can be accessed any number of times.
Enables the learner to access updated content whenever they want it.
Quick delivery of lessons.
Scalability (Creating and communicating new training, concepts and ideas)
Communicate the content in a consistent and standardized way (Chithra & Raj, 2018).

Disadvantages of E-learning

Lack of self – discipline.
Lack of interaction and relation.
Most of the time less facilitates to Clarifications, explanations and interpretations.
Not improve communicative skills of learners.
Health problems.
Inability to access technology (Arkorful & Abaidoo, 2014).

For an example, in Harvard University, they believe that the online education is the most suitable and fastest method specially during the Pandemic situations such as prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. In Harvard, students are provided with the separate online platforms based on the subject and the request. All of these online courses are conducted by the qualified Lecturers in the University and they have found that the system is very satisfactory so far (harvard.edu, 2021).

Image II – Online courses at Harvard University

Source: (www.aseanop.com)

Conclusion

E-learning or the online learning systems all over the world have become a helpful tool specially for the students who do not possess the ability to visit the education centers. Further, most of the large scale and small-scale companies all over the world have vested in to investing on e-learning platforms for their employees basically concerning the convenience and the low cost. Through the E-learning the participants have been able to uphold their talents despite the advantages in participatory learning models.

References

Arkorful, V. & Abaidoo, N., 2014. The role of e-learning, the advantages and disadvantages of its adoption in. International Journal of Education and Research , 02(12), pp. 397-410.

Chithra , A. p. & Raj, M. A., 2018. E-Learning. Journal of Applied and Advanced Research, 3(1), pp. S11 - S13.

harvard.edu, 2021. Harvard Online Courses. [Online]
Available at: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/
[Accessed 18 08 2021].

Puri, S., 2018. Training Industry. [Online]
Available at: https://trainingindustry.com/articles/e-learning/5-advantages-of-e-learning/
[Accessed 18 August 2021].