Upskilling: Key to retain talent

There have been several aspects of our life that have seen a sea change ever since we were hit by the Covid pandemic. Most of the experts call them disruptive outcomes. One such disruption is the work from home, a norm which is accepted by corporates and governments universally given the restrictions which were put in to control the spread of the Coronavirus. The after-effects are still continuing. Given the new normal and back to normal, the market out there is looking for a workforce which is adequately skilled. The skills are required to work in any mode which the industries are expecting – onsite or offsite, which is now being termed hybrid mode.

Working in such a situation puts the onus on employees to rise up to the expectations of their managers. It has been a challenge for top-level managers, too, to adapt to new situations. The manager is replaced by a leader or a mentor. The new role of manager has put focus on the individual's deliverables than on the process. When an individual can deliver the result as desired by the office, it doesn't matter where he or she is working.

In the given situations, the employees have to rise to the occasion to give their best. For this, they need to hone their skills irrespective of their experience in the industry and the position. They should be able to translate these skills in the organisation horizontally and vertically. Acquired wisdom is meaningless if it is not shared and transferred. This aspect gives freedom to many in the organisation, and gives results with optimal efforts. This is the principle of leveraging the skill-sets of the employees at various levels. This makes the organisation function like a well-oiled machine without any creaking noise.

This puts focus on individuals who need to upskill themselves. Individuals mean anyone who has a role from the bottom of the strata to the top. Upskilling is the buzzword now.

Upskilling is a continuing education that leverages one's career prospects in an organisation. If the individual is growing in the organisation with the new skill-sets acquired. It is to climb up the ladder. If the upskills are not recognised, they may look for greener pastures.

For instance in the software industry, nearly 44 per cent of the developers based in India are planning to quit their jobs this year compared to 42 per cent globally, according to a report DigitalOcean Holdings, the cloud for developers, startups and SMBs. The Digital Ocean surveyed over 2,500 respondents from 94 countries, including India, US, Germany, Canada and the UK. It shows the developer talent shortage has a potential to worsen with 64 per cent of those with less than a year's experience, and 32 per cent of those with 1-5 years of experience, leaving their job recently.

Reasons for leaving jobs were found to be the same among both those who have already left and those who are planning to quit, with compensation, remote or flexible work environments, and better benefits being the top factors that make them quit jobs, especially in the case of younger developers.

Similar is the situation in other industries, too. It's time for the organisations to retain the existing talent, upskill them, recognise them and reward them to meet the mission goals.