With an upturn in sight, businesses now have a greater incentive than ever to enhance their skills base. Indeed, the time preceding an economic recovery should be considered an excellent time for businesses to work on the skills of their employees so as to maximise their potential in preparing for an economic upturn. Vivek Behl, CEO for People Wise HR Services has argued that “like every cloud has a silver lining, similarly, every downturn has an upturn. Hence, get set to upskill for the upturn.”
Upskilling becomes a crucial issue during a recession especially because experts are predicting that the prospective upturn will see a heightened war for talent. Upskilling employees will ensure that these remain committed to the business, instead of planning their future in another organisation. By providing employees with the latest up-to-date skills and qualifications, businesses would be putting themselves in the best position possible to be able to outwit and outperform their competitors when the economic indicators eventually swing northward. This would ensure that during a period of economic recovery the organisation has the strongest team possible that is able to respond to the new business opportunities. Jackie Orme, CIPD Chief Executive said: “Those that upskill their workforce during the tough times will come out stronger and more competitive when the economy picks up.”
What is more, by providing employees with the necessary skills, organisations will be building a positive and a confident mindset among the employees. This increased morale and motivation will in turn help to boost the business’ productivity, competitiveness and profitability.
However, before organisations start working on upskilling their employees, they need to be able to identify those skills that the business needs to thrive once the downturn in the economy is over. Maronna Filletti, Group HR Manager for M. Demajo Group stated: “Businesses need to be able to match the skills required to the external market environment. It is useless to focus on a particular skill when the market is going in the other direction.”
In relation to the kind of skills that organisations should focus on in preparing for an economic upturn, Ms Filletti commented: “The most important skills that organisations should be focusing on are the soft skills, the academic skills and the entrepreneurial skills. With regard to the latter, I feel that Malta is lagging behind on this type of skill. We have to make sure that our people are able to think ‘outside the box’.”
In relation to the kind of skills that are required, Ms Filletti added, “We should also take advantage of those people who are nearing retirement and who have years of experience behind them. We should work on re-training these people instead of forcing them through retirement. These people can act as coaches and mentors for the new entrants as well as for the other employees within the organisation.”
Like employers, job seekers should also be able to identify those skills that will be in demand during the prospective economic recovery. By doing so, job seekers will be opening up their career choices by focusing on learning skills that will be in demand or by strengthening existing ones.
Firms should also be able to identify the kind of training that is needed to help develop these skills. It is critically important that firms are able to make smart purchasing decisions with regard to the kind of training to choose to upskill their employees. Some cost-effective ways of upskilling employees during a downturn are online training courses, in-house training, making use of experienced employees to train their colleagues and finally cross-training.
Finally, Ms Filletti commented on the consequences faced by those organisations that do not recognise the importance of investing and developing the skills of their employees in tough and turbulent times.
“Those organisations that fail to recognise the importance of upskilling their employees during an economic recession will slowly die out. Although the need to invest in staff training and development is considered more important when foreseeing an upturn, this should be not be regarded as a one-off exercise, simply because there is an upturn around the corner, but organisations should ensure that upskilling employees is continuous.”
Hence, those businesses that want to be best placed to take advantage of the prospective upturn should continuously work to provide their employees with the necessary skills that are needed to compete in this turbulent and competitive environment. The skills of the employees should reflect the external market conditions. When carefully planned and executed, upskilling the workforce is definitely a valuable and worthwhile investment because it directly translates into increased competitiveness, productivity and profitability.
Ms Camilleri is a researcher at the Foundation for Human Resources Development