Lifelong Learners

Lisa Smyth uncovers why upskilling employees – once an employee benefit or regulatory obligation – is now critical to the success, and future survival, of your business.

- Lisa Smyth

Henry Ford once famously said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.” It has been more than 100 years since Ford’s Model T came off the assembly line and helped usher in the modern world but, as we experience the fourth industrial revolution, his words about upskilling employees hold more power than ever.

“Upskilling is broader than developing technical skills – it’s also about improving behaviour and attitudes to make employees more effective in current or future roles,” explains Vanessa Panayi, founder and Director of Australia’s The Learning Circle.

“I believe the best upskilling programs have both depth and width. Depth, meaning they reach all levels of the organisation, not just management and above. And width, meaning they go beyond technically based competencies to behavioural ones, such as communication and problem solving that employees can use outside work as well.”

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?

With more than 19 years of experience as a learning and organisational development consultant for companies such as Allianz and KPMG, Panayi believes it is more essential than ever to provide reskilling or upskilling opportunities to employees.

“For the first time in history, we now have five generations all working at the same time – millennials to baby boomers and up, all with different skills and needs.”