UpSkill Your Employees Instead of Hiring

Solving problems and answering questions through data analysis is quickly becoming the norm in today’s data-driven world. As real-world experiments become ubiquitous in modern business, data scientists have become the beating heart of the big data economy. It’s not just that they are designing new systems; they are going to bat for new sources of data and new ways to use that data.

Yet, with the ever-increasing demand for skills, the talent gap has widened. In a recent annual survey of employers, Deloitte and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists (ISCEBS) remarked, “The shortage of qualified talent and the skills gap has emerged as the biggest challenge facing employers over the next three years.”

This skills gap continues to widen, despite the available pool of domestic and H1B job applicants. How can employers expect to fill their needs for such capabilities in emerging technologies?

More and more smart companies are training their existing employees to acquire the skills they need in the technologies and disciplines that are critical to their evolving business objectives.

Use training strategically to fill skills gaps

As technologies rapidly evolve and corporate initiatives change, talent development is proving to be a faster and more cost-effective solution than talent acquisition. “Upskilling”—investing in the skills of front-line workers—has upfront costs, but it can save employers time and money in the long run. When employees are always learning, it has the effect of reducing turnover and improving employee retention, helping a company keep pace with or outdo its competition. Upskilling also allows companies to retain employees who fit within the company culture; it’s much less risky than bringing in someone new.

And while upskilling can be used in many circumstances, it can have big returns if a company:

  • Is looking to find more efficient processes;
  • Finds that machine learning, big data, and data science are playing an increasingly important role in the workplace;
  • Is in an industry that is under tough competitive pressure or that evolves quickly;
  • Wants to find new ways of doing business;
  • Is looking to offer new products and services

Re-Skilling Existing Employees

Here at Udacity, we’ve developed a solution for Enterprises that enables them to assess their workforce, understand their skills gaps and deploy transformational, hands-on and cutting edge curriculum personalized to their employees.  The costs of re-skilling employees far outweigh recruiting, training and ramping a new employee.

In addition to saving time and money, reskilling employees maintains established corporate culture, enables uninterrupted employee productivity, and provides other benefits to your organization, including:

  • Improved employee engagement and retention by building self-esteem with a culture of higher promotion potential and refreshingly novel or challenging responsibilities.
  • Better company brand reputation (on employer review sites like Glassdoor.com) as a place for career development and longevity for future candidates.
  • Reduced dependency on outside consultants or vendors for necessary skill sets.

As Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, professed, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

Find out how much your organization can save using Udacity for Enterprise to transform your workforce.

Author: Christina Del Villar