Companies need to invest in upskilling their employees

By Sanjeev Goel

Right after Covid-19, survival was the priority for most companies, who had to adapt to new business models. Strategists from businesses across the world have worked to ensure that new ways of working were implemented. A few common threads emerged among all the non-IT sectors, the most important being:

1. Integration of newer technologies into their daily business operations

2. Adaptability of employees in working with these new technologies

Tech upskilling

For internal and external communications, organisations quickly transitioned to meeting platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet etc.

And to ensure that fewer employees were required to manage business operations, organisations ensured the use of advanced new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cloud computing, with employees dealing with data entrusted with making a number of decisions.

This made remote working a data-based scientific way of working rather than a social experiment with subjective decision-making.

Even where organisations have started allowing employees into their facilities, like in the manufacturing sector, they have been fast to adopt new-age technologies spanning to make their work more effective. Firms are investing more efforts and resources into skilling their teams to work productively with these technologies.

The accelerated adoption of these technologies is also leading to unanticipated benefits. Earlier, training employees on a new product was limited to PowerPoint presentations and explaining the product in detail. Now, impactful VR-enabled walkthroughs are making the entire product demonstration process seamless and experiential – leading to better customer-experiences - a process that is both efficient and scalable.

Non-tech upskilling

With all meetings – both internal and external – moving to the virtual space, employees now need skills to stay effective even in remote engagements with colleagues and customers.

Organisations are expending significant efforts to get their personnel trained on performing at the same level of effectiveness as they were during the pre-pandemic times.

Skills such as persuasive questioning, value communication, critical thinking and emotional intelligence have become even more valuable.

With customers unsure about commitments, those organisations training their people on such ‘soft’ skills are forging ahead.

To summarise, the post-pandemic environment belongs to those organisations that are willing to invest in their people and get them to master the technical and behavioural skills needed to win in the dramatically different marketplace.

(The author is business head at a professional learning platform)