How Upskilling Can Mitigate Business Risk

The Covid-19 pandemic introduced us to a new normal in a quick way and forced many corporations to reconsider their ways of working.

In an effort to stay afloat, businesses have had to adapt drastically and introduce new ways of interacting with customers, production and supplying of goods and services. In this article, we will take a look at how upskilling yourself, your business and your staff can beat the challenges and mitigate any risks that may cause your business to crumble.

How Upskilling Helps

According to IT specialists What Is? By TechTarget, who specialise in different IT career advice, answering any IT related question and providing IT skills, “Upskilling is a workplace trend that facilitates continuous learning by providing training programs and development opportunities that expand an employee’s abilities and minimise skill gaps. It focuses on improving current employees’ skill sets, usually through training, so they can advance in their jobs and find different roles and opportunities within the company. In order to be able to mitigate risks and manage expectations, your business will need the skills and knowledge of a business risk manager who will analyse, mitigate, and respond to organisational risk.” You or one of your staff members can try a business risk management course that can be completed online and at your own pace. The course will help with risk assessment and the ability to implement a reliable risk management strategy. This has become vital to navigating the increasing volatility.

The Importance Of Upskilling

Technology has rapidly changed the way businesses operate, making companies realise the need to drift into the digital world and learn new skills. Through upskilling, companies can save money by increasing the abilities of their current employees instead of spending time and budget on hiring new workers. In addition, the current workforce is expecting more from their job than guaranteed pay and a comfortable workplace environment. Employees now anticipate perks such as paid holidays, affordable healthcare and professional training. By providing employees with upskill training opportunities, organisations and businesses can make staff feel that they are valued and have a dedicated future within the company.

Upskilling is important because:

Job roles and their requirements are changing faster than ever: In a world where digital presence matters, a lot of roles chop and change, and your business needs to stay on top form.
Employees expect more opportunities for growth within their companies: It helps to give your staff more reasons to excel at their jobs, and upskilling them shows you care about their career growth.
It helps an organisation stay more competitive by closing skill gaps: Imagine having a company that has everyone who does everything. Not only will customers trust you, suppliers and competitors will also respect your work ethic.
It decreases the need to recruit outside the company to fill skill gaps: No one should be out of the running for a job if they are able to upskill and be better at their roles.

Tailor Your Upskill Strategy

While the idea of upskilling may sound glamorous, it is important to know where, when and how to upskill your workers. While a business risk manager will be able to identify any loopholes in the businesses and point out the gaps, filling those gaps should be the company’s responsibility and primary aim. This is called an upskill strategy. Once the skill gaps have been identified, a business can begin to build and select the training programs that make the most sense for them. The key is to set up training and development in a way that makes sense for the company. In this step, a business determines factors such as:

whether a volume training session is needed or if a one-on-one lesson would be more beneficial;
whether the training can be done internally or if an external educational institution needs to be hired; and
which types of learning make the most sense – considering mentoring, online courses, training sessions or post-secondary courses.

Once a strategy has been built, executing the training will be easy.

Challenges

There are some challenges to upskilling as it can present an old and outdated way of training for some skills and have employees feeling the pressure to learn something. Upskilling can also make employees feel trapped in a job and that they will have to do it to not run the risk of being obsolete, and the once-off training sessions may feel like they are not enough. The best way to beat these challenges is to have conversations around the company needs with your staff members. Spark the interest for wanting to upskill with either a talk or regular check-ins with staff members to find out what they need to better themselves or grow their careers. This will make your staff feel included and let them know that their dreams matter.

Business Risks And What You Need To Prep For Them

Anything that threatens the company or business’s ability to make a profit and stay afloat is regarded as a business risk, and there has to be a team of experts in every company who will always be ready to mitigate these risks and avoid further ones. When a company experiences a high degree of business risk, it may impair its ability to provide investors and stakeholders with adequate returns. For example, the CEO of a company may make certain decisions that affect its profits, or the CEO may not accurately anticipate certain events in the future, causing the business to incur losses or fail. There are different types of risk, and they include:

● Strategic Risk:

This type of risk arises when a business does not function or operate in accordance with the business model or plan. When a business doesn’t operate in accordance with its models, strategies and plans, it runs a risk of becoming less and less effective over time, and may suffer eventually. The best way to manage strategic risk is to constantly follow the models and plans of a business, and a risk manager is important for this.

● Compliance Risk:

Compliance risk primarily arises in industries and sectors that are highly regulated. This is an important risk factor because every company has to abide by certain rules and regulations, such as safety and health risk. We have to have someone or a team in a company that is responsible for ensuring the business complies with all its regulations.

● Operational Risk:

This one is related to the day-to-day running of the company. This risk has to constantly be assessed because it affects how the company runs on a daily basis. It is important for a risk manager to be able to identify what can affect the business’s normal running.

In Closing, Always Up The Skills

While it may seem like we will be spending the rest of our lives constantly learning to adapt to new ways, it is exciting to know that there are ways in which we can all evolve and upgrade our careers. Upskilling is the new gift that offers everyone the opportunity to become a better version of themselves, so make sure that you and your staff always go for it. Find the perfect courses for you and your team here, and let’s get upskilled.