The pandemic is driving continuous change, and that means new skills are required. The crisis has also resulted in a growing interest in adopting emerging technologies like AI, ML, and IoT to prepare for the post-pandemic world.

For startups, keeping up with the pace of these technologies has become a necessity. However, many of their employees still lack the skillsets required to drive success in this changing digital landscape. To make their workforce future-ready, the only way forward is through reskilling and upskilling.

This idea of reskilling employees is now gaining steam, courtesy of the COVID-19 crisis. The following reasons can help entrepreneurs and small business owners aggressively approach growth opportunities to develop their novice workforce.

Technical skills are gaining steam

The chief among the changes that received quick acceptance during the pandemic were the emerging technologies. The entire COVID-19 crisis accelerated that requirement of reskilling the employees with technical skills.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) research indicates that half of all employees worldwide require upskilling or reskilling by 2025 to embrace new responsibilities driven by new technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, and automation. The report further states that if learning and development programs aren’t fast-tracked, it could take decades for employees to be ready for the future of work.

Several corporate giants have recognized the benefits of reskilling and are experiencing notable results with their training initiatives. With their limited resources, talent management teams of startups are also preparing their employees to develop skills around disruptive technologies.

Startups have been at the forefront in amplifying the adoption of these aforementioned technologies in the workplace. Through their range of products and services, they leverage the best use of these new technologies and constantly push to transform the traditional market with disruptive tools and skillsets.

Continuous learning to stay ahead of the curve

The need to learn new skills is no longer optional. Continuous learning must be prioritized to keep up with industry trends and also to maintain a competitive edge. Employees that recognize insufficient career growth opportunities in an organization are more likely to switch to a different organization.

The introduction of digital technologies and shortage of technical skills in startups is proving to be problematic. Regardless of the size of the business, continuous learning is essential in retaining employability and relevance.

Implementing a reskilling plan can be a daunting task. However, with plenty of corporates already reaping the rewards with continuous learning strategies, entrepreneurs and small business owners can also execute the same and retain their high-performing talents.

Reskilling is lucrative to employees and startups

Unlike large companies, startups are much more innovative and quicker to adapt to changing market dynamics. The benefits of reskilling are umpteen and can unlock the other traits of employees that many big players fail to recognize.

• By helping employees build new skills and gain knowledge across various business subjects, talent management teams allow potential candidates to become more flexible to suit growing business needs.
• The startup culture will become more competitive as development programs can tap the strengths of their workforce to enhance their professional and organizational paths.

COVID-19 has propelled both large and small business owners to change and work differently. Reskilling has attained the attention of startups and small business owners to make their existing workforce adaptable to current trends and needs. Although startups are known to be the ambassadors of change in this tech-reliant society, they still struggle to address the widening skill gaps rising in their organization.

With the help of AI-powered talent management tools, HR leaders get access to the entire talent ecosystem, understand the talent market’s situation, and utilize it for the organization’s benefit.

Draup is a talent intelligence platform built upon over 4500 job roles across 30,000 skills spread across 33 industries. Draup makes company-wide reskilling projects seamless by sharing real-time insights on various skills, demand, and supply sources of the talent pool, along with a fool-proof plan to devise reskilling initiatives.