The tech space is constantly growing. If you are managing a tech team, just staying relevant is a challenge. You have to upskill a tech team continuously and promote adaptability in a competitive space.
According to a Workable report, 42% of companies ramped up employee upskilling after the pandemic settled. There are many factors behind this: First, companies must rethink their work model to accommodate significant changes.
Furthermore, working from home became a norm, and so did international hiring. Naturally, today employers need to constantly upskill their team to keep them on the same page and continue innovating in a rapidly changing world.
The Changing Faces of Employee Training
For a long time, employee training was looked down upon in corporate circles. As a result, formal employee training modules will be obsolete after 2020. The old models no longer work; rather, they never worked in the first place!
Modern employee upskilling is all about hands-on training. Tech employees no longer want to regurgitate common knowledge and general career advice. Companies have also realised that employee training matters only when it delivers results. So today, employees need to upskill themselves to solve real problems in stressful scenarios.
Instilling a culture of learning
If you have experience managing teams, you would realise that office culture does not change in a year. Changing the office culture at its root is crucial to launch a trickle-down effect.
Training employees and increasing their competence will be much easier if there’s a culture of learning and upskilling in the workspace. Here are some instances:
- Leaders have to lead by example to have a lasting impact on the office culture.
- When you want a constantly improving workforce, you have to show your team how it’s done.
- In addition, the office culture should foster curiosity and enable anyone to learn more about their domain or even other domains.
- Companies must treat themselves as education hubs and not just service or product developers.
- An in-house employee training policy will normalise the concept of learning while working.
- Many systems and hierarchies need to be rethought, and employees of all levels should interact and learn from each other.
- Every company needs an official employee upskilling policy to have steady and gradual progress.
The results will compound over time and have a significant impact.
Rapid Changes in the Tech Space
Two tech spaces have shown rapid growth over the past few years. One is artificial intelligence (AI) and its allied components like natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), Deep Learning, Cognitive Computing, and so on. The second area is blockchain and related fields – Web 3, DeFi, Dapps, etc.
We are at the edge of seeing these technologies take over the world as we know it. Now is the perfect time to ensure that your team can manage these technologies. First movers will have a definite advantage over the next decade and beyond.
AI is projected to boost global GDP by 26% in 2030, contributing a whopping $15.7 trillion (Semrush). On the other hand, web 3 projects get more than 18,000 active developers every month. If these developments hint towards anything, it’s the fact that technology as we know it will undergo a paradigm shift in the coming years. If your team is not prepared for it, they will be irrelevant in the coming years.
It is also crucial for employees to understand that upskilling is the only sure avenue to success in the corporate world. In addition, ambitious employees will use the upskilling opportunities to contribute to personal and organisational goals. So it’s a win-win situation for all parties.
Effective Ways to Upskill, your Team
If you want to upskill your team effectively, it is necessary to let them face real-world problems.
Training must focus on problem-solving and has to be project-based. Unless the employee is not making a meaningful contribution to the solution, they are not upskilling.
Certifications and degrees matter much more now, especially in the tech space. Some top tech companies no longer necessitate college degrees for a position. Instead, focus on making your team competent.
Collaborative learning
It is well-documented that teams with better coordination and compatibility perform more efficiently in the long run. Collaborative learning makes upskilling a team effort instead of a personal endeavour.
By introducing collaborative learning spaces, you can instil a spirit of improvement in the employees since no one would want to be left behind.
The next decade will be a tough challenge for many organisations, and the most significant challenge will come in hiring and employee management. So now is the perfect time to set up upskilling and training infrastructures in businesses of any size.
Check out other blogs at CodeQuotient to know more about the present and future of tech hiring, training, upskilling, and a lot more.
