Upskilling: 7 Skills for Success in the Modern Workplace

It doesn’t matter what industry or field you work in: Upskilling is a crucial aspect of attracting and maintaining success in the modern workplace. 

Our comprehensive overview will explain why upskilling is so essential these days, as well as its benefits, methods for investing in employee skill sets, and the best skills to hone in on.

What Is Upskilling?

Upskilling is a means of picking up new skills that helps folks grow in their career. By enhancing and expanding your existing skill sets, you’ll be able to make yourself more indispensable to your employer. Not only that, but growing your expertise in a field or industry will also inform any future roles you might have. 

For managers, investing in upskilling with your employees comes with a whole host of benefits, from increased employee satisfaction and retention rates to better branding.

Upskilling vs. reskilling

Both upskilling and reskilling are terms used to describe acquiring more knowledge or skills within a particular industry. However, the difference between them is the type of skills acquired. With upskilling, the focus is expanding on existing knowledge or skills you already have within the same industry. Reskilling, on the other hand, emphasizes picking up totally new skills or knowledge during the transition to a new field or career path.

Why is upskilling important?

In a job market that’s constantly changing, upskilling is vital to stay relevant and gain a competitive edge. Investing in your employees this way will also boost employee retention rates, engagement, and satisfaction in your workforce. It can also improve your team’s overall job performance, skill sets, productivity, and innovation.

At the end of the day, investing in a few high-income skills can completely transform your professional life.

Top Upskilling Benefits to Know

Not surprisingly, investing in your skills and committing to expanding your knowledge in your area of expertise comes with tons of advantages. Here are just a few of the benefits of upskilling for employees and employers alike.

Better job satisfaction

Both employers and employees can look forward to increased job satisfaction when they invest in upskilling. Employers will notice better overall job performance from their team, as gaining new skills and abilities directly correlates to better productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction. Upskilling also boosts the confidence of employees, which can lead to better job performance, too. 

A stronger brand identity

One of the lesser-known benefits of upskilling is developing a stronger brand identity. When employers invest in their employees in this way, they foster a better company reputation. Investing in the skill sets of employees shows others that the brand is committed to their employees and their well-being. 

It also helps companies attract and keep top talent in an industry, even in the most competitive environments. 

Boosted earning potential

For individuals, upskilling also leads to increased earning potential through multiple avenues. For example, expanding your existing skill set can lead to higher salaries and more pay. It can also open new doors for folks, both within and outside of an organization. People with more skills in their area of expertise get more promotions and job opportunities than those who remain stagnant in their skills and knowledge. 

Plus, upskilling leads to better job security, both for the individual and for the employer in terms of retention rates. 

How to Upskill With Yoodli

Regardless of what industry you work in, you’ll be able to invest in yourself and your team by upskilling with Yoodli.

Yoodli is a work enablement tool and communication coach that uses AI to enhance individual and team skills. Employees use Yoodli’s intelligent roleplay capabilities to build on their existing skills and develop a deeper expertise. Top brands like Google, Korn Ferry, and Dale Carnegie have all used Yoodli to invest in their workforce.

As an upskilling tool, Yoodli works like this. Its user-friendly platform offers a multitude of existing roleplay scenarios to choose from. Folks can practice engaging with clients, small talk, public speaking, and any other communication scenario to invest in their existing skills. Employees can even craft their own roleplay from scratch using the Builder tool to work on specific scenarios. No matter the exact scenario, employees will go back and forth with an AI-generated partner to participate in human-like conversation. 

But Yoodli isn’t just an upskilling tool. It’s also an intelligent communication coach that highlights specific areas of improvement for people based on their existing skills. For example, your employees will get specific insights on your delivery, listening, and speech patterns to offer actionable feedback and tips for improvement. 

For team leads and admin, Yoodli offers personalization capabilities that allow brands to adapt the tool for their own needs based on their own company methodology. Plus, Yoodli provides enterprise-grade privacy, with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and more.

Learn more about how you can get started upskilling with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.

7 Essential Upskilling Skills to Secure Your Future

Whether you’re an experienced sales rep or you’re new to the role, you need to have multiple strategies for prospecting in your arsenal. Here are seven of the most essential upskilling skills you should consider to secure your future career. 

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking skills

One of the most useful upskilling skills to invest in is your problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Both skills are universally beneficial and can help you pinpoint problems as they come up, brainstorm better solutions, and make better decisions.

Investing in your team’s problem-solving skills can also help them improve their ability to think outside the box, explore more creative solutions, and be more resilient when faced with failure or setbacks. 

2. Collaboration and teamwork skills

In a similar vein, teamwork and collaboration skills are other upskilling skills worth investing in, no matter what field you work in. Learning how to work efficiently in a team is essential for professional success. Most employers look for people with strong interpersonal skills. People who have solid teamwork skills are more likely to build and keep up positive relationships with other team members, which is important for brands that want high retention rates.

3. Communication skills 

Of course, effective communication skills rank high with regard to the most valuable upskilling skills. Being able to communicate efficiently with people — your coworkers, team mates, clients, and others — is essential in any industry. For most people, this includes both written and verbal communication. 

However, communication skills also include skills like active listening, which is key to a fruitful conversation. 

4. Digital literacy skills

Although it’s not always top-of-mind for everyone, investing in some digital literacy skills can be a beneficial move. No matter what industry you work in, even the most basic digital literacy skills can set you apart from the competition. For example, data analysis and the ability to interpret data can benefit almost anyone. Learning how to efficiently use Excel is a great place to start. 

Other digital literacy skills that can be worth investing in, depending on your exact role, include areas like: 

• Cybersecurity, including internet safety and best practices
• Programming and coding 
• Cloud computing, including how to work in programs like Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS

5. Creativity skills

Some folks don’t automatically consider creativity and innovation to be upskilling skills worth investing in, but both skills give you a competitive edge over others. The ability to brainstorm and ideate creative solutions to problems that crop up is a true skill. 

As an employer, be sure you’re fostering a positive work environment where your team members can feel comfortable developing their creativity and innovative skills to better problem-solve. 

6. Emotional intelligence

Many people think emotional intelligence is a skill that comes naturally to people, but it can also be a learned skill for those who need to improve. Having a high level of emotional intelligence helps folks understand their own emotions as well as the emotions of others, and how this can affect behavior. Having this intimate understanding helps improve your emotional regulation, self-awareness, and social skills, too. 

7. Adaptability skills

Lastly, investing in an upselling skill like adaptability can revolutionize the way you form and maintain relationships at work (among other benefits). Building your adaptability skills can improve your ability to empathize with others, embrace change instead of running from it, and successfully face challenges and unexpected situations head-on. It can also help employees be more resilient when they face failure and help them learn from it. 

Best Methods for Upskilling to Consider

There are tons of reasons you might want to invest in you or your team’s skill sets. From improved employee satisfaction to stronger brand identity and higher earning potential, the benefits are endless. Here are some tried-and-true methods and strategies for upskilling, whether you’re an employer or an employee.

Training programs

Teams can tap into in-house and outside training to home in on upskilling for their employees. Many companies today provide activities like seminars, workshops, and training sessions to invest in their workforce. Depending on the brand, employee resource groups (ERGs) can also provide options for training and collaboration.

On-the-job training can also help employees upskill through opportunities like relevant projections, cross-training programs, and certification programs.

Coaching and mentorship

Both coaching and mentorship opportunities also help employees build their existing skill sets and knowledge. Some companies offer specific mentorship programs that employees can opt in to in order to build their skills. In general, an employee is paired with someone who has more experience who can support and guide them to grow their skills.

Job shadowing is another type of coaching and mentorship in which folks can watch how other people do their job to get new insights and pick up more skills. 

Online learning platforms

One of the most accessible ways to start upskilling is by using online learning platforms. Options like Udemy, Coursera, Masterclass, LinkedIn Learning, and Khan Academy all provide massive libraries of classes on different topics. Depending on the actual platform, you can learn from actual professors from top universities to build on your existing knowledge. 

These platforms are great for individuals and organizations alike and can help invest in you and your team’s abilities. 

The Main Takeaway

Upskilling is a critical means of making yourself more valuable and less dispensable than others in the eyes of employers. It sets you apart from other employees, leads to higher salaries, and increases employee retention rates. Plus, when you use an upskilling tool like Yoodli, you can easily invest in yourself and your team members without the hassle. 

Sources

• Coursera: “Upskilling: What It Means and How It Can Help Your Career.”
• LinkedIn Learning: “Difference Between Upskilling and Reskilling.”