𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠? 

Your company is only as innovative as its people. Investing in continuous learning for current employees helps to increase productivity, retain top talent, and build the foundation for an environment where innovation is celebrated. And, in times of financial uncertainty, it’s important to focus on creative decisions to achieve results. 

So, how do you build your employees’ skills? One option is creating an upskilling and cross-skilling program. Upskilling and cross-skilling training are tools used to help employees expand their skill sets and reach individual, team, and company goals.

I also feels that these are also important parameters in any interview process which I think should be included while giving feedbacks. i.e., Upskilling & Cross-Skilling. If you think candidates need to be upskilled, please mention and if you feel candidates needs to be Cross skilled, please also do mention.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠?

Upskilling is the process of strengthening existing skills or learning complementary skills, often to close an organizational talent gap. Upskilling focuses on an employee’s skills and improves upon them to help advance in their job and gain higher responsibilities. For example, a corporate executive might complete an MBA to bring a more strategic outlook to their organization.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠?

Cross-skilling (also known as cross-training) is the process of developing new skills that apply across different functions. Cross-skilling focuses on training more than one employee in an organizational task to mitigate the risk of lapses in operation. For example, a user experience designer might learn software development fundamentals to improve cross-functional collaboration and productivity.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭?

There are many benefits to implementing an upskilling and cross-skilling training program, including: 

Contribute to the competitive advantage of your business by improving productivity. For organizations to remain competitive, reskilling and cross-skilling is no longer optional. Providing employees with learning opportunities can increase employee engagement, which results in better productivity and increased innovation.

Retain top talent in a competitive hiring landscape. In such a competitive landscape, retaining top talent is crucial to sustaining productivity and growth – and upskilling and cross-skilling talented employees helps you to retain talent by investing in their professional growth. This ensures you keep workers with the right balance of hard and soft skills in the business.

Support a culture of innovation and continuous learning. With industries, markets, and everyday business practices evolving, employee skills and knowledge remain the bedrock of organizational innovation. Employees seek purpose and impact, and innovation thrives when corporate goals align with employee career goals.

Do more with less. Did you know that 79% of learning and development professionals believe that it’s less expensive to reskill a current employee than to hire a new one? While implementing a reskilling and cross-skilling program may have some costs associated with the development, it ends up saving company resources by growing the skills of the employees already there.

Original Credit: https://www.panopto.com/blog/learning-and-development-what-is-upskilling-cross-skilling