According to the World Economic Forum, we are experiencing a reskilling emergency. Globally, they estimate we need to reskill over 1 billion people by 2030, and this won’t be just technical skills. Interpersonal skills - soft skills - are a top-priority. These are skills that cannot be automated, such as emotional intelligence, problem-solving, and empathy.
But how do we know when to hire someone new, and when to nurture existing talent?
Jumping on the accelerator and hiring a bunch of new people can be tempting. According to a 2018 TAFE study, almost half (48%) of businesses in Australia would rather hire new talent than train existing employees.
Yet re-hiring every time you need new skills in your organisation means you are losing knowledge and culture with turnover. It can be hard to maintain a healthy culture if you are hiring en masse. On top of that 70% of businesses say it's difficult to find workers with the specific skills they’re looking for when they advertise a role.
So what can we do?!
We can invest in continuous learning. We can acknowledge that we're all learning every day, and we can promote an environment that encourages and facilitates learning. Continuous learning is a mindset - to try something new, get feedback, reflect, and try again. It's giving staff the opportunity to learn new skills while they ’re working; investing in their personal and professional development. It's running training on soft skills such as empathetic communication, or giving an employee a day off to complete a writing course. Letting employees pursue growth and development in an area that will benefit them and their work.
Developing a culture of continuous learning is foundational to sustainable growth. Investing in training means investing in your people, and companies that invest in their employees have higher productivity and lower turnover. Companies with a healthy culture usually invest in learning, since learning often comes from mistakes or failures or people disagreeing with us. Which means in order to learn we might have to admit that we were wrong. Which we absolutely will not do if we're afraid of the consequences, or we feel pressure to get things right every time!
Upskilling is often a fraction of the cost of hiring somebody new, and you preserve company culture and internal knowledge. And best of all, people like to learn! Research from a 2021 study from procurement firm ProcureCon found that 91% of jobseekers said a company’s approach to training development was the main factor in deciding where to work. 70% of respondents also cited learning new skills was their number one expectation from a new employer (over salary increases and promotion opportunities).
According to a 2020 Citrix study, companies that prioritise reskilling and upskilling have boosted levels of employee motivation and engagement. They are also more agile, quick to react to change, and able to optimise their use of technology for maximum outcome efficiency.
The importance of learning underpins everything we do at Yarno. We have a strongly established culture of continuous learning - after all, we’re a learning organisation!
We give Yarnoers autonomy and control over their learning. Each Yarnoer has an annual allowance towards their learning - whether they want to focus on their project management skills, develop their writing skills, or strengthen their leadership capabilities. After they have completed their course, they are invited to present what they've learnt to the team in the form of a Lunch and Learn or Pechakucha.
We try to reframe mistakes as learning opportunities, and focus on understanding what went wrong and what we'd do differently next time. We pair more senior and experienced Yarnoers with more junior and less experienced Yarnoers, which gives both an opportunity to learn from each other. We regularly practice giving and receiving feedback, to reinforce that we're all learning and need guidance to improve.
We also use Yarno internally to run campaigns such as empathetic communication and mental health awareness. These reinforce and develop skills we already have, and encourage learning something new every day.
