Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 12 www.hrreporter.com Upskilling neglected by many employers While many employers say they appreciate the importance of upskilling, they may not be following through with that sentiment. That could prove costly, so smart organizations are focusing on learning for the future, writes John Dujay and how can we keep doing that differ- ently in order to maintain some of these benefits that we've seen as a result?" EllisDon sees need to transform Many in the business world have been aware of the existence of this gap for years, says one HR executive. "[It's] about making sure we're using analytics to decide how we're following through as much as we can on not only what the employees need, but 'Do we know where we're going in the future?' because employees drive what we do for the future," says Paul Trudel, senior vice-president of people and culture at EllisDon in Toronto. The construction company has always believed that "upskilling is really the evidence of the agility of our employees, and then how they help drive our busi- ness," says Trudel, citing an anecdote that CEO Geoff Smith likes to use about a flooring firm that remained successful by transitioning from cannonball manu- facturing to floor heating over its 200 years of existence. "That's been influential over what EllisDon does," says Trudel. "How are you national workforce transformation leader at Deloitte in Toronto. But only 16 per cent of organizations expect to make significant investment in learning over the next three years. This upcoming skills gap is expected to cost organizations dearly, according to Woods, who cites World Economic Forum research that pegs the impact at $3 trillion by 2030. "It's clear that the capabilities we need are different, and if we don't figure out what those new skills are [and] help people build those capabilities, we're going to be really behind the eight-ball," says Woods. "There's a huge opportunity for Canadian companies to take this unfortunate situation of the pandemic and use it to their benefit to become more competitive and just make Canada more innovative." During the pandemic, many businesses have transformed, which shows that adopting a different mindset is possible, despite the challenges, she says. "I spoke to a bank that suddenly realized that in their huge organiza- tion, where collaboration was always an issue and functional silos were a problem... the pandemic forced them to immediately collaborate better," says Woods. "One of the shifts that happened is people are now trying to figure out: How do we maintain these ways of working, as a business going to evolve over 200 years? And that's what upskilling is." To keep up, employers need to invest more into educating their current work- force, says Trudel, by providing them multiple ways to upskill that would benefit the company in the long run. But in incentivizing employees to change, the employer can't be stuck in its ways, he says. "Are they incentivizing people for what tomorrow could look like? Are we really looking at that skill set and whether it's investing in their education or investing through bonuses or pay increases? Are you really talking about what the future looks like, or are you talking about what the last 12 months have looked like?" Learning key to transformation It's important to look to future skills needs and not focus too much on what is needed today, such as more technical skills, says Woods. "If we don't figure out what those new skills are [and] help people build those capabilities, we're going to be really behind the eight-ball." Kathy Woods, Deloitte WHILE a vast majority of organiza- tions (74 per cent) believe that upskilling is important, only 17 per cent are confident they know what future skills will be needed for their own success, according to a Deloitte report. Both employers and employees appre- ciate the importance of upskilling, but there is a disconnect, finds Building the Future-Ready Workforce. "When we surveyed workers, 90 per cent of them said they believe they're going to need to refresh their skills every year; 74 per cent of the business leaders believe that skills gaps are going to be a big issue for them," says Kathy Woods, MORE TALK THAN ACTION ON UPSKILLING 94% Percentage of leaders who expect workers to learn new skills on the job 45% Percentage of employees who say their company offers ways to upskill 83% Percentage of employers who feel it's cheaper to reskill workers than hire new ones Sources: Express Employment Professionals, World Economic Forum

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