How long have your employees been at your company? Do they possess the skills needed to lead you into the future and assist with your company transformation? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean you should hire new employees.
It just means it is time to upskill your employees. It makes the most sense to teach your current employee base the new skills that are required instead of spending the time and money to hire new ones.
Related: Why Knowledge Is Important To The Success Of Your Business?
In fact, 62% of executives believe they will need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce between now and 2030 due to automation and digitization.R
With this in mind, forward-thinking businesses are focusing on upskilling now with amazing results.
Related: 5 Main Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Need a Business Mentor.
But it’s not all smooth sailing. Upskilling programs can’t be one size fits all.
Each employee has a different learning style, a different schedule and potentially a large amount of information to learn—sounds like a recipe for inefficiency and disaster.
Related: Why is Training Necessary for Employees?
End of the day, why would you want to waste precious time on an inefficient program?
This is where emerging technology such as AI and machine learning can help you digitize and improve your retraining programs. Let’s take a look at how to capitalize on these technologies.
The Best Retraining Programs Engage and Teach
It has been shown that the best training programs for employees are programs that combine engaging elements with specialized training modules.
These modules should have online options as well as in-person instruction that focuses on completing skilled tasks.
Related: The Benefits of Training and Development in the Workplace.
This training should also include digital and physical simulations for real-world, hands-on education.
Digitizing the process and using technology like AR and VR can achieve the same results with lower cost to the company and likely more success for the employee.
Personalized Learning for All
On top of engaging learning programs, wouldn’t it be nice if each program was specifically tailored for each employee?
All you need to do is integrate machine learning into your training program. Part of machine learning’s capabilities happens in the back-end where voice recognition and patterns live.
As employees are going through the training program, it recognizes who is using the program and adapts to their specific needs.
Related: What and How Does Artificial Intelligence Works in Business?
Employees can experience personalized learning that continues to adapt to their specific learning styles. They can also get real-time feedback based on their performance.
Personalized learning gives each employee a tailored learning program, built to fit their specific needs, shortcomings and goals.
Not every employee will excel in the same area, or struggle in the same area. This personalized learning fills those gaps on an individual level, boosting confidence and morale.
No more boring modules that are a pain to implement.
Pattern Building for Retention
Learning is only the first step. After all, have you truly learned anything if you have no ability to recall that information and put it into practice?
This is where training reinforcement through pattern building is essential.
Most companies struggle with this, seldom reinforcing the information given to a new employee after the initial training. And unfortunately, I’ve seen this happen all too often.
Related: To Succeed in Your Business One Must Become a Knowledge Junkie.
Employees must practice these skills they have learned in order to retain them and use them when they are needed.
AI improves retention by helping employees to produce patterns throughout their daily work.
Once a pattern is established, new techniques can be implemented without confusion and strain. It is all about retraining without huge effort on your end, a new possibility thanks to AI.
Planning for the Future
Whether we are on board or not, the future is coming at our organizations at record speed.
AI is becoming the norm, digital transformation is taking hold and we must do everything in our power to keep up.
Related: 5 Strategies to Improve Your Business Knowledge Fast.
Our employees are the future of our business and must be skilled in these areas of technology to keep us competitive.
By starting now, you are ensuring your employees are receiving the education through retraining programs they require to be successful for themselves and for you.
