Future Proofing Your Workforce: Why Upskilling and Reskilling are Key to Employee Retention

It’s no secret that employee turnover is costly.

Direct costs include exit costs (such as severance and accrued vacation or sick days), advertising for the new position, recruiting and training new hires, and onboarding. Additionally, indirect costs land like a sucker punch to the gut. Lost productivity, reduced morale, potentially damaged relationships with customers and between employees, and even missed opportunities to scale with the seat filled have lasting effects.

While some turnover is normal and to be expected, studies show that more than 77% of employee attrition is preventable. That’s over three-quarters of voluntary turnover in the workforce!

Your role as an employer in employee retention is pivotal. Strong retention strategies start with understanding why employees leave in the first place. Today, we’re discussing one of the top reasons employees cite for their departure –lack of career development.

Upskilling and Reskilling for Retention

While providing employees with a career growth ladder within the organization is valuable, offering employees opportunities to strengthen skills, learn new ones, and adapt to market changes is just as crucial. Why?

Employees Want Growth: Career growth provides a sense of purpose and motivation as they climb upwards. For many, career growth is necessary for financial stability as they seek to provide for their families or develop a desired lifestyle. Without upskilling and reskilling, employees will stagnate or move on to grow elsewhere.

It Boosts Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment go hand in hand. By providing career development programs and implementing employee upskilling strategies, you can offer new challenges to your employees and help them feel valued. Learning new things keeps work interesting and engaging as they accomplish new goals and skills. Employees who feel valued, challenged, and engaged stay longer.

It Helps You Stay Competitive: Love it or hate it, you cannot underestimate the role of AI in the workforce. Reskilling employees to adapt to the digital transformation not only helps them but also helps your company. It is more cost-effective to train current talent, but it also establishes relevance, ultimately helping you attract new talent as needed.

AI is not the only thing on the forerunner of change in the workforce, nor will it always be the “next big thing” to adapt to — someday, something new, trendy, and necessary will hit the workforce by storm. The key is future-proofing your workforce by consistently developing reskilling strategies that help close the skills gap in your organization. Career development programs or employee career growth opportunities give you an edge among job seekers!

Builds a Stronger Culture: Continuous learning fosters innovation and collaboration. Ideas and creativity are born in a place where people feel connected. Leadership development programs, professional growth initiatives, training, career advancement, and reskilling your team to adapt to AI and automation inspire a growth mindset that will only have lasting benefits for your company and culture.

Tips for Upskilling and Reskilling

Upskilling enhances current skills, strengthening, refining, and building on them. It helps employees close skill gaps, stay competitive, and advance in their careers (hopefully within your company) while adapting and staying relevant to current trends.

Reskilling is developing a new skill for a new role in the same industry or beyond. It also helps employees adapt to changes in the workforce and can help them take on different positions within your company as needed.

However, they are both (kind of) fancy words for investing in employee growth and development. At their core, upskilling and reskilling empower employees to evolve, keeping them engaged, motivated, and prepared for the future. Whether refining existing skills or learning new ones, these strategies signal to your team that their growth matters—not just for the company’s success but for their personal and professional fulfillment. Here’s how –

Personalize learning: Offer online courses, workshops, and mentorships to match different personalities and learning styles.

Leverage technology: Use AI-driven training, VR simulations, and microlearning platforms.

Establish mentorship programs: Pair employees with experienced mentors to share knowledge and build leadership skills.

Embed learning in company culture: Dedicate learning hours and promote learning through skill-building workshops, reading challenges, and open dialogue.

Support education: Invest in tuition, reimbursement, certifications, and professional development programs.

Encourage internal mobility: Reskill employees for new roles within your company.

Provide hands-on learning: Let employees apply new skills through real-world projects.

These strategies empower employees, enhance engagement, and build a future-proof workforce committed to your company’s success.

Part of retaining talent is building the right teams right from the start. At Career Concepts, we match the best people with the best employers. “The right people. The right job.” It’s been our motto for over 50 years! Contact us today, and let’s get started!