Why forward-thinking companies are investing in upskilling
This article is authored by Ambrish Sinha, CEO, UNext Learning (edtech arm of Manipal Group).
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of those books in my library that’s always within my immediate reach. I personally believe the book is a treasure chest of wisdom, advice, and reassurance we often need in our lives.
Globally, companies are navigating disruptive forces—AI, automation, climate imperatives, and demographic shifts. In this landscape, skills become the new currency. For India, where over 50% of the workforce is under 30, the urgency to upskill is even more pronounced. The choice is clear: invest in people, or risk irrelevance.
When contemplating the evolving tech landscape, the fear of uncertainty surrounding it, and the inevitability of enterprise upskilling, I cannot help but draw some parallels and inspiration from the book.
One of the confidence-instilling lines from the book says, "People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” And this is exactly what is the essence of the topic as well. All we need as enterprise leaders is to enable the way forward for our biggest strength – our people.
Every forward-thinking organisation recognies that investing in people is not a business strategy but a strategic imperative for resilience and long-term competitiveness. Digital transformation is as much of a people-centric exercise as it is tech-driven. That’s why workforce development is an imperative that paves the way for a better future.
So, for enterprises still skeptical about investing in their people, here are some incredible benefits that the strategy yields.
A recent statistic reveals that 76% of the employees are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous learning or upskilling programs. Monetary compensation aside, our workforces wants to feel valued and have a keen sense of purpose. One of the top reasons employees leave the organisation is the lack of a structured career path and progression.
However, upskilling initiatives send out a clear message to employees on the company’s commitment to their long-term success and professional development.
By fostering an ideal learning environment with access to the required infrastructure, enterprises can ensure increased retention. This ultimately minimises the time and expenses spent on recruitment and training.
Productivity boost always doesn’t translate to increased output. There’s another often-overlooked layer, which is efficiency. How much time is an employee spending on a particular task? How much of a rework is involved post completion? Can the task pass the immediate QC at the first go?
All these intricate stages of a process have a snowball effect, leading to project delays, dilution in final quality, dissatisfaction from customers and more. With a skilled workforce, efficiency can become a benchmark, allowing every individual employee to push the boundary to deliver an even impeccable output.
Reports reveal that companies investing in skilling and training achieve up to 52% higher productivity and 17% greater profitability compared to peers that lag in workforce development. Beyond operational gains, productivity improvements from upskilling also strengthen customer trust and brand reputation—an often-overlooked competitive advantage.
When efficiency becomes a benchmark, all trivial bottlenecks employees face on a daily basis get mitigated. When flawlessness becomes a culture, employees have more resources, time, and energy to focus on innovation. They can dedicate their brains to futureproofing their teams (and enterprise) and refine strategies that drive long-term competitiveness.
They say that modern problems require modern solutions and a workforce that has shattered their limiting legacy operating procedures can rewrite conventions. They can not only keep up with evolving market demands but be empowered to stay ahead as well.
At this point, innovation ceases to be episodic—it becomes continuous, embedded in culture, and a differentiator in volatile markets.
Upskilling is a calculated business strategy, where the focus has shifted from employee-centric training to enterprise-wide upskilling. Leadership and C-Suite have acknowledged workforce development as the lever of transformation upon which growth and profitability hinge on.
This fundamental change has transformed fragmented approaches to training to future-focused initiatives that:
- Create a robust internal talent pipeline
- Make change management seamless
- Improve employee engagement
- Close plaguing and persisting skill gaps and more
This shift also positions organisations to respond faster to regulatory changes, evolving customer preferences, and emerging technologies—a crucial advantage in industries from financial services to automotive.
Once these checkboxes are ticked, an enterprise has no other option but to become agile and thus future proofed.
When continuous learning becomes company culture, our workforces are perpetually becoming a better version of themselves. And profit, productivity, growth, future-readiness, and every new term that will be coined in the next three years are and will be a byproduct of it.
Companies with strong learning cultures see 57% higher retention and materially better internal mobility—proof that structured upskilling pays in talent stability.
With employers expecting 44% of workers’ skills to be disrupted within five years, the only prudent hedge is systematic, enterprise-wide upskilling—now, not later.
Real forward-thinking is all about investing in people today.
This article is authored by Ambrish Sinha, CEO, UNext Learning (edtech arm of Manipal Group).
