How is multi-skilling beneficial in today’s competitive world?

Rapid changes in the workplace are reflected in the changing expectations from the workforce. You might take up a job on the basis of a few skills and required qualifications; however, to grow in the career the need to be multi-skilled is becoming a necessity!  Today, multi-skilled employees are high in demand in the workplace across various industry segments.

The need for multi-skilling was aptly emphasized in a recent webinar address delivered by Dr. N. Reguraj, Managing Director of Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF). In the webinar CII Karnataka Skills Conclave, speaking on the topic: “Skills for Resilience and Agile Future”, Dr. N. Reguraj highlighted a few key aspects of why a combination of skills is more desirable and helps in facing the competitive world.

With rapid technological disruption, whether it is manufacturing or services, vertical discipline systems are no longer valid. The disruptions of all the conventional time-tested skilling disciplines are now blurred and connected. 

Specializing in only one skill is not going to be enough anymore!

Multi-skilling becomes the way of life… 

Multi-skilling has definitely become the way of our lives. There were times when we used to hire different technicians for different appliances. However, today, one person does it all which saves us the trouble to find a new person every time to repair our TV, Refrigerator or AC. 

Now, if one person has all the necessary skills, then the person as an employee or an entrepreneur will always be valued more than others. Multi-skilling always makes the learner self-reliant which created a dependable workforce.

 Again, if we re-look at Dr. N. Reguraj’s presentation at the CII Karnataka event, multi-skilling has two important aspects to it:

• Skilling activity which will provide the freshers to get adequate training in various training modules to enter the job market.
• Upskilling activity which upgrades the skills/ competencies of the existing workforce in the industry 

These two aspects of multi-skilling should always go hand-in-hand and both should be given utmost priority to cope with the current industry demands.

How is multi-skilling beneficial in today’s competitive world?

Multi-skilling is extremely beneficial for the organizations as well as the employees.

Here are the top five benefits of multi-skilling for an employee, in today’s competitive world,

• Employees will have greater job opportunities, collaboration, and flexibility in their career
• The employee will be able to achieve all their personal goals efficiently
• A multi-skilled employee will have increased job security compared to others
• They will also have a deeper understanding of the business as a whole
• They will have better and faster growth prospects in the long-term

How multi-skilling is beneficial to an organization,

• Multi-skilling ensures the optimal utilization of workforce in the organization 
• It will ensure a smooth transition of employees across projects and departments
• Multi-skilled employees will help the organization to increase their productivity and will ensure a better quality of deliverables
• The organization will have a more flexible and adaptable workforce
• Multi-skilled workforce gives the company to groom high performing employees as future managers

While huge industries have the infrastructure and capacity to upskill the workforce, MSMEs will need a lot of policy support to cope with the demand and upskill their employees.

Also read: Technical training in consonance with the industry assures jobs and career growth – An interview with Namasivayam Reguraj, Managing Director, NTTF

Multi-skilling effectively improves efficiency, competitiveness, quality, production, and competencies making it the way to go in the current scenario. As it is beneficial for both the employee and the employer, investing in creating a multi-skilled workforce should be one of the main skill development agendas in India.

All in all, having multi-skilled employees gives an organisation the ability to adapt to changes in market conditions and increases in demands.