The new world of remote work environments invites companies to examine reskilling and upskilling of individuals, teams, and leaders. Those companies that choose to invest in new training strategies will emerge as leaders in culture, revenue, and retention.
While this is a bold statement to throw into the Canadian business landscape as budgets typically reserved to invest in employees during economic recessions can be significantly depleted or nonexistent, a resource to consider is the Canada Job Grant (CJG)
The CJG is a Canadian government funding program designed to reduce the costs of providing 3rd party skills training to new and existing employees. Launched in 2014, the CJG maintains a provincial stream for each province and territory with varying amounts and eligibility criteria. Designed originally to support small to medium businesses who are growing and hiring but don’t have defined training budgets to support optimal onboarding, the CJG is shifting with the times.
Employer applicants requesting funding from the CJG can now request retraining to support and retain existing employees during COVID transition. This shift in government focus sends a clear message on how to prioritize the Return on Investment (ROI) of training budgets.
3 Key Considerations When Investing in Corporate Training: Version 2021
Create a plan and be strategic.
Regardless of your revenue source, the first step is to be strategic.
Map out which skill pools will affect and drive your company forward.
Identify crucial value drivers and employee groups, roles, and their contributions.
Review and brainstorm how daily activities will shift, and the behaviors and skills needed to support them.
What skills will contribute to thriving organizations?
Digital/Technical- have become essential to the new business ecosystem; these include tech and data concepts and processes, applied machine learning and analytics.
Emotional/Social- interpersonal skills; awareness, reliance, and confidence. Supporting employees remotely, leaders will benefit from having advanced communication skills and mental health first aid skills.
Cognitive Skills- critical thinking, project management, problem solving, creativity and innovation provide high value to today’s workflow. Those that have access to impactful training will see the results in spades.
Adaptability and resilience skills Self awareness, confidence and reliance are a few of the off shoots under this skill group. Having these in your toolbox will contribute to how you relate to time management and setting boundaries which contribute immensely to a healthy workplace culture.
It will be different, like more accessible and cost effective.
Technology has become the medium for most of our human interactions and while we appreciate digital connection, we now have an opportunity to rapidly enhance this experience. Those who are part of the training industry can scale their delivery in a more cost-effective way. A greater personalization opportunity awaits and when this is combined with dynamic content development, the sky is the limit for effectiveness.