Upskilling as important as recruitment

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS — When it comes to bolstering the workforce and ensuring organizations are well-equipped with the best possible talent, investing in upskilling programmes can be just as crucial as bolstering recruitment efforts, says Joseph Boll, Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO.

Caribbean Employment Services Inc. is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad. Further, it aims to provide the region’s jobseekers and those who are already employed with news and resources related to Caribbean labour.

While Boll, the group’s chief executive, has urged businesses to adopt more modern methods of recruitment, he also underscored that upskilling existing workers can be just as vital — and fruitful — as recruitment efforts.

“Sometimes, upskilling existing workers eliminates the need for recruitment, if an employee you already have can be trained to step into a new, better role,” the CEO noted. “But rather than wait until there’s a vacancy, a good strategy is to make continuous efforts to upskill staff so that when the time comes, the right successor will already be in place.”

This is in addition to concerted efforts by governments and other public organizations to provide training opportunities to the general public, new graduates, jobseekers and the like, so that they would be well-equipped to take on vacancies that become available. For instance, Boll noted that countries like Guyana, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago and many others have committed to putting more resources into technical training programmes to upskill or provide easily accessible training opportunities for citizens and residents. He commended such efforts and said the benefit of such initiatives cannot be understated for their respective nations’ workforces.

“It’s a strategy that can work alongside targeted, modern recruitment to make sure your business is adequately staffed with top talent seemingly effortlessly,” Boll said. “So, it’s important to remember that job training isn’t just for newcomers or the younger generation but should be part of a solid business plan for an organization that’s planning to exist for a long time in the future.”