The business world is evolving at a fast pace. The first place that companies might want to invest in is the area of evolving workplace skills and upskilling their workforce, according to HR People + Strategy.

Talents that bring organizations success in tomorrow’s working world will be awesomely different from those who have served them in the past. 

Below you’ll find four new skills that every business owner should include in its employee learning and development plan if it wants to succeed in an age of constant change—as well as the benefits of upskilling employees in this way and why it pays to make this retraining a priority.

  • Leadership

In a fast-paced world of new and novel problems, it pays to teach your employees to be capable of applying both logic and creativity to solving any problem that arises. 

What’s more, in increasingly uncertain business environments, it’s also vital to train them to make strong decisions, even when there is no perfect information. This can be achieved by introducing them to the concept of strong, but weakly-held opinions, wherein you do your assignment and make the best choice given current insights, but remain open to revising plans as more feedback is gained. Likewise, it’s also crucial to underscore the importance of keeping a cool head under pressure and acting thoughtfully, even amidst ongoing disruption. While leaders can’t predict every twist or turn the marketplace will take, they always can pivot action plans to better steer organizations towards success—and the ability to course-correct and revise those plans further as scenarios continue to develop.

  • Empathy

Of course, it’s extremely crucial to train your workers to be more empathetic if you want them to stay better attuned to any operating environment and respond rapidly and productively to changes within it. That’s because doing so frequently requires us to relate to the needs of customers or coworkers, engage with these individuals and find ways to inspire them to take positive action at every turn. Similarly, boasting strong emotional intelligence is also key to leading people and helping guide them past setbacks and through times of great uncertainty and upheaval. So if you want workers to be successful leaders, consider teaching them to be more empathetic—it’ll likely make them more open-minded, flexible, and resilient in the end.

  • Communications

Wondering how to most effectively upskill team members? Technical skills, such as an individual’s ability to manipulate software and create cutting-edge applications, aren’t necessarily what gives employees an edge. Rather, soft skills such as the ability to effectively communicate with coworkers and empathize with others may likely determine who would be an effective leader.

Training workers to be strong communicators is every bit as crucial to finding success in tomorrow’s working world as training them in today’s most cutting-edge software engineering techniques or management theories.

  • Creativity

Shh, don’t tell: Innovation is just another word for improvisation. Likewise, it’s often a matter of perspective, as simple shifts in business or communications strategy can prove every bit as powerful as game-changing breakthroughs. Don’t have the time or cash to think three to five years ahead into the future, or invest heavily in giving your business plan a huge overhaul? No worries, you can succeed by upskilling the workforce and teaching employees to think differently here and now instead. Train them to ask themselves questions like What other possible uses for our products and services exist? How can we repackage or represent existing solutions to better appeal to new audiences? Are there ways we could be doing in a single step what’s currently taking us several? You may be surprised at just how quickly simple exercises such as these can send profits soaring.