New-age firms are investing heavily to upskill and reskill staff in order stay competitive
Start-ups boast of compact workforces, diverse skill-sets and enhanced efficiencies. But at a time when the environment is getting increasingly competitive, to attract and retain clients and customers, and to grow and thrive, they need to constantly upskill and reskill talent, the one asset that commands a premium. Given the huge costs involved in training talent, most start-ups hire ‘experienced’ individuals who can deliver from Day One.
“But given the dynamics of the current start-up ecosystem, even ‘experienced’ individuals need to be re-trained time and again,” say experts.
According to Thiagarajan Rajagopalan, co-founder, Shorebird Technologies, which runs a travel ERP platform called Tripeur.com, the only edge start-ups have is their workforce (apart from innovation). “With a well-trained, up-to-date and flexible workforce, they can significantly enhance their productivity, which further allows them to develop and release new products/services with more features much faster.”
Says K S Vishwanathan, head of Nasscom 10,000 Startup Programme, “Start-ups would do well to hire people with pre-existing soft skills and having the right attitude. They can do well to have on-going training for their employees on hard skills like finance, programming, coding, etc. ‘Talented’ today does not mean someone with core knowledge, but someone who is agile and can learn, unlearn and re-learn things.”
‘Agile’ is the term here. “As a start-up grows, employees should be ready to take on new responsibilities like the finance person taking on admin, or the software team doubling up as support team, etc,” says Rajagopalan.
A talented workforce which is ‘agile’ showers multiple advantages over a start-up. Greater productivity and output that impact sales, profits and growth are a given. “Talented people attract other great talent, while average talent attracts mediocre people, which will ultimately lead to a downward spiral for the start-up. The quality of the workforce determines the way a start-up goes up or down,” says Vishwanathan.
So how can start-ups afford to invest in making workforces agile? Says Lalit Ahuja, co-founding partner, Kyron Global, a platform for start-ups to engage with Fortune 500 companies, “Peer learning is a great way to learn. We encourage our portfolio start-ups to connect, share common problems and discuss hacks, solutions, tips and tricks for success. Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from other entrepreneurs.”
Rajagopalan says start-ups first need to identify the skills to be updated for their workforce. “Second, encourage the talent to acquire those skills in cost-effective ways such as internal cross-training, free online courses.” He says at Shorebird Technologies, they keep upskilling by challenging employees to do bigger things. “We have software engineers solving near-impossible problems by having them come up with innovative algorithms. We push our operations team to come up with innovative ways of saving money for customers, and we encourage entry-level employees to lead discussions and to chair meetings,” says Rajagopalan.
...& ANALYSIS
- The business environment is now getting competitive to retain clients, customers
- Most firms hire experienced individuals who can deliver from Day One
- Domination by a few big players makes it tougher for newer players to grow in the
- A workforce which is ‘agile’ showers multiple advantages over a start-up
- Greater productivity that impact sales, profits and growth are a given
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