Digital Upskilling: What is it?

From using Google and writing emails to conducting data analysis and creating digital platforms, digital skills cover it all. However, what makes these abilities crucial for the business world? Because they are the abilities needed to serve clients in the digital sphere, whether that means interacting and marketing with them digitally or showcasing goods and services to them online. 

Internally, operational efficiency can be achieved through digital skills. By adopting a 'digital-first' approach to business, you can eliminate inefficient procedures, reduce paper usage, and free up your employees to engage with customers more in person and engage in more rewarding and enriching activities.

Accounting has moved from utilizing spreadsheets and bags of receipts to depending on a digital platform as a result of the automation of numerous business processes brought about by the digital world. Cost savings are inevitable if you have the right digital tools at your disposal and a workforce that knows how to use them. 

On the outside, a company that is forward-thinking can better satisfy the needs of its clients than one that isn't. Being digitally forward is actually expected, not just a way to obtain a competitive edge. A business cannot realistically compete without digital skills.

However, when it comes to digital upskilling, this is where your company should start. All SMEs should be practicing the six essential components of a successful digital transformation, according to Angela Prentner-Smith, founder of the digital transformation firm This is Milk. 
Consumer perceptions 
Above all, the most important skill a company should possess is the ability to use digital tools to learn more about its customers. An excellent starting point is Google Analytics and social media platform analytics. You can get both qualitative and quantitative information about your present and future clients with these services. 

Research on keywords is also useful and accessible. You can create content and define your product and service offerings by using websites such as Answer the Public and SEMrush, which can provide insights into frequently searched terms related to your offerings. 

Digital correspondence 
The goal of digital communications is to interact with your clients online. You must know their location, the best time and method to contact them, and whether they use Facebook in order to accomplish this. Or Twitter? Or do they even use social media? It's critical to stay up to date with digital communication and continuously adjust to the behavior of your clients. 

Complete client experience 
Understanding digital always requires considering the entire customer experience journey, which includes examining your offline presence. Consider, for instance, that you typically use a mobile app to service a credit card. You must answer the phone when something goes wrong. You will have a negative impression of the company overall if you have a bad call experience. 

Provide a direct phone number on your website so that clients can quickly reach a helpful individual. 

Ongoing education 
Continuous learning, in my opinion, is the best strategy to consistently outperform the competition. One of the most important aspects of digital transformation is learning culture. Instead of being the person who holds all the knowledge and then gives out instructions from the top down, be the one who empowers people, who shares information, and who encourages challenge. In this manner, your company will keep improving.

Peer-to-peer and reverse mentoring 
If someone has a particular skill or interest, invite them to take that to the team and teach others about it. Likewise, we’ve moved on from the days of just learning from people who have gone through their careers teaching the newer generations—now we have digital natives for whom digital skills are second nature. They can teach an awful lot. 

Microlearning 
You can learn almost anything online today. Training courses, YouTube videos, blog posts—there’s not a lot you can’t find out there in ‘microlearning’ format. Use this to your advantage, particularly if you find you have specific knowledge gaps in your organization.

New to Google Analytics? Google provides an academy for users to understand analytics and better support their businesses. Want to get to grips with social media? The social media management platform Hootsuite offers a wealth of free online courses, webinars, and certifications.