It seems that we can’t go anywhere these days without being bombarded with the depressing news that we are in the midst of an economic downturn. I do my best to ignore it – avoiding the news on the TV, flicking past the financial sections in the newspapers. Am I burying my head in the sand? I prefer to focus on the positive steps we can all take to ‘ride the storm!’ That’s when I came across an interesting article published by the Learning and Skills Council who have just released the findings of a new national survey conducted on their behalf.
The survey found that almost half of British workers say that the economic crisis has made them think about learning a new skill in order to safeguard their careers. It seems that although more than half of workers are worried about their job prospects because of the economic downturn, one in two are now focusing on improving their career prospects by adding a new skill to their list of attributes. In fact, most of those polled admitted that there is room for improvement in their skill levels and that the current climate has made them more willing to take action to make these improvements.
Chairman of the LSC, Chris Brown, says that learning a new skill is the key to giving your career a boost, something that is more important now, than ever: “A small investment in learning new skills will make you better prepared to tackle any eventuality, particularly in a tough economy.”
Thankfully, we Brits are not easily demoralised, as the survey also revealed that we are not letting the recent business crises get us down. In fact, over half of us are confident that we will keep our jobs and it seems instead of getting us down, the recent events are actually inspiring us to positively rethink our careers. That’s all good news, but what about the other half of workers who aren’t so confident?
It’s during tough times that many companies call on the expertise of external, specialised consultants, to try to resolve the emotional issues that are affecting the performance of its workers. It’s a well-known fact that lack of self-confidence drastically affects performance at work. So what if businesses could train their Managers, Team Leaders or HR professionals how to give confidence coaching to their staff members, saving the hassle and expense of bringing in an external consultancy? This would not only provide the opportunity for these professionals to learn a new skill, but would also create the sense that these businesses care about their workforce, resulting in a general boost of morale amongst staff. Furthermore, these businesses would benefit from the improved performance of their workforce as well as eliminating the long-term cost of external consultancy fees– a win, win, win scenario. For more information on coaching in the workplace, visit http://247coaching.com/ccctp/corpdefault.asp
I guess the lesson that we can all learn from this is that now is NOT the time to 'rest on our laurels'. Instead of just focusing on the bad, businesses and individuals need to throw themselves a life ring so that the downturn doesn’t pull them under!