The Benefits of Upskilling Your Middle Level Management Team

More and more companies are starting to recognize the value of middle level management as valuable leaders. This trend, in turn, has led many businesses to upskill middle managers to enhance their capabilities further.

Unfortunately, despite the plethora of upskilling and continuous learning options available, top managers at some companies remain hesitant to provide upskilling opportunities or to accommodate employees that take the initiative to learn new skills. Without a high-quality middle level management team, many businesses miss out on critical advantages.

Here are some of the reasons why companies need to upskill their middle managers periodically:

Upskilled Middle Management Will Maintain a Company’s Competitive Edge

Today’s fast-paced business environments require managers to keep pace with the current industry and market developments. Managers who keep their skills current are better able to use new technologies and practices to benefit a business.

On the contrary, middle level management who has not taken continuing education courses in a few years may eventually become useless and detrimental to a business.

Managers in Singapore are especially encouraged to take advantage of upskilling opportunities and commit to lifelong learning. If they are employed in industries that the government has singled out to be necessary for Singapore's long-term development, this is especially true.

The government has even initiated the SkillsFuture program, which aims to help citizens develop their fullest potential by enrolling in specific Skills Future courses. The SkillsFuture program helps employees stay sharp and innovative, contributing to the country's economy.

Upskilled Managers Can Help Organizations Be More Resilient

Middle managers are typically relied on to fill in the gaps and cover weaknesses within a business. Having updated skills allows managers to take on key roles temporarily.

In addition, middle management often find themselves stuck with important but tedious tasks. This tends to be more true the larger an organization becomes.

Thus, the relative technical skill levels of middle managers can have a direct impact on the activities of the company, even in the context of day-to-day operations.

Technical Competence Is Crucial for Employee Training and Onboarding

The importance of having technical aptitude becomes even more important when middle managers take on their expected mentorship roles.

Middle managers that lack a sufficient depth or breadth of skills will not be able to perform these roles well, which often leads to new hires being inadequately prepared for their jobs. This means that when companies upskill their managers, they effectively invest in their frontline employees' skills as well.

They Heavily Influence Your Organizational Culture

In many organizations, middle managers are the key to their culture. The values that middle management portrays will likely have a direct impact on how every other line employee behaves and functions.

If management hasn't received new training, they may still be stuck in the past. Sticking with outdated management methods can have consequences for an organization’s culture.

Periodic retraining and upskilling should help give middle managers additional insights into new management and operations practices, allowing them to make more informed decisions that help push the organization’s culture forward.

Middle Level Management Often Has Little Time to Invest in Their Own Skills

While it does seem that everyone is overworked these days, middle managers tend to get the worst out of it in most organizations.

Middle management types are the ones who usually come in early and stay late. This leaves very little time left to invest in their own skills.

With valuable experience under their belts, you would think that managers would be set for life. However, unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, quite the opposite is true—managers will often find their skills slowly becoming less relevant every year.

In particular, skills related to emerging technologies can be more difficult to learn on top of their already substantial workload. This makes it important for companies to empower managers by actively providing realistic and actionable upskilling opportunities.

Your Middle Managers Hold a Great Deal of Power in Determining How Successful Your Business is

A decade ago, only large enterprises had access to today's cutting-edge technologies. Low-cost digital platforms can now leverage cloud computing architecture to enable businesses of any size to optimize any business operation, including logistics, resource allocation, marketing, customer service, and human resources, just to name a few.

The big caveat is that organizations need to have people with the right skill sets to leverage these technologies properly. The ability for businesses to successfully implement digital platforms often comes down to the quality of their middle managers.

If organizations want to adopt these platforms, then upskilling the middle-management team will be a non-negotiable condition for success.

It’s Time to Give Your Middle Managers Their Due

While the term “middle manager” is often used derogatory, middle managers are, perhaps, the most essential components of any growing organization.

A business can probably absorb the negative effects of a dud-line employee or even an underperforming executive. However, the business will cease functioning if middle managers don’t deliver the goods.

With that in mind, more businesses must start looking into helping their middle managers improve their skills. Subsidized courses like the SkillsFuture series make it easier for companies to ensure both the professional growth of their existing management teams and the competitiveness of their organization.

Do you think middle level management needs continuous training?