Feeling a bit overwhelmed with how fast things are changing in professional development? Or does your team remain inspired to continue learning new skills? Whichever camp you're in, upskilling your employees is not optional. It has become an important part of staying up-to-date and competitive compared to other companies in your industry.
Upskillingcorporate employees means teaching your people additional skills that help them perform better in their current roles. But with so many different employee training courses out there, how do you know which ones to pick? It's important to align your training programs with your business objectives and to figure out which skills your company might need in the future, say one to five years from now.
Top 20 recommended employee training courses
We've done some of the groundwork for you with this list of in-demand skills employers are currently looking for. We've also matched these skills with the corresponding online employee training courses you can roll out to your team today.
Here are our recommendedemployee training coursesfor each in-demand skill. Note that three of these courses are completely free, while for all other courses, your employees can access 10 free lessons once you set up a no-commitmentGoSkills business account.
20 Essential Employee Training Courses | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
1Remote Work Communication Skills | 11 | |||
2Business Writing Skills | 12Deliver Effective Criticism (free) | |||
3Microsoft Word Basic and Advanced. | 13 | |||
4Microsoft Outlook 365 | 14Excel in an Hour (free) | |||
5Customer Service Training | 15Excel for Business Analysts | |||
6Leadership Training | 16Power BI | |||
7Team Leadership | 17Scrum for Team Members | |||
8Mentoring Essentials | 18Introduction to Sales | |||
9Project Management Basics | 19Conflict Resolution for Professionals (free) | |||
10Project Management Bootcamp | 20Microsoft Copilot | |||
Communication
Communication is by far the most important skill employers are looking for. It can make or break any relationship, whether personal or professional. With the rise of remote work, employees are expected to communicate both verbally and in writing across online platforms, as well as in person. Good communication across the board among employees, management, and external parties helps connect, motivate, and inspire your people.
1.Remote Work Communication Skills
With so many professionals working remotely, understanding how to communicate effectively online has become an essential skill. This course will teach your employees how to always look and sound their best over video and audio. It will also show them how to avoid common blunders.
2.Business Writing Skills
Are your business writing skills leaving a lot to be desired? Do you want to write with greater impact, clarity, and efficiency? A business writing skills course is the gateway to a whole new world of communication. Whether your people are looking to communicate more effectively with customers or want to write more effective emails and internal communications, this course will elevate their prowess in written communication.
Free lesson from Business Writing Skills course with Claudia Buckley
3.Microsoft Word Basic and Advanced
This comprehensive course will equip your team with the skills they need to optimize Microsoft Word's many use cases to benefit your business. Your staff will learn how to create, share, and collaborate on high-quality documents through engaging lessons that they can access anytime, anywhere, and on any connected device.
Free lesson from Microsoft Word - Basic & Advanced with Andy Lanning
4.Microsoft Outlook 365
Email is a primary communication tool in business. This course will teach your people how to manage their inboxes, stay on top of meetings and events, and improve productivity by tracking tracks and notes in MS Outlook.
Free lesson from Microsoft Outlook 365 course with Andy Lanning
Customer service
Cultivating relationships and building trust have increasingly become important elements in people-centered customer service. Got a new client on board? Awesome! Want to keep that client? Invest in great customer service to support a good product.
5.Customer Service Training
Customer service is crucial to the success of every business. Improving the quality of your customer experiences can help build a loyal customer base, spread the word about your stellar reputation, and ultimately increase your business revenue. High-performing customer service representatives who consistently impress can help reduce customer attrition rate and increase customers’ lifetime value.
Free lesson from Customer Service Training course with David Brownlee
Leadership
If you want your organization to experience strong growth, excellent leadership is key. Leadership skills are not just for those at the top. These skills can benefit everyone across the entire organization because leadership also entails good communication and effective people management. Let's be frank. We can all learn more in that area, no matter where you work or what you do.
6.Leadership Training
Leadership skills are vital in any role or organization, and can dramatically improve staff performance. This course can help your corporate employees achieve their potential and benefit your business by influencing their peers positively and motivating their teams.
Free lesson from Leadership Training course with David Brownlee
7.Team Leadership
Effective team leaders are highly sought after in every industry. Having them in your company is a huge advantage. This online leadership training course can help your learners implement the best practices that drive teams to meet expectations and deliver optimal results.
Free lesson from Team Leadership course with Ray Sheen
8.Mentoring Essentials
Passing knowledge and expertise to your next batch of leaders is a strategic essential that reinforces business continuity, helps mitigate operational disruptions, and future-proofs your company. This course explores the different mentoring approaches and techniques that deliver the optimal results for your organization.
Free lesson from Mentoring Essentials training course with Dan Gorgone
Project management
Organizational growth typically means more tasks to do, more deadlines to meet, and more goals to achieve. Your teams and workflows may become more complex, requiring people who are great at organization and project management to keep everything afloat.
9.Project Management Basics
This online course is ideally suited for anyone looking to better manage their projects, including junior project managers, business owners, or those looking to start careers in project management. Training your people in the fundamentals and methods of project management can eventually improve process efficiencies in your business.
Free lesson from Project Management Basics course with Ray Sheen
10.Project Management Bootcamp
PMP certification unlocks massive opportunities for career advancement. Not only is it the top globally recognized credential for project managers, but research also shows that it can boost salaries by up to 20%. Helping your people receive PMP certification or conveniently collect Professional Development Units (PDUs) will not go unnoticed. They will likely demonstrate gratitude by delivering better performance.
Management
Management skills and leadership skills may seem similar, but they have fundamental differences. People follow managers because they have to. In contrast, people follow leaders because they want to. Management focuses on driving and measuring business outcomes. Leadership focuses on guiding and empowering the people who create those outcomes.
11.
Tailored for busy professionals and managers, this engaging curriculum offers a mix of concepts, strategies, real-world examples, and essential time management techniques for improving productivity.
Free lesson from Time Management course with Dan Gorgone
12.Deliver Effective Criticism (free course)
Leading a team and managing projects can be highly rewarding. But let's face it. These roles also involve many challenging situations such as sharing difficult feedback with peers and subordinates. This free course provides techniques and advice on how to give effective criticism.
Free lesson from Deliver Effective Criticism course with TJ Walker
Analytics
Being able to interpret complex data and make smart business decisions based on those insights is critical in an increasingly data-driven world.
13.Excel in an Hour (free course)
This free course in Excel is designed to quickly train your staff to become familiar with the world's most widely used spreadsheet software.
Introduction to free Excel in an Hour course with Claudia Buckley
14.
Arguably, Excel is the ultimate application in the workplace. Any organization whose employees are proficient in this spreadsheet software already has a competitive edge. GoSkills’ Basic and Advanced Excel courses can improve your team’s productivity, output, and performance. By the end of the course, your learners will have everything they need to sort complex data, produce reports, and generate compelling charts.
15.Excel for Business Analysts
This multi-lesson course will teach employees with intermediate-level proficiency in Excel how to analyze, interpret, and present data into insightful and eye-catching charts, tables, and dashboards.
Free lesson from Excel for Business Analysts with Deb Ashby
16.Power BI
This beginner-level course will train your team in how to transform dull data into dazzling interactive visualizations that effectively provide key business insights at a glance. This game-changing proficiency can be applied across departments from Finance and Logistics to Sales and Marketing.
Teamwork
Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Whether we work in-person or remotely, teamwork skills continue to be super important in driving tangible results and maintaining an engaged workforce.
17.Scrum for Team Members
Motivated scrum team members are in high demand in many industries including software development, marketing, education, and design. Scrum team members form a self-organizing and empowered unit capable of delivering high-quality outcomes Having an agile team expertly trained in Scrum can be your ticket to business growth.
Sales
So much of sales is building relationships and bringing in customers—both of which are crucial to any business or organization. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but even basic sales training can go a long way, no matter what role you're in.
18.Introduction to Sales
No matter what industry you are in, improving your sales skills can help ensure survival in a competitive market. Understanding how best to sell your products or services to prospective customers and clients can improve conversion rates and drive revenue. In this sales online course your team will discover the 8 steps to propel your sales, secure valuable clients, and grow your business.
Free lesson from Introduction to Sales with David Brownlee
Problem-solving
How often have you written a job ad and listed “problem-solving skills” among the standard skills you want all employees you hire to have? Being able to solve problems as they arise—and they will—is super helpful in all kinds of different situations.
19.Conflict Resolution for Professionals (free course)
In life, conflict is inevitable. From simple misunderstandings to conflicting views, knowing how to deal with these situations can be challenging. A team equipped with the right skills for navigating these situations provides operational advantage to any organization they work for. This free 10-lesson course covers essential conflict resolution strategies for the workplace.
Free lesson from Conflict Resolution for Professionals with Dan Gorgone
Artificial Intelligence
AI has become more accessible, transformative, and foundational in the modern workplace. With the rise of generative AI (like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Microsoft Copilot), every staff now needs to develop some level of proficiency in how to apply artificial intelligence in their workflow to boost productivity and improve results. They may not need to know the inner workings of AI, but they all need to be familiar and comfortable with its amazing capabilities.
20.Copilot for Microsoft 365
Across a wide variety of roles and tasks, generative AI has helped professionals and organizations successfully address many common business challenges. This course will train your staff in leveraging Microsoft's powerful Copilot AI service to improve how they use Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other productivity tools.
Free lesson from Copilot for Microsoft 365 with Deb Ashby
Why employee training and development is key
Here's the thing. Upskilling is a long-term game. You need to forecast which skills your organization might lack in six or 12 months, or even five years. Continuous training and development is a great way to increase employee retention, which in turn will save you money. Quite a bit, actually. Studies have shown that the cost of one employee leaving can be as high as $25,000. Good employees want to get ahead, and professional development is a key part of that.
You may not need to train your employees in allthe above-mentioned skills. But there are surely some courses that match the needs of your business and workforce.GoSkills is the all-in-one training solution for teams of any size. We're ready to help your team to learn, share, and grow together.
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