With the current hard economic times and high unemployment rates in Kenya, you should be a multi-skilled profession in order to make it. Most Kenyan employers nowadays would rather hire a multi-skilled individual to a person who has only specialized in one field.
Here are some of the other reasons why you should be skilled in more than one field:
Become a valuable asset to the business
Scoring and holding down your dream job requires you to become a valuable and irreplaceable asset to your employer. As you develop your skills, your position within the business grows, too.
This builds your credibility internally, while allowing you to become an authoritative figure in the business for more than one facet. If you are looking to climb the corporate ladder within your industry, becoming a multi-skilled worker is imperative. Personal and professional growth is the key to upward mobility.
Increase your businesses efficiency
As the saying goes, “work smarter, not harder”.
Becoming a multi-skilled professional allows you to efficiently and productively finish tasks to a higher standard, at a fraction of the time. Multi-skilled professionals are able to complete tasks without the need to seek further advice or help from colleagues in other areas of the business.
Furthermore, employees recognize the financial benefits of employing a staff member who can efficiently perform in one role and are likely to offer employment for an increased salary.
Become flexible and adaptable
The workforce can be a fickle place.
Unforeseen events such as the global financial crisis, have had devastating impacts on job seekers as companies slashed their workforces. Technology developments are also having an enormous and lasting impact, with robots and software programs dramatically reducing the need for human labour in many industries.
Employers, therefore, need generalists. Workers who can adapt to these changes quickly and competently perform duties often beyond their job description. This level of versatility acquired by ‘jack of all trade’ workers is now deemed more important than the role of specialists by recruiters. No-one can predict where technology and other factors will take the workforce, but multi-skilled professionals will be ready to adapt to whatever comes.
Be hired
In the current Kenyan economy, employees recognize the need to do more with less.
This means that they are much more likely to hire a multi-skilled worker who can wear a lot of hats, in comparison to another worker who is skilled only in their specific field of study or work.
Many employers now use cross-training to ensure that operations run smoothly if anything goes wrong. That means you need to be flexible and willing to expand your skill set. Adapting to how the world and the workforce is changing, is therefore imperative to being hired in your dream role.