The skill set of employees needs to be updated regularly or they turn obsolete. With the passage of time, newer technologies develop, which affect the way jobs are performed. As an employee grows older, he is reluctant to learn new skills, which proves to be an impediment in discharging his duties in an efficient and effective manner. With age, a person believes that what he knows is sufficient for performing his duties and is not keen to learn new skills and methods. By nature, individuals are change-resistant and become more so with increasing age. This can be overcome by retraining the employees. Retraining is acquiring new skills in response to changes in environment. This article discusses some aspects of retraining.

The skills of employees need to be updated from time to time as in today's rapidly changing environment human resources face the threat of obsolescence more than any other asset. With technological developments, it becomes inevitable for the organization to upgrade itself. This can be achieved by upgrading the knowledge and skills of all individuals of the organization. Training is to impart knowledge and skill of performing a job. Retraining is imparting knowledge and skill of performing the same job in a better manner, may be with the use of new technology. Retraining teaches newer ways of performing a job. It enhances efficiency and effectiveness of performing the same job through newer techniques.

The need for retraining arises due to the changes in environment. Changes can be introduced by the factors either internal or external to the organization. The need for retraining can also be felt due to obsolescence of existing method of performing any job. Usually, technological development forces the organization to retrain its employees. The manual methods become obsolete and the organization wishes to upgrade its working. For example, in yesteryears when computer systems were just introduced, many organizations retrained their employees of clerical cadre to work on computers.

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