Upskill staff for growth work once admin moves

Key takeaways

Freed hours are wasted if people lack the skills for growth work. Before or during the handover, identify the skills each growth goal needs, such as account reviews, proposal writing, negotiation or customer research, and train in short, practical bursts. Pair people with someone experienced and let them practise on low-risk work first.

• Match skills to each growth goal, person by person.
• Train in short bursts tied to real work.
• Pair each person with a mentor.
• Practise on low-risk accounts or projects first.

Why do staff need new skills for growth work?

Growth work uses different skills from routine work. Processing invoices rewards accuracy and speed; growing an account rewards listening, judgement and commercial thinking. People who have spent years on routine tasks may be capable of growth work but have never practised it, so they default to what they know.

• How outsourcing gives your internal team time for growth
• Is your team ready to do growth work?

Which skills matter most?

• Structured customer conversations and account reviews.
• Writing clear proposals and summaries.
• Basic negotiation and pricing conversations.
• Planning and managing a small project.
• Using data to spot opportunities and risks.

• A growth skills matrix: who can take on what
• Talking to customers: the growth research teams skip

How do you train without losing the time gained?

Use short sessions linked to real work: an hour on account reviews, then a real review the same week with a mentor. Short online courses, shadowing and peer feedback cost less than long courses. In organisations with 250 or more employees, eligible staff can formally request time off for training; smaller firms can adopt the same idea informally. Apprenticeship standards also exist for many business roles.

• Moving an admin-heavy role into growth work

When is training not the answer?

When the role needs specialist skills that would take years to build, or when the person does not want to move into growth work. In those cases, hire or buy the specialist skill and let the person continue in a role that suits them.

• Graduates and juniors on growth projects, not admin

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an office administrator moves into supplier management after routine work is outsourced. Three short negotiation sessions, shadowing the finance director on two supplier reviews and a first solo review on a small supplier build her confidence within a quarter.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Upskilling checklist

• List skills each growth goal needs.
• Compare with each person's experience.
• Plan short training tied to real work.
• Assign a mentor.
• Start with low-risk practice.

• Get your team to own the growth plan
• Rewrite job descriptions when admin leaves a role

Next step

For each person gaining time, write the one skill that would most help their growth goal, and book the first session this month.