Just about every job role in every industry sector is being impacted by fast-paced digital transformation. With the UK in lockdown, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted even further the importance of IT and digital transformation, with many organisations accelerating their transition. However, for many, this has also highlighted the pressure IT teams are under to manage this transformation and the wider digital skills gaps within organisations. Despite current uncertainty, one thing is for sure, the potential gap between the skills workers possess today – and those they will need in the future – is only set to grow.
As firms invest in new technologies to compete with confidence in the digital economy, keeping up with the sheer pace of change has long-term implications for the workforce skills strategy. And, according to the CBI, many UK organisations are already struggling to address their rapidly accelerating digital skills needs, with over two-thirds of businesses reporting unfilled digital skills vacancies.
With digital skills shortages on the rise, the pressure is on to acquire the right skills fast, or take action to close the digital skills gap within the workforce itself.
So, how are companies responding to this challenge?
Tried and tested approaches aren’t working
Despite the fact that organisations like the CBI predict that as many as nine-in-10 people currently in work will need to be retrained or reskilled, many organisations are still attempting to hire their way out of the skills shortage rather than prioritising investment in workforce learning and development.
A recent study found that 59% of organisations prefer to look outside for talent, rather than upskilling current employees for new roles. Meanwhile, just 17% of organisations had an effective programme in place for reskilling the workforce for new or changing roles.
As the world of work continues to rapidly evolve, organisations will need a more holistic and sustainable long-term approach that effectively future-proofs the workforce for any eventuality.
That means identifying what foundational capabilities will be needed, evaluating and profiling the current skills of employees, and initiating an opportunity spotting strategy that makes it easy to curate tailored training for individual employees.
Getting serious about career progression
Today’s employees are only too aware that their future employability depends on having the right skills to undertake their rapidly evolving roles; 81% predict that they will need to learn a new skill in the next 18 months to remain confident and competent in their current role.
What’s more, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation means that some job roles will disappear completely. This represents a golden opportunity to pivot this talent into new positions – rather than having to release staff on the one hand, and recruit on the other.
In today’s fast-paced world of work, career progression has taken on a new meaning. Rather than a linear progression ‘up’, today’s employees are looking to moving in any direction – up, down, sideways or into an entirely new role. Organisations that make it possible for individuals to manage their own career progression and facilitate the transition to new roles will ultimately benefit from a workforce that is motivated, highly engaged and productive.
Helping workers acquire the skills they need
Constantly reskilling and redeploying employees, rather than laying off and rehiring, makes sound economic sense. One that eliminates costs associated with severance, recruitment, training, relocation and onboarding, and provides flexibility and preparedness in crisis situations.
To implement a strategic response to constantly changing skills demands, organisations will need to adopt a lifelong learning approach to employee development that is personalised, self-curated, continuous and on-demand. The good news is that today’s cloud-based learning platforms make it easy for HR leaders to identify workforce skills and competency gaps, find the right candidates to acquire new target skills, and give employees greater ownership over their own development.
Armed with the right data about the competency of the enterprise workforce, HR leaders are better able to profile what expertise is in-house, benchmark this against anticipated needs, identify untapped talent resources, and provide individuals with continuing learning recommendations that correspond with their needs.
Proactively building digital dexterity into the workforce begins with managing existing human capital in the most effective way possible. Key to this is hunting down the right talent internally, projecting what workforce skills will be needed in the next five years, and planning a re-skilling strategy that ensures the organisation is appropriately equipped with these identified skills.
Widening the net
Many organisations are already thinking outside the box when it comes to talent management, for example, making STEM training available to all employee cohorts – including women, part time and even casual employees. With digital skills in short supply, they’re adopting a ‘grow your own’ mindset and changing how and when training is delivered in order to maximise opportunities for all.
Rather than taking a short term ‘let’s buy in the skills we need now’ – companies that invest in future-proofing their workforce will become highly adept at weathering fast-paced change and potential crises. By initiating lifelong technology-enabled learning, implementing genuine career mobility and incentivising employees to acquire new skills, they’re taking an intelligent approach to workforce management that’s both employee-centric and highly targeted.
