CEO & Co-Founder of Censia | Striving for a more just and efficient global economy through data and technology.
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The global workforce is primed for massive, permanent change. Automation and advances in AI continue to push outdated business practices to the end of their lifecycle. In fact, the McKinsey Global Institute found that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated global digital transformation by seven years. This means that businesses interested in staking their claim on the new digital world should take action to prepare their workforce for the future.
The World Economic Forum forecasts 85 million jobs will be lost to automation. Hearing this could cause sleepless nights, but any seasoned tech leader understands that even the smartest machines require something irreplaceable to operate, problem-solve, interpret insights and communicate those findings in an actionable way — humans. The World Economic Forum also states that 97 million jobs will be created to support incoming technology, making this digital shift a net positive in terms of job creation.
However, the creation of these jobs will lead to a significant gap in the supply and demand of talent. Optimizing existing talent by creating opportunities for employees to develop their skill sets will ensure that your business is prepared for the rapidly-changing global tides.
Most companies typically don’t do a good job of strategic talent optimization and succession planning, which isn’t just for preparing future executives but also identifying other opportunities within the organization for employee advancement. Only 35% of organizations have a formalized succession planning process.
Why? Lack of time, resources and budget are common obstacles.
HR has traditionally lagged a bit in the adoption of new technologies that could help make them more efficient and effective in this area compared to other business functions. Business leaders continually consider the future and how best to scale their operations but often don’t think about or invest enough in the workforce responsible for driving that growth.
Post-pandemic, this much is clear: Companies that invest in learning opportunities now will be the most prepared for digital transformation and create a resilient future-ready workforce.
Strengthening The Workforce: Employee Opportunity Creation
It’s important to highlight the mass employment migration happening as a result of post-pandemic reopenings. Wise companies took advantage of this pause, shifting focus and investing in building out their workforce, recognizing great talent and treating them well. These organizations created environments of learning and continued growth, using the pandemic “downtime” to emerge stronger on the other side. Companies that didn’t are now suffering the consequences. Employees are leaving their jobs in droves in search of companies that will value their work, professional development and lives.
Employee opportunity creation is a critical aspect of strengthening your company’s talent landscape. This practice provides learning opportunities for staff to enhance their existing skills, pick up complementary skills and develop completely new skills to both elevate performance in their current role and prepare them for other in-demand roles within the organization. One of the top reasons that over 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail is because organizations lack the digitally skilled talent needed to support them. Companies are primed to solve their own digital transformation adoption issues by creating opportunities for employees to enhance their skill sets. This employee opportunity creation through upskilling and reskilling contributes to a stronger, better-prepared workforce overall.
There are ample benefits of employee opportunity creation for both employees and employers:
• It boosts employee engagement by offering valuable career development and adding interesting variation to their regular routines.
• Employee learning helps companies fill in talent gaps while preserving institutional knowledge and nurturing employee loyalty.
• Encouraging staff to grow into the skills that a company needs greases the wheels for internal mobility, and easier internal mobility improves staff retention.
• Employee opportunity creation also gives businesses a competitive advantage within their industries by ensuring that their workforces are agile, equipped and comfortable with the most current technologies.
• By enhancing the existing workforce, companies can preserve the substantial resources — human, time and financial — required for external hiring.
• An innovative, ever-improving workforce paves the way for better business results and a healthier bottom line.
Tackling upskilling and reskilling initiatives may seem daunting, but taking the first step is easier than most people think. It begins by looking at the skills gap in your organization and opening up a conversation with your workforce. Be proactive with employees and solicit their feedback on the skills and career paths they're interested in pursuing. Then, be transparent with them about what other opportunities are developing within the company and what skills they need to get there. Once that conversation begins, companies can start to form programs around creating internal learning and development initiatives or even offering reimbursement programs to employees who are willing to pursue those educational opportunities on their own.
Companies looking to make up for profits lost during the pandemic may be hesitant to allocate time, budget and resources to employee opportunity creation, but it's important to consider the financial repercussions of a workforce that fails to keep pace with the technological advances of the modern world and is an investment that will clearly provide huge ROI in the long term.
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