The evolution of the future of work has been coming but those organisations that have been proactive with their planning, rather than reactive, have been able to reap the benefits throughout 2020.
The desire from employees for a more flexible way of working has been met with a sudden change to a more remote & more digitally focused mindset than we could have even imagined. What has been the impact on the role of the leader and the skills that we now require for our organisations?
We recently hosted a virtual roundtable, in partnership with Cornerstone, which brought together some of the most forward-thinking HR leaders across industry, to discuss the role of skills transformation within their organisation and wider society, as they looking to navigate the future of work.
The conversation began by looking at where organisations should start their journey in regards to skills analysis, management and evaluation. The role of skills mapping was deemed to be a great starting point for organisations as they look for the skills that they have at their disposal at the moment and the skills that they need to have in future. Through mapping skills to the job titles that operate within your organisation, you can begin the journey around pivoting people’s roles within the organisation and developing employees skills to be aligned with a specific project. There is regularly a lot of talk around Strategic Workforce Planning but having a clean and robust approach is challenging.
The conversation naturally evolved onto the longer-term business challenges and preparing for the next 3-5-10 years. Through taking a more in-depth look at the holistic business plan, leaders can start to look holistically at the business and understand the skills that are needed going forward and how the role of transitioning can be through leveraging skills, rather than simply removing or hiring them.
Outlining the business strategy for the next 3-5 years, for example, gives the scope of understanding the gap analysis and what the future state of the business could look like. Understanding what skillsets the industry needs and trying to comprehend what is around the corner will set your organisation ahead of the curve. Analysing data trends in industry and speaking to the employees at ‘ground level’ who are doing the job will give clarity around the evolution of certain roles and any particular skills that need to be represented. Comprehending the technologies that the business currently uses and those that is it likely to implement and utilise in the longer term will also give an overview of the capabilities and skills needed.
There is no right, wrong or complete solution to the skills gap and the challenges that come with the journey that organisations are embarking on, and equally, they do not come with simple solutions. Does a large enterprise have an easier job of understanding their skill transformation or can a fast-growth technology organisation find the answers more quickly?
This question spawned a discussion about the challenges that stem from re-skilling, de-skilling and up-skilling. Skills may be ‘easier’ to identify within the tech organisation but there will still be challenges when instilling a drive within your people to take on a skills transformation journey. For example, you may face more resistance to change when it comes to de-skilling an engineer as they have an embedded skillset and are less adaptable when it comes to being invested in a culture of unlearning. What if someone doesn’t want to re-skill? Bringing in new technologies may be deemed of legitimate business interest from an organisational standpoint, but if communication is skewed between business and employee about what we need today and why we need something different tomorrow, then a transformation of skills or new technology may be seen as a threat.
The skillsets that have flexibility internally will inevitably be the winners within scaling organisations as these employees can become talent movers who can grow and then flow internally. As a leader, if you can start to understand the skills that are needed in X role and Y role, they can be aligned for future talent mobility.
The transformation of skills is a journey that organisations are either on already or starting to think about, but an evolving business model will mean agility and flexibility has a huge role to play too. The pandemic has accelerated many organisations’ move to a digital environment and many customer offerings have pivoted to become primarily digital, alongside an employee journey which aligns to the same. How can we take our employees on this journey with us and still ensure the customer is at the heart of our decision making? Are some employees actually ‘digitally native’ or are there people who just don’t have the mindset for technology? The shift to ‘Going Digital’ will have made many employees nervous but this is another key area where skills transformation can play a role. We need to get our employees more comfortable with the digital environment through embedding digital learning into the employee lifecycle. There will always be a need for a people-based workforce but how can you make ensure they are not completely defunct when AI & Machine Learning ‘take over’? The more technologically and digitally advanced an organisation becomes, the more indispensable the softer and more ‘human’ skills will become. It is up to the business leaders to understand what those softer skills are and where they align with the strategic business objectives.
The conversation progressed onto starting to explore the clarity of what critical skills are. If a critical skill is defined as something that delivers long-term business benefit, then the critical skills we need to train, hire and retain for are behavioural skills. Technical skills have the potential to be standardised and automated, whereas critical skills can be evolved and flexible. Will learning agility become an attribute that organisations look for within employees? Can we start to understand how quickly our people can identify methods that used to work in the past, but no longer do and subsequently change their behaviours accordingly? The willingness to learn in the evolving future of work and the realisation of being part of a lifestyle of learning will give more flexibility when it comes to integrating new technologies and systems as employees have a mindset that is acceptance of change. Building cultures where people feel empowered will give the platform to high-potential employees to make strategic moves around the business at ease.
The future skills that once looked to be on the horizon in 5 years time are actually needed now. The need for a skills transformation has been accelerated and the time to start on your journey was yesterday. Before trying to understand what your organisation needs, you need to understand what you have at your disposal and being able to comprehend the skills that your employees have right now and the skills that the job they do involves is the first step. AI & technology will always have its place as an enabler to understand what an individual knows and can learn but it will never be able to understand what a business needs to learn. Use technology to map employees to roles now and then once you understand where your business is going, look at the mapping again to find the gaps. As with all transformations, there is never an end goal, it is a journey. The journey of skills transformation and the future of work is a proactive one that will set you apart from other organisations who are more reactive. Instil a culture of learning and the benefits of re-skilling, up-skilling and un-learning will become transparent.
About Cornerstone
Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD) is a premier people development company, pioneering solutions to help organisations and individuals around the globe navigate the new world of work and realise their potential at work. Featuring comprehensive recruiting, personalised learning, modern training content, development-driven performance management and holistic employee data management and insights, Cornerstone is there for you at every stage. Founded in 1999 with the goal of improving access to education around the globe through online learning, today Cornerstone’s people development solutions are used by approximately 6,300 global clients of all sizes, spanning more than 75 million users across over 180 countries and nearly 50 languages.
