Base your skills' agenda on key skills needs to future-proof your organization
40% of global companies surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) are planning on accelerating their upskilling/reskilling programs, while 70% want to speed up the digitalization of L&D processes.
After you’ve taken stock of your organization’s skills, go over these top four skill sets we see as crucial to prepare for the future. While every organization and industry is different, these skill sets describe common focus areas:
The WEF regularly includes these skills at the top of their list of skills to develop across industries and job categories. As automation becomes more ubiquitous, the human added-value of being able to think critically and solve complex problems is only likely to grow in importance.
Resilience, self-motivation, and stress resistance are just three of the self-management skills in high demand right now. Above all, active learning stands out as a skill many individuals are already focusing on developing. Coursera has reported a 4x increase in the number of people seeking out their own self-learning opportunities online.
While these skills are varied, the WEF notes project management, customer management, and general business skills as the new basics every employee should have, regardless of their role.
The demand for AI skills is taking over all occupations. Data science, machine learning, and deep learning are becoming a part of the tech stack for all kinds of roles, from big data architects to digital marketing managers and sales professionals.
Don’t ignore soft skills in your training programs. These are often even more important than tech skills, since they are human traits technology will never be able to replace.
2020 revealed that many skilled blue-collar jobs will survive automation as the demand for their work increases. A Cognizant report highlights how skilled job roles will grow by 3% across all industries in the next five years. In particular, blue-collar workers could benefit from learning tech skills like robotics, as well as soft skills around innovation and creativity.
HR has a big role to play in helping individuals and teams throughout the organization to upskill and reskill. But what new skills should HR professionals be focusing on?
As we approach 2025, HR representatives should focus more on developing a broad number of core capabilities.
Erik van Vulpen, CEO of the Academy to Innovate HR, has identified four central skills that HR managers need to develop into 2025 in order to future-proof their organizations:
Becoming people advocates: They need to understand how to build culture, communicate better, and become trusted advisors.
Building business acumen: Get a deep understanding of the business as a whole, its strategy and key metrics, and where people come in.
Being data-driven: This implies being able to make better decisions backed by data and using analytics as a central dashboard.
Integrating digital tools as part of their daily routine: Leverage technology to improve HR processes.
In particular, HR managers should start by building their data skills. Rebecca Wettemann, Principal at Valoir, also provided us with her best tips on making use of data visualization tools and choosing the best software for your needs:
Getting a sense of what’s out there in the world of data visualization can be a real eye-opener. Also, take a look at the many data tools out there to experiment with, without making an initial investment. Finally, think differently about the data you have. It’s really about looking forward, as HR is making this important mind shift from past to future.
Data can also help create an environment where people are able to free up time to upskill and/or reskill. Reality has shown that often budgets or available learning systems aren't as big of an issue as is the lack of time that employees are dealing with. HR should further lead this effort and create a framework that involves managers and employees.
With this in mind, Cegid's Training Match tool allows HR and L&D managers to automatically suggest or register employees for relevant trainings and certifications based on a predefined set of criteria.
