Reskilling Must Be Top Priority In 2020

Companies must avoid the pitfall of being overly focused on technology training alone

Led by advances in automation and artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation is rapidly changing how work is done around the world. Simultaneously, low unemployment has made recruiting and retaining top talent more difficult than ever before. Thankfully, businesses can address both of these issues by reskilling their employees to help them become more agile and analytical in the future and make them less likely to be displaced by automation, all while reducing both recruiting and outplacement costs today.

 

There is no shortage of alarmists predicting doom-and-gloom scenarios about how automation will put millions of people out of work, but for nimble organizations prepared for the digital revolution, there is a reason for optimism. Randstad’s Flexibility@Work report found that technology will likely increase total employment by .5 percent annually, while McKinsey estimates that automation could raise productivity by .8 to 1.4 percent a year. Ironically, at the same time that economists are warning of mass layoffs in the future, record low unemployment has left businesses struggling to find available talent with the appropriate skillsets for open positions in the present.
 
One of the biggest problems is that while companies are talking the talk when it comes to reskilling, they aren’t walking the walk. In Randstad’s recent Talent Trends 2020 report, 9 in 10 C-suite and human capital leaders surveyed said that they believe it is their responsibility to reskill their employees to meet changing business needs, yet only 1 in 5 are currently doing so. That lagging level of engagement in reskilling talent is not setting up companies to win in the coming decade.
 
So how can businesses achieve the level of talent fluidity in their organizations to be successful in 2020 and beyond? The key is investing in the talent of their people. To start, companies must understand that developing a mobile workforce will require a fundamental shift in culture that may not pay immediate dividends on the balance sheet. For instance, senior leadership must encourage managers to share their talent within the organization, even if it means a slight dip in short-term productivity. Managers must also understand the value of allowing their top talent to learn new skills by working on temporary projects in other departments. Finally, employees must buy into the fact that they need to continue to develop their skillsets as more and more jobs will become automated.
 
Not only will this culture shift towards continuous learning help organizations – Deloitte found that companies that recruit from within achieve a better quality of hire – but it will also lead to better engagement among employees and offers tremendous return on investment for businesses. Having a mobile workforce that can be redeployed elsewhere in the organization saves on recruiting costs; keeps talent with institutional knowledge within the organization; and cuts down on the outplacement fees, severance packages, and unemployment insurance costs associated with layoffs. That sort of talent mobility and flexibility is also a win for workers who may be at risk of losing their jobs to automation or other market forces and serves to boost morale in general.
 
Yet when it comes to reskilling, companies must avoid the pitfall of being overly focused on technology training alone. While this may seem counterintuitive – you may think workers need to be trained only in digital competencies to prepare themselves for automation – soft skills like empathy, problem-solving, communication, emotional intelligence, sales ability, and other proficiencies that can’t be replaced by robots or AI are equally important. In fact, Talent Trends 2020 found that the top three competencies for which talent leaders plan to provide training and reskilling are AI (66 percent), soft skills (60 percent), and analytics (59 percent), illustrating that companies are at least aware of the importance of both tech and soft skills to the success of their organizations.
 
It seems that most businesses realize the importance of reskilling and talent mobility within their companies, which is a step in the right direction. But it is the organizations that actively prioritize and commit to the cultural shift needed to develop a mobile, agile workforce that will be best positioned to thrive and win during the coming digital transformation.