According to the World Economic Forum by 2025, 85 million jobs will be displaced by automation and technology but 97 million new roles will be created by 2025 as humans, machines and algorithms work together. These include robots to aid physical activities such as coral reef conservation, drones to deliver much needed medicine to remote locations, generative artificial intelligence to create new media and automation to remove routine tasks.
How Will We Get There?
Employers expect to offer reskilling and upskilling to +70% of their employees and 66% of employers expect a ROI within just 1 year. According to Chris Do, Chief Executive and Founder of online education platform The Futur, “Everything you want to learn is available on the internet,...Workshops, courses, e-books, training and one-to-one mentorship are some of the resources available online”.
What Skills Will We Need?
To be successful, we will need to combine both technical and soft skills. For example data analysts, machine learning specialists and robotics engineers are among the roles that are growing in demand. We also need softer skills such as problem-solving, creativity, communication, influencing, negotiation and resilience. Self-management skills are becoming more important such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance, resilience and flexibility.
Half of us will need to reskill in the few years as "double-disruption" as we economies feel the economic and social fallout from the pandemic and the rise in technology-fueled automation. Additionally, the impact from challenges felt across America and Europe from the banking sector resulted in organisations reviewing their workforce and future recruitment needs, The world can truly be seen as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous).
While the World Ecomonic Forum says that around 40% of workers will require reskilling of six months or less, there is also a role for longer educational programs to build deep domain knowledge and critical skills. Considering this from a leading & development perspective, a blend of approaches will be required to develop the digital leaders of tomorrow. This will include on the job training, mentoring, coaching, stretch projects, job rotation along with formalized training and education programs.
Closing Thoughts
As technology adoption spreads at an accelerating rate, the need for people to adapt grows ever more important. Companies and individuals must respond via reskilling, process improvement and investment in relevant technologies. Given that humans are not going away any time soon, we should combine the best of both worlds by leveraging both technical and soft skills. Developing the digital leaders of tomorrow will require a blend of approaches. Technological and environmental forces have caused significant disruption, but with the right mindset and a willingness to adapt, we can build a better future.
Tips For Managers
Here are 5 considerations of managers who want to help their organisation grow:
- Evaluate the current (and future required) skills and knowledge of your workforce to identify gaps and areas that need improvement.
- Align with the L&D department to develop a comprehensive upskilling and reskilling plan that includes on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, and formalized education programs.
- Support your workforce by providing the necessary resources and support to upskill. Encourage them to take ownership of their own learning and development.
- Set clear goals and expectations for employees' learning outcomes to ensure progress. Bake this into performance appraisals and professional development plans.
- Celebrate successes and share learnings to create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
