The World Economic Forum has released the “Future of Work Project” in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group. The report assesses how the Fourth Industrial Revolution will impact skills, tasks and jobs. On the one hand, large parts of the labour market will be impacted by intelligent systems and automation, a transformation we can already observe today. On the other hand, technological integration will change the business models of all industries, giving rise to a number of emerging jobs. A proactive and strategic effort is needed on the part of all relevant stakeholders to manage reskilling and upskilling to mitigate against both job losses and talent shortages.
One of the main discussions in this report explores the need for companies and governments to either re-skill or up-skill employees. If a company chooses to reskill, the costs incurred include the costs of reskilling, wages and lost productivity while the worker retrains; benefits include post-training gains in productivity. If a company chooses to dismiss current workers and hire new ones, costs include severance, hiring and wages and benefits include gains in productivity (it is noted that as a US labour law orientated action; dismissing and hiring is not operable in many jurisdictions – and especially so in Ireland / EU. However, the idea of re-skilling and up-skilling puts forward a concept of developing a culture of lifelong learning within the workforce.
Developing a continuous learning culture
One of the main obstacles identified with future workforce management “is the speed of change expected due to skill and job disruptions over the coming decade.” When a company establishes a culture of life-long learning amongst employees, they will have a high-performing and adaptable workforce who are also prepared for the future workplace. The idea of a once off reskilling or upskilling endeavor will not be effective with these long-term transformations.
Support needs to come from senior management in a company to portray the importance of these continuous training programmes. This act will solidify that learning is a key new part of the company’s core culture. According to a 2019 LinkedIn Learning report, 75% of employees say that they would join a course their manager assigned. Another 46% discover new courses via their manager.
Merging learning and performance together by establishing learning and development goals is an effective approach to develop a learning culture in an organisation. These efforts should be accompanied by the creation of learning KPIs and dashboards for the assessment of managers so that learning becomes a key task for both employees and managers. Companies can thereby show that they are serious about the need for all employees to invest time in upskilling.
It can be difficult for employees to envision the long-term benefits of upskilling which could therefore make them skeptical about sacrificing time for learning activities. By introducing and designing effective and attractive upskilling programmes can combat this skepticism. Possible training practices could include:
- Micro-learning whereby training is fragmented into bite-sized three-to-five minute sessions
- Gamification which refers to the integration of gaming element to learning
- Badges which are validated indicators of skill earned in the learning environment
Only long-term efforts can generate the desired cultural shift. Companies should strive to make reskilling an integral part of the employee culture and to communicate clearly its urgency and advantages.
You can view the “Future of Work Project” here.
Preparing your organisation for this skills revolution is our motivation. Like all top performers, you’ll know that to raise the level of the game, you’ll need all the rigour and experience of an expert training & technology partner. We exist to embed knowledge and grow capability – wherever you happen to be. We deliver the best and latest training courses delivered by the world class instructors. We offer a choice of tailored private programs as well as regularly scheduled training virtually or in-person. We have a large catalogue covering Technology, Service Management, Project Management, Professional Development and Digital marketing. Importantly, we are proud to partner with AWS (Amazon Web Services), ITIL, PRINCE2, Microsoft, Agile, Business Analysis, Commvault, Saba, VMware and many more.
Contact SureSkills today to shift your organisation toward a culture of lifelong learning.
