Many stories around machines advancing into organisations and displacing traditional jobs have been making the headlines. We are living during a thriving era, full of promise and uncertainty, and we believe that people—not just machines—will power digital innovation in this exciting digital age.

Expect to see the adoption of analytics, algorithms, big data and automation as they penetrate many firms, abolishing repetitive tasks. Leaders should see these technologies as an opportunity to free up people to focus on more intelligent tasks and activities. HR and employment functions are also evolving at an accelerated rate. Not only are potential employees required to have the right technical and social skills to support the digital transformation of companies, but attracting and managing talent will also be radically different to what has gone before.

Cognizant and the Economist Intelligence Unit recently surveyed corporate decision makers in the US and Europe to test how ready their talent and people strategies are for a digital switch. We found that the vast majority (94%) of respondents cite a ‘moderate’ or ‘severe’ gap in the digital skills needed to truly transform their organisations.

This skills gap is due to an insufficient supply of digital talent (50%), a worrying (49%) internal opposition to new digital jobs, and that salary expectations of digital talent is out of reach for many firms (32%).  Some decision makers plan to close this talent gap by looking outside the business itself, hiring subcontractors for digital functions and processes. However, the ‘gig’ economy is not a sustainable model for all.

Closing the skills gap will be essential for many legacy companies to keep up with the fast-paced, ever-changing digital era and, crucially, to remain competitive in any market. In order to do this, organisations need the right people in place, as well as the right tools and infrastructure, to help them complete their tasks to the best of their ability.

Here are four tips that organisations can use to help build the digital workforce of the future:

Champion innovation internally

The digital age is all about speed, collaboration and experimentation and  does not belong to any one generation. An existing workforce has an important role to play. Simple methods can champion model behaviour from existing employees, but bolder new approaches that drive digital innovation at scale are called for.

Consider building an internal catapult initiative to help in-house stakeholders and their teams develop innovative ideas and concepts. Companies should consider establishing it as a centre of excellence to break down silo mentalities and promote collaboration.

Begin breaking down the silos

Small is beautiful: our research reveals that companies are starting to reconfigure themselves into smaller spaces as market opportunities and emerging digital niches grow.

In fact, smaller multi-dimensional teams are beginning to emerge with sales, marketing, service, product development, production, and technology staff co-locating together and focusing on serving a single customer segment or functional need.

Help stakeholders key into a talent “cluster”

The start-up movement is rapidly accelerating from Berlin’s Silicon Allee, London’s Silicon Roundabout, Dundee’s Silicon Glen, Austin TX, New York, Singapore – the list goes on. Each has a sizeable start-up scene and hot digital talent that HR professionals can call upon for their stakeholders.

These start-ups drive digital innovation when connected into a specific business process flow or product line. The growth of companies such as WeWork reveal the rapid demand for flexible and clustered working with 6,000 shared office locations dotted around the globe compared with just 300 five years ago.

Begin building the intelligent office

Technology can now monitor employee productivity and wellbeing. Google, for example, is starting to map out how to ensure the highest productivity, engagement and retention of their top talent through analytics.

In the future, the intelligent work environment will eventually be able to monitor and react to workers’ environment, moods, wants and needs. In addition, desks and seating may “randomly” move around to encourage collaboration and lighting may be automatically adjusted to reflect a current mood. As a result, HR and employee functions could be in the driving seat.

We believe a fully digitised business needs a new master work architecture. The demand for digital innovation will speed up the cycle at which work gets done and the underlying work platform must start orchestrating people and machine tasks together, particularly as automation technologies and analytic processes dramatically enhance worker productivity. More complex work platforms will start to parse, virtualise and distribute work to a blend of people and machines that correspond with the growing demands of the business.

For HR teams and other leaders within the company, it is time to get serious about their organisation’s most important asset — its people — and give them the power they need to succeed in this exciting digital age.