This year has already revealed the pressing need for making skills development the number one priority for any organisation. The fact that many employees are examining their employment options, looking at their work/life balance and even changing careers means that HR has a tough job on their hands.

People are leveraging the candidate-centric market to climb the ladder faster and align their employer with their values, and if these past two years have demonstrated anything, it is that you must be fast and able to pivot your business and be ready to do it again, and again. 

We are living in a hybrid world

Almost every role today is hybrid-skilled, connecting a wealth of abilities and attributes to just one job title. A prime example of this would be the Apple Genius Bar, which rather than a functionally specialised team, is a cross-functional team of experts with different skills to adequately meet demands. 

Digital transformation will bring a new role to management, also bringing about changes in the mindset of all the people who are part of it

Today’s workforce is ever changing and far more agile and distributed than ever before. In the past, a job skill learned in your twenties could last your entire career. 97% of organisations are planning significant transformation this year but feel that inadequate workforce skills and employee burn-out may hinder this goal. 

So, how can we close the immediate talent gaps? 

One way is to utilise tech and AI so that organisations can systematically scan the workforce to find people with adjacent skills that can easily be transitioned into roles that are open right now. Digital transformation will bring a new role to management, also bringing about changes in the mindset of all the people who are part of it, with technology becoming a key element in attracting and retaining talent in the company.

How can we prioritise skills journeys?

Upskilling and reskilling have emerged as key priorities for both employees and organisations looking to successfully navigate the future of work. These career programmes go beyond looking good on job applications and CVs, but are essential for organisations to plant, grow and harvest their skilled workforce. Skills development programmes should be an immediate priority for modern-day organisations and should be top of the to-do list this year if they hope to break the ‘Great Resignation’ cycle. 

What are the most fundamental skills needed? Of course, the digital skills gap is a hot topic in the skills landscape, with employers frequently prioritising employees’ abilities to build bonds with co-workers (especially in the new hybrid work environment), awareness of how to be visible in organisations, and how to accelerate business aspirations to transform processes digitally. 

How can this be achieved in real-time? Equipping workforces with technology platforms that can identify, articulate, and invest in organisational and people enables the construction of a future-ready workforce. 

Let tech carry the burden

Talent leaders are now looking at their business strategy and using tech to analyse whether they have enough of the right skills geared for that future. Surfacing opportunities internally can be beneficial, as it allows for better on-the-job learning, employees get to try out new career moves, instead of the longer cycle period of finding, hiring, and training a fresh recruit.

All of this can be sped up with artificial intelligence, which removes the burden and bias of older, traditional manual models of HR processes. AI allows for anticipating and closing skills gap faster by finding non-traditional career pathways and intuitive skills mapping for every employee. 

Equipping your people can help to bring some certainty and control to help them prepare for the future to feel more confident in their abilities

Allowing employees to be the masters of their own careers not only benefits their own morale and esteem, but ultimately increases productivity and innovation across the business as a whole. The needs of people and the needs of the business are not different. Most leadership decisions factor in a people dimension, so enabling growth and success at an individual level will impact the trajectory of an organisation.

Intelligence into existing skills also allows organisations to be more efficient when investing in talent software and solutions that support upskilling and reskilling efforts. With a better understanding of your staff’s skills, you can take the guesswork out of what training is needed, helping you match people to learning content to fill existing skills gaps.

Equipping your people can help to bring some certainty and control to help them prepare for the future to feel more confident in their abilities and capable of tackling what the future holds for them and the organisation.  

Interested in this topic? Explore HRZone’s Building critical skills content hub. 

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