9 years to upskill 90% of our workforce seems pretty daunting but forget the headline and think about the underlying principle in this article and you can affect change from tomorrow. The last year has has been an eye opener for many. CEO's once aghast at the thought of people working from home are now advocates. The idea of pets and children dipping in and out of the background on a Teams or Zoom call once thought wholly unprofessional is now taken as read. We've adapted and changed but how deep has this change actually gone?
Most organisations recruit to role profiles that were developed pre-pandemic and therefore looked at the competencies and behaviours of high performers in an office based environment. We are potentially hiring the wrong mix of people into the jobs today and don't have the right focus on the future needs of upskilling at all.
Organisations that want to be fit for the future with employees that will be fit for their future needs have to start now. Review those role profiles, question key attributes and behaviours again and reconstruct the selection criteria to commence that journey of readiness. Employees will need to be more adaptive, willing to learn and tech enabled to be key contributors according to this report and the journey starts here.
Recent surveys indicate that 90% of the UK workforce requires upskilling before 2030. More surprising is that only 20% of CEOs say they have made significant progress in establishing a suitable upskilling programme to address future needs. Also confronted by a skills shortage, exacerbated by the pandemic, an exodus of foreign talent and a shortage of tech talent, organisations are rethinking their workforce planning strategy by looking within – starting with an internal skills audit. This will help you get a macro look at the skills you currently have on-hand and help you chart out the types of skills, roles and people you’ll be able to train or upskill to better prepare your organisation for the future.
