How Reskilling CanSave Your Workforce

Making Jobs Relevant in anIrrelevant Atmosphere

Table of Contents

2

Debunking The Stereotype

6

Boomers and Generation X

11

Beyond Believes

7

Rethink L&D

8

Smarter Workforce

10

Learing Agility

3

Future Prediction

4

Fluidity in Workforce

5

Adapt or Desist

A Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study, presented in the TED Talk The workforce crisis of 2030 — and how to start solving it now, shows a likely scenario in which German economic growth will create a labor demand for 46 million people, leaving a gap of a breathtaking 8 million workers.

The sheer size of this gap is sobering, but the assumptions behind the study’s 38 million projection are also worth noting (all figures are compared to 2010):

| Page 2

< Table Of Contents

Automation Affect The working population is defined as people between 15 and 74 years old. This assumes that people will work much longer than they do today, with 3 million people over age 55 working.

We will have 4.8 million fewer people between 25 and 54 years old.

0.5 million more women will work.

0.9 million more labor will be created by part-time workers who increase the percentage of work they give.

3 million more people will have a university degree.

3.4 million fewer people who have completed vocational training will be in the workforce.

Our Forecast

With this is mind, we might take a new look at automation brought by digitization. The basic formula is that automation is the result of digitization and connectivity.

With some studies predicting that half of all jobs will be killed by robots or AI bots, you might worry that automation will lead to mass unemployment, even with a reduced workforce.

That’s why it’s helpful to look at a study conducted by McKinsey that analyzes the U.S. labor market in terms of automation potential of existing technologies. The research organizes jobs into seven basic work categories:

| Page 3

< Table Of Contents

Management tasks: 9%Application of expert knowledge: 18%Interaction with stakeholders, i.e. customers: 20%Unpredictable physical labor: 25%Data collection: 64%Data processing: 69%Predictable physical labor: 78%

Rather than completely replacing workers, automation could increase value by taking over tasks that require less skill—think of a doctor who, instead of spending time on the common cold or flu, is able to focus on more complex medical cases. This will likely lead to further disruption in the labor market: the need for upskilling in each job. Those who are unable to keep up will be hit hard.

The Constant In Change

Companies Are Investing In The Tools And Technologies They Need To Keep Pace With Constant Change In The Digital Era.

But to achieve their ambitious goals, leaders are refocusing on an often overlooked factor: the workforce. They are looking at technology as not just a disrupter, but also an enabler to transform their people, projects, and entire organizations into a highly adaptable and change-ready enterprise.

What most people don’t expect is to see these same traits in traditional companies.

Organizations are actively changing their culture from a conventional cog to a well-oiled machine.

| Page 4

< Table Of Contents

Fluidity in Workforce: Building The Workforce For Today’s Digital Demands

In response to constant disruption and fast-shifting business goals, forward-thinking enterprises are reimagining their workforces.

In the past, anyone – from accountants to machinists – could spend their entire careers doing the same job, using the same skills to support businesses with largely unchanging goals.

But today we’re seeing companies being continually pushed to change products, services, and sometimes even business models. And not just once, but constantly, as each new technology innovation emerges.

Adapt or Desist

| Page 5

< Table Of Contents

Workforce as the New Competitive Advantage

Leading enterprises are re - skilling themselves to rapidly adapt to any disruption. In essence they’re creating a ‘fluid workforce.’ To accomodate change, organizations should focus on reshaping the skills of their workforce.

To drive change, they will need to become agile at each level of their business: their skills, their projects, and their organisations.

By embedding the assumption of constant change across the board , organizations will be able to access critical skills sooner, innovate faster, and operate more effectively.

Before digging deeper into how companies are shifting to a smarter workforce, it’s important to understand why businesses are changing their age old workforce practices.

Right now, core characteristics of the labour market are changing – driven in large part by technology.

Digital technology has fundamentally changed every aspect of the business: strategies, processes, job functions, and business models.

The workforce needs not only to adapt to meet evolving demands, but also to develop the skillsets to achieve their new goals.

Boomers and Generation X:Affected By An Armada of New Skills?

| Page 6

The employee pool is changing significantly as well. In 2015, millennials became the largest generation in the workforce.

This shift is significant for two reasons: first, because millennials will soon become the predominant source of human capital; and, second, because businesses stand to benefit greatly from the technology acumen and talent this generation (also known as ‘digital natives’) possesses.

< Table Of Contents

Rather than completely replacing workers, automation could increase value by taking over tasks that require less skill—think of a doctor who, instead of spending time on the common cold or flu, is able to focus on more complex medical cases. This will likely lead to further disruption in the labor market: the need for upskilling in each job. Those who are unable to keep up will be hit hard.

The Constant In Change

Companies Are Investing In The Tools And Technologies They Need To Keep Pace With Constant Change In The Digital Era.

But to achieve their ambitious goals, leaders are refocusing on an often overlooked factor: the workforce. They are looking at technology as not just a disrupter, but also an enabler to transform their people, projects, and entire organizations into a highly adaptable and change-ready enterprise.

What most people don’t expect is to see these same traits in traditional companies.

Organizations are actively changing their culture from a conventional cog to a well-oiled machine.

| Page 7

Leading organizations today favor ongoing, regular performance conversations rather than an outmoded annual process that focuses primarily on last year’s results. Now, it’s about looking forward and, with this change in perspective, employee development can come to the forefront.

When companies build a culture of learning, the organization as a whole becomes more competitive and less likely to lose key talent. But something else happens too- employees see that the company is consistently investing in their development and building their skillset. This leads to a truly engaged workforce, which is the best competitive advantage of all. That’s a great reason to rethink learning.

Today’s changing landscape demands a holistic view of talent management, where all talent programs are integrated and drive business outcomes.

Rethink L&D

1

2

3

As such, learning and development can no longer be viewed as just a once-in-a-while activity. Instead, it is ongoing and owned by everyone within the organization:

HR is responsible for creating high-impact learning and development programs that combine on-the-job training and continuous coaching with more formal learning activities, and linking all components directly to the business strategy to maximize results.

Managers are responsible for enabling employees to learn though stretch assignments and team collaboration, and by delivering regular coaching and feedback.

Employees in turn must demonstrate responsibility and accountability for their own career development.

< Table Of Contents

Automation in industries is a tough call to make, but it does not necessarily say that everyone should be out of their desks.

Out of the desk, yes; out of their jobs, no. In an era, where the industry is driving towards automation to serve the needs of a larger audience; it becomes imperative to analyse the agility of your workforce to make it more conducive with the process flow.

A workforce which is able to rapidly adapt and change based on the environment that they are in, a flow which takes the shape of the process. Robots or no robots.

The Smarter Workforce

| Page 8

< Table Of Contents

Fluid Skills

Traditionally, whiteboard learnings were the key and the content deliverables were brilliant albeit there was no RoI measurement and in the entire process of re-skilling was in peril. Enter the era of automation adn fluid skills.

Trascending from the age old processes; computers are taking up the jobs of learning about the employee. Consequence? The fluid skills of imagination, lateral thinking, and hypothesis generation will be far more important. Computers are really good at math. But you the re-skillable workforce has the contextual understanding of your company.

| Page 9

Digital technologies are enabling businesses to solve their workforce challenges. The goal? To create a fluid workforce with flexibility fundamentally built into three areas: skills, projects, and the organisation as a whole.

An agile workforce will only flourish in an organisation that, in the face of change, is prepared and equipped to it.

Consequently, more organisations are investing in end-to-end workforce management solutions – to deliver key insights into workforce capabilities and readiness.

As they get more information about the workforce, business leaders can evolve their L&D process from its focus on archaic learning, to new horizons in metric driven Learning Agility programs.

< Table Of Contents

Digital technologies are enabling businesses to solve their workforce challenges. The goal? To create a fluid workforce with flexibility fundamentally built into three areas: skills, projects, and the organisation as a whole.

An agile workforce will only flourish in an organisation that, in the face of change, is prepared and equipped to it.

Consequently, more organisations are investing in end-to-end workforce management solutions – to deliver key insights into workforce capabilities and readiness.

As they get more information about the workforce, business leaders can evolve their L&D process from its focus on archaic learning, to new horizons in metric driven Learning Agility programs.

"Learning Agility" is a competency or capability which describes a person's speed to learn. In most businesses, these skills are considered one of the most important factors in great leadership. People with strong "learning agility" can rapidly study, analyze, and understand new situations and new business problems. They have developed techniques and a passion for "fast learning" and are not afraid to jump into a problem and try to understand its various causes and ramifications quickly.

Detailed case studies on companies such as Google indicate with ceaseless pressure that research driven L&D programs lead to better quality of retention and hire.

Learning Agility

| Page 10

Yet less than half of all global organizations include any form of assessments as part of their retention or recruitment strategy.

Why? Why, indeed.

< Table Of Contents

The use of assessments beyond recruitment – in the measure of engagement, conducting training, ROI of development programs and more – generates great interest from a variety of organizations. After all, there is immense value in the data acquired from assessments.

Take for example, Mettls’ Learning Agility Assessment. Agile learners possess innate tendencies that position them for success in a leadership role which is imperative for an IT professional, regardless of the age. Professionals with high learning agility are described as people who

Beyond Believes Mettl measures learning agility through an

assessment, wherein participants are scored on

the metrics of their escalation or declination on

a curve.

Workforces, new or old alike need assessments of their learning ability. They need their grasping power to be analyzed to make sure that the L&D program is a tailored fit, suiting their needs.

Parallelly, it is important for the organization to map these curves so that they understand which areas need improvement and which do not.

Continuously seek new challenges

Solicit direct feedback

Self-reflect

Think critically in first-time situations

Thrive on change

< Table Of Contents

contact@mettl.com+91-9555114444

What is Mettl?Mettl is a Saas based assessment platform that enables

organizations to create customized assessments for use across the entire employee lifecycle, beginning with pre-hiring screening and

candidate skills assessment, training and development programs for employees/students, certification exams, contests and more.

TRY FOR FREE

TRUSTED BY

Plot 97, Sector 44, Gurgaon,Haryana, India - 122003