Businesses across the world are operating in an uncertain environment in which a myriad of disruptive forces, mostly driven by technological advancement, have brought changes that have disrupted the nature of work and skills requirement. These changes have presented opportunities and challenges in skills requirements to both the employer and the employee. Organizational skills requirement has taken a different shape. Employee skills as well require to be developed in order to build capacity to support and manage the digital transformation. Without talented and skilled workforce, a business has little hope of survival in the emerging turbulent environment. It is therefore important for HR Professionals to be aware of the trends shaping the future of their businesses so as to harness the human skills to sync with emerging trends.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here with us. The AI and its related technologies will have a seismic impact on all aspects of businesses and employees need to upgrade their skills to stay relevant. Organizations need to strategically invest in training and development as they position themselves to respond to the changing business landscape. It is imperative for HR professionals to understand how AI will impact business operations, so that they can start to build the skills and talents necessary to embrace the changes. Imperative is to build a vibrant and resilient talent ecosystem that can meet the organization’s future skills needs. A study carried out by Mckinsey & Company found that technological skills will increase 55 percent by 2030. Aligning employee skills with the emerging technologies can help the organization to have a ready supply of AI enabled skilled talents. Another survey carried out on Kenyan Companies by the International Labour Organization, found digital skills to be “the most important single skill set cited by enterprises as being important for their future success” (ILO 2022). This means that organizations need to change their skills development tools in order to meet the changing HR skills needs.
The use of data for decision making has continued to gain prominence. Employers have access to considerable amounts of data over an employee’s lifecycle, but the majority lack the requisite skills to interpret and use this data. The business of the future will be data driven and having digital and analytical skills needed to interpret data to shape business decisions is critical. Data is going to be the “new oil” to business competitiveness. Businesses that are not able to employ the various emerging technologies to interpret data intelligently would be the laggards in an extremely competitive marketplace (Pareek et al.). It is important that businesses address their employees’ analytics capabilities to link analytics to business outcomes. Businesses can use softwares integrated with AI capabilities to upskill their workforce and develop critical analytical skills in their staff.
Developments in technology have expanded the possibility for traditional workplaces and new forms of work have evolved. HR professionals can develop the right digital skills in their employees and create the right conditions for remote work. HR can also optimize the concept of remote work to attract and retain critical talents. Millennials and GenZs who are highly tech savvy are difficult to attract and offering them the ability to work from “anywhere” can be very appealing to these demographics.
HR Professionals will not be looking into harnessing their employees’ technical skills only. Developing a new set of soft skills is equally critical. HR needs to find ways to balance technology adoption with maintaining the human touch as they endeavor to integrate people with technology. Organizations require technical skills complemented by soft skills. The International Labour Organization study indicated that soft skills such as creativity and communication were amongst the most important to the future success of business. Also cited as important is teamwork, multitasking abilities/ flexibility and collaborative skills. This means that greater need for social and emotional skills need to be developed going forward.
The one-million-dollar question is “how is your organization positioning its human resources for tomorrow?”.
The writer is a human resource consultant, trainer, and a lecturer at the College of Human Resource Management.