Learning is key for the future workforce

Businesses across the globe are expanding their workforce, with new generations coming in, and technology superiority having a key advantage for companies, could learning play a key part in people adapting and developing to these continuous changes?

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As we begin to see this shift in digital transformation, Geoffroy De Lestrange, Associate Director Product Marketing EMEA, Cornerstone OnDemand believes that a new age of learning and upskilling staff could be essential.

“Learning is the number one survival as we enter the skills economy. Job roles are fast changing and if employees don’t learn and adapt, organisations don’t remain competitive and begin to stagnate. The ONS has already reported that UK worker productivity levels had fallen in the final three months of 2018 and that the “productivity puzzle” has been a problem for years.” he says

With these jobs changing in a stimulating fashion, there are several aspects of a learning and development strategy that employers can do to aid their workforce. Executing this strategy could benefit the company in having a more efficient staff, as well as boosting the morale and productivity of its staff. These efforts would also increase staff happiness as their workforce would then understand that their leaders acknowledge their worth.

Geoffroy continued by discussing how companies should make it a top priority to continuously aim to upskill their staff “As more job become automated, softer skills like high emotional intelligence and problem solving will increase in value. In fact, organisations should hire potential with a view of continually upskilling, because you can’t hire your way through the skills economy.”

Although there can be many benefits that arise from adopting this new learning technique, it’s important for leaders to communicate and ask for feedback from their workforce, as if they don’t understand what they want to achieve in their career then they may fall into the risk of using the same strategy for each employee, and in so many organisations having such a diverse and vast workforce widespread across all ages and demographics, this could be a gamble in sinking to the ‘One size fits all’ approach to learning.

“As we continue to make sweeping advancements in technology, the way we work is constantly evolving. In this changing environment, the UK workforce is having to go against the grain and re-evaluate how they operate. Digital transformation is impacting every employee in the UK and job roles are shifting as a result, take a look at the HR department, for example. A once process driven department has now changed to focus on business strategy instead of administration. Technology is playing a huge role in every workplace and employees, with the support of their organisation, need to make sure they grasp every opportunity to learn and develop their skills, in order to keep up with the pace of digital change and prepare for the workplace of the future.” Geoffroy concluded.

Learning and development could be key in maintaining and developing the future workforce, however if the workforce themselves aren’t open to these processes, then it becomes a waste of time and resources. This makes it even more crucial to engage in more open communication with staff, and not assume what they want to learn. Yet with communication and data, learning can prove to be an effective way to tap into and reap the benefits of the future workforce.