When it comes to digital, HR haven't a clue

But then again, who does?... I have been at Organisational Design, HR, L&D and Org Development conferences in the past year or so, and recently the Digital Skills Summit run by Wired Sussex. The common thread is confusion and conflation, when it comes to digital. Stepping over the question for now of what we mean by digital (it is many and different things depending on your context), is the challenge one of learning, skills, education, professional (and/or personal) development, training? Is this something for Universities, Colleges and other learning organisations to fret over and attend to, and what role does ‘business’ have to play? Relative to what criteria/competencies and whose needs?

In analogue terms, the ground is stable (-ish). Digital, less so, and not simply because of digital being about speed/fast/generations-not-understanding-each-other-and-how-about-some-reverse-mentoring etc. All that is true, and useful, but there is something else going on.

The Digital Skills Summit brought together “businesses and skills providers, to identify and work to address the skills gaps that are prominent within our sector”.  It also explored “continued learning within employment and best practice for up-skilling staff and encouraging learning”. Enter HR and L&D stage left? The conversations were revealing. It started off with a proposition that educational institutions need to keep pace, and became evident that there were two other things going on:

1. The “Businesses have a lot to offer here” Thing.