Skills Gap | Future Proof Your Talent

Is your organisation ready to address the skills gap they may face in the next 2-5 years? Can anyone know what skills and talent their organisation will require in the future? In a static workplace these are easy questions to answer, but no longer. The Covid pandemic, combined with the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation have disrupted the workplace and the skills required to succeed are changing.

Facing a potential skills gap and with an explosive rise in flexible working, it can often feel that challenges are stacking up for the HR specialist. Consequently, workforce and career planning should be high on the HR agenda.

We know that technology exists to undertake the more mundane, transactional aspects of a role and we are all interacting with this daily. Furthermore, the percentage of a role given over to AI and automation will, without doubt, continue to increase. However, the upside is that freeing up time spent on routine tasks will help teams to spend more time on delivering a first-class service and provide resource for key, value add strategic projects. The challenge for HR is to identify and understand which aspects of every role could be automated and to understand the impact of digital transformation on both the individual employee and the organisation.

So, how does HR plan the skills and attributes that will be needed in the not-so-distant future? How do they recruit and develop “future-proof” talent? Simply put, an organisation must plan to ensure they have the right people and processes in place to take advantage of the opportunities presented by technology in the workplace. HR should create an effective people strategy that incorporates why, when, and how you will recruit, develop, and reward your talent.