Posted on Sep 4, 2020
As a result of the ongoing economic devastation caused by COVID-19, thousands of job losses were recently announced in the retail, hospitality and aviation industries. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has predicted that Britain’s unemployment rate could reach 15 percent if the country is hit with a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Such an outcome would leave millions of people out of work with potentially redundant skills for the future. If Britain is to thrive in fields like science and technology, while also maintaining a vibrant economy, employers need to do more to retrain their current workforce with skills which will be in demand. This will be particularly important given that any reshoring from China is unlikely to benefit UK workers as automation and AI take hold of the manufacturing sector.
More and more companies have begun to onboard technologies in order to augment people skills so they can succeed in the chaosplexity. If companies can guide their staff now, they will benefit from a more motivated, committed and appropriately skilled team which will enable their business to successfully negotiate the current economic turmoil. If firms are unable to offer their workforce the necessary support, the economic and competitive outlook for the UK looks bleak.
COVID-19 has forced organisations to take their social responsibilities more seriously. Firms that adopt a familial approach to the care they show their employees, encouraging togetherness, will reap the long-term rewards in terms of loyalty and productivity.
Technology to the rescue
Thankfully, this is where technology can impact and aid organisations struggling to adapt to the seismic changes imposed by the fallout of the coronavirus. Advances in AI and machine learning are powering learning management tools which can allow businesses to better understand their employees and ensure that no one is adversely affected by the rapidly changing working environment. This technology is now so user-friendly that it feels close to familiar online experiences, such as YouTube.
While technology will continue to transform the skills that companies need to survive, adopting the right technology allows businesses to predict the business’s skills requirements and train their workers accordingly, optimising everything even for individual learning style and career aspirations. When companies take the accountability of the individual learning style, employers can safeguard jobs and tailor their employees’ professional development to best support the business’s future.
As their workforce deals with fear and uncertainty, organisations are responsible for helping their staff to understand the new working reality and be ready for both the challenges and opportunities presented by new technology. To remain competitive, companies will need to recognise the existing skills that can be found in the business, as well as the skills gaps that are emerging in their organisations.
Training is key to employee wellbeing
Investing in upskilling your staff leads to long-term organisational benefits, such as innovation and productivity gains. Learning and development are vital if employers want to reassure their employees that they are valued and regarded as part of the future of the business.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as changes caused by automation, has left many workers’ skills redundant. Firms are left with a stark choice: either retrain team members or reduce headcount.
Companies should focus more on increasing productivity than cutting costs. Onboarding new employees with the necessary skills will alwaysprove more costly than investing in upskilling the existing workforce. On top of that, if your rate of attrition starts to climb and remains significantly high, your corporate culture is bound to suffer and employee engagement will become a real obstacle. The knock-on effect, of course, is that your formerly happy and motivated employees will become disengaged and transmit this disenchantment to your customers and other stakeholders. Without a mission or narrative for employees to buy into, companies face an uphill task in the long-term.
Training and learning new skills, especially digital skills, are crucial to creating a culture of productivity and innovation throughout the workforce, and could ultimately help to mitigate the profound upheaval caused by COVID-19. Employees who feel better equipped to deal with an altered working environment benefit from a sense of purpose, direction and self-belief. Training can also help to improve cognitive diversity, causing workers to join the dots between various fields of experience and come up with new ideas. Organisations that are hotbeds of innovation and creativity increase their chances of long-term success, while peer-to-peer learning encourages greater collaboration and camaraderie within a business.
By Claudio Erba, CEO of Docebo
