Copy & paste jobs or recurring tasks are increasingly disappearing from everyday life. Instead, we think strategically, interpret KPIs and derive conclusions from them. A few years ago, such tasks were reserved for executives and managers. Today they are commonplace at all levels. And that is just the beginning. Competences will continue to shift. Are you wondering how to properly prepare your employees for the future of work? We have a tip: consistent retraining. Continuing education is the order of the day!
Competences are shifting – faster and faster
Today, the individual employee is taking on more and more strategic responsibility. It’s as if umpteen micromanagers were sitting shoulder to shoulder within a department today. Each an expert on his territory. Everyone complements that of the other with their expertise and only when talented people come together does something new emerge.
Ascending trend. Because the further the division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms progresses, the more redundant tasks will be eliminated. Accordingly, employees are concentrating more and more on solving increasingly complex problems in their everyday lives. This constantly requires new, highly specific expertise. According to the “Future of Jobs Report 2018” by the World Economic Forum, there will be a shift in work content on an unprecedented scale as early as 2022. To put it bluntly, this means that skills that are still in great demand today are already obsolete tomorrow.
At least 133 million new fields of activity and jobs are being created worldwide
At least 133 million fields of activity and jobs will be created worldwide because of this shift in knowledge. At the same time, just as many simpler job profiles are dying out. The bottom line is that there will still be jobs for all of us in a few years.
But we have to be prepared for the fact that at some point the field of activity that we were doing just a year ago no longer has anything to do with the content areas that we are dealing with today. And this will continue. Conclusion: If you don’t keep up, if you don’t learn consistently and don’t get involved in something new, you lose. Once knowledge gaps have arisen, it will become increasingly difficult to close them.
Lack of talent – Switzerland also affected
This is not only a problem for employees, but also for employers – because at some point the work results suffer from the skill gap. Companies used to have a quick solution for this: They simply looked for new employees and let the old ones go. But this plan no longer works.
Because the job market just doesn’t give that anymore. Mainly because the population is aging and companies are running out of young people. For comparison: while in 2015 62 percent of the Swiss population was between 20 and 64 years old, the proportion of men and women who are able to work is likely to fall to 56 percent by 2035. And companies are already finding it difficult to recruit qualified specialists.
Education and training of existing employees
Company managers therefore have only one option to compensate for potential knowledge deficits: they must invest in the training and further education of their existing employees. Retraining is the need of the hour. This is the only way to keep the know-how in the company up to date.
It is all the more astonishing that retraining offers are not yet included in the business strategies of most companies. According to the “Future of Jobs Report 2018” , three quarters of employers in Switzerland are planning to close the upcoming skills gap of their employees through retraining. In many places, however, the corresponding course has not yet been set.
There are so many ways to train your employees these days. They range from old-school methods to state-of-the-art tools. The latter are usually quickly implemented, easy to use and address a wide variety of learning needs. The important thing is that you should be aware that the further training of your employees should no longer appear on your priority list as just a nice-to-have. It’s a must have. This is the only way they can master the forthcoming cultural change. More about that in the next blog post.
