The Future of Work and Skills Acquisition – A shift in mindset is needed

With rapid changes—both technological and in the organization of work—this new study finds that workers are extremely concerned about the profound impact of technologcal changes in their jobs (and whether they will even have a job in the future), with two-thirds of respondents seeing their job changing significantly at least every five years because of technological advances.

Based on responses from approximately 4,700 workers and in-depth interviews with companies and institutions, this study provides a window into the preparations being made in the workplace to meet the future world of work. It offers new insights into the view of workers on how they should acquire new skills to meet changes brought about by the advent of new technologies. It also examines the role of companies and public institutions in building new workforce skills.

The survey shows that while workers are generally optimistic about their ability to acquire new skills, the results reveal a lack of systematic evaluation of the potential gaps between workers’ current skills and those they will need in future. It also reveals a disconnect between employees’ willingness to acquire new skills (some 62% of employees consider themselves as primarily responsible for acquiring these) and the degree to which they will take the initiative (59% expect their employer to develop the training opportunities). Workers see the main obstacles to acquiring new skills as the lack of time and the cost of training.

Meanwhile, interviews with executives reveal that most companies grasp the importance of giving their workers opportunities to acquire new skills. Yet they are still not investing sufficiently and developing long-term horizons when it comes to skills’ devel- opment. The challenge is one of incentives: companies may be paying to reskill employees who, as a result of changes later on, may not continue working for them. Moreover, it is challenging for companies to take decisions in the face of an uncertain future. Yet while it may be hard to predict what skills will be needed in the years ahead, companies cannot afford to make decisions only when the trends are clear. Those that fail to plan and invest now may find this negatively affects their business down the road.

What is needed is a shift in mindset. Companies and workers need to see the acquisition of skills as a means of future-proofing—whether that is their business or their employment prospects. They need to adopt a more flexible approach, making plans to reskill but setting a path that can be adapted to changing circumstances. Public institutions can help by for example establishing individual learning accounts, enabling workers to access training as and when they need it, continuously throughout their careers.

In the future world of work, skills acquisition will no longer be a process with an ending. Companies will need to reassess constant- ly the capabilities of their workforce while workers will need to regularly upgrade their skills to meet advances in technology, new ways of working and changes in the demands of the labour market.

THE SCOPE OF THIS STUDY

How current and future workers will acquire the skill sets needed to succeed in the
future workforce

This study, from the Adecco Group and the Boston Consulting Group, takes a hands-on approach using the survey and interview results along with proposed solutions to explore what the future of skills acquisition looks like for workers. Specifically, to what extent will individuals be responsible for their own skills acquisition? Will companies provide them with the right skills? Or will public institutions develop a supporting structure to help workers and companies navigate an uncertain future?

We are particularly interested in investigating the acquisition of new skills by workers whose job is affected by technology trends. First, we seek to understand better the way workers are acquiring new skills today and what they expect their experience to be in the future. Second, we investigate the role of companies in helping their employees to acquire new skills today and in the future. Finally, we examine the role institutions
can play in supporting both companies and individuals in preparing themselves for the future.

Views differ on the terminology describing the acquisition of new skills. For the purposes of this publication we use ‘upskilling’ to describe the augmenting of existing skills and ‘reskilling’ to describe the acquisition of new skills. However, these terms can be used somewhat loosely.

The focus is on white-collar work- ers in two industries experiencing significant disruption (finance/ insurance and consumer/retail) and nine (globally-representative) countries.

Not all industries have experienced the same changes and some have undergone more significant transformations than others. To identify and share emerging good practices, this study focuses on two broad trailblazing industries that have both undergone significant change in recent years: financial services/insurance and consumer goods/retail. The former are experiencing high levels of automation and digitalization in adapting their customer engagement models to the changing environment. This includes the digitalization of back office processes, straight-through processing (electronic transactions not requiring human intervention) and online banking, leading to challenges to adapt their workforce and find the right talent. The latter industries have also experienced significant changes result- ing from the advent of mobile sales, cus- tomer centricity, automated supermarkets, personalization and the emergence of new and innovative smaller players.

In these two broad industries, white-collar workers (office workers ranging from em- ployees with no managerial responsibility to middle and senior managers) have tended to receive less research attention on how they are preparing for upcoming job changes.

Our study looks at nine countries that are globally representative (large and small, de- veloped and developing) and that represent key hubs of activity for the industries being examined: China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
To address the role of all stake- holders, our research is built on a survey and interviews from three key perspectives: workers, compa- nies and public institutions
The acquisition of new skills is often posi- tioned as one of the ‘must dos’ in adapt-
ing to the advance of technology and the growing speed of change in the workplace. Yet today much uncertainty surrounds what will be required to close future skill gaps. We therefore need to explore the barriers to acquiring new skills fast enough to match the speed of change.

To offer a multifaceted view of the challenges, our research examines the skills challenge through three lenses. To fully understand the workers’ perspective, we surveyed approximately 4,700 white-collar workers across the two focus industries and nine focus countries, and conducted follow-up interviews with some of the respondents. To understand the corporate mindset, we conducted a series of interviews across the two industries with senior executives who have reached different levels of maturity in their approaches to closing the skills gaps. (In addition, we have referenced some interesting examples from outside our two industries, given that the changes are not limited to our two industries). Finally, to find out what public institutions are doing to accelerate new skills acquisition and what actions they are prioritising, we conducted interviews with governments, educational institutions, labour and economic organizations and others.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Future-Proofing The Workforce – Accelerating Skills Acquisition To Match The Pace Of Change

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