IN anticipation of the new requirements of the new world order, we need to understand how the pandemic disruption has changed the landscape of the workplace. The most important resource, the human resource, needs to be understood so that education and training can reconfigure and redesign while the workplace retools its current workforce. The good news is that the very technological disruption that is transforming jobs can also provide the key to creating them—and help us learn new skills to remain relevant.
Respondents to the recent Future of Jobs Survey estimate that around 40 percent of workers will require re-skilling of six months or less. Half of us will need to reskill in the next five years, as the “double-disruption” of the economic impacts of the pandemic and increasing automation transforming jobs takes hold. Also alarming is the finding that only an average of 6 percent of adults demonstrated the highest level of proficiency in problem solving in technology-rich environments.
Based on the World Economic Forum 2020 report, 50 percent of all employees will need re-skilling by 2025, as adoption of technology increases. Critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years. There are also new emerging skills related to self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.
This writer conducted a survey among 58 top business executives, 68 percent are owners, to confirm the 10 skills needed in the future world of work against what the skills that the World Economic Forum also identified as less important and declining in terms of demand.
The top 5 skills of the future
While the interest is not to rank the skills, the data generated from the survey present the intensity of preference expressed by the respondent business executives. Note that most of the skills are soft-skills, which in the past were not on the priority list of competencies required in the world of work.
The highest rate is given to Analytical Skills, which is the ability to breakdown or deconstruct the whole into integrative smaller parts or categories to draw out meaningful conclusions. It is demonstrated in detecting patterns and trends, data mining, brainstorming, observing, interpreting data, and making decisions based on the multiple factors and options available. An analytical mind starts with interrogating the problem space before the answer, as Voltaire counselled “judge a man by his questions rather than his
answers.”
The close second ranked skill is Innovation Skills, which is the ability to generate and exploit new ideas for their social and economic or commercial value. It is anchored on the quest for continuous improvement of what is here and now. Innovation increases adaptability and discovery of new opportunities.
Active Learning Skills follows, which is the “learning to learn” skill attributed to being a lifelong learner. Given the volatility and uncertainty of the current times and the future, lifelong learners are assured of their ability to assimilate new competencies to remain relevant.
Technology Design Skills include not only the use but also the ability to integrate transformative and productive technology as an indispensable tool of the current and future workplace. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is imperative that workers have the ability to transform and change businesses and organizations toward a more humanized technology, innovative systems and better customer experience. Technology Design Skills is a strategic enabler as it shapes desirable products, services and experiences for people.
Emotional Intelligence is an encompassing concept that covers, in its intrapersonal level, the awareness and control of feelings aligned with clear motivation, and in its interpersonal level, the empathy and social skills. It recognizes the ability to generate, express, regulate, and appraise emotions as a powerful force on how a person thinks, feels and behaves.
The next five skills of the future
Leadership and Social Skills were also confirmed to be required skills of the future. Leadership is the ability to influence through trust towards a shared vision, regardless of organizational position. Leadership anchors on effectiveness and regards the primacy of people and purpose. Social Skills refer to the ability to relate effectively with people towards a collaborative and harmonious interaction towards a mutual goal. Social skills breed collaboration and synergy.
Systems Analysis is the problem-solving process of observing wider systems, breaking apart the parts and figuring out how it works in order to achieve a particular goal. A person with Systems Analysis Skills is able to recognize the whole as greater than the sum of its parts, and regards that the part cannot be understood if isolated from the whole. Systems Analysis enables a person to see parts in the context of the big picture of the more complex inter-connected whole.
Reasoning and Ideation Skills refer to the ability to give logical connectedness of perspectives, concepts and experiences for the generation and creation of ideas. The person with this skills is able to engage in deep thinking and has the courage to formulate logical ideas beyond the status quo.
Creativity and Originality are competencies that tap the imagination to generate ideas that are novel, new and different—outside the box. It is anchored on open-mindedness that nurtures ideas and inspires collective and co-creative thinking.
Critical Thinking Skill is the ability to suspend judgment or conclusion to give more time to the generation of more information and evidences so as to be more objective in thinking, decision and action.
The less preferred skills
The survey also confirms that there are skills that the business executives prefer less over the above cited skills. This includes memory, precision skills, technology maintenance skills, reading and writing skills, auditory and speech skills, management of personnel, quality control, and management of material resources. Less preference is also given to time management and endurance skills. While these were significant in the past, in terms of educational outcomes and job requirements, the future seems to give less value to them as the work environment has changed and will continue to change.
As competency has broadened in context to cover the knowledge, skills, attitude and habits, education and learning should be more dynamic like never before. Many of the changes that we observe in the workplace are bound to be permanent. Forced into these changes, some may still resist in a state of denial. But as companies and organizations have already digitally transformed and learned the new norms of work, the competencies of the human resource will need to embrace the new world order. The future will render some of the old competencies as irrelevant and mere footprints of the past—whether we like it or not. And the most important skill is the ability to change—and humanity at this point is still learning.
For feedback, please send e-mail to drcarlbalita@yahoo.com.