Tech-Friendly Talent: The Key To A Smooth Digital Transformation

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Veer Teneja

Vice President – Training Solutions
[email protected]
/Veer Taneja

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A dearth of relevant digital skills can prove to be a a hurdle for your overall digital transformation goals. Learn why developing an efficient and effective talent body is critical to address future disruptions. COVID-19 took the world by storm as it brought with it a plethora of challenges that changed the normal course of life. Amongst many things, it went on to spur digital transformation (DX), pushing organizations to adapt to the new age models quicker than ever before. During the pandemic, a majority of consumers have adopted digital ways, forcing businesses to digitize their core internal operations, customer interface channels and supply chain interactions. Technological advancements such as analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation have played a vital role in improving organizational productivity levels, allowing companies to effectively meet customer demands. However, enterprises face several challenges due to the drastic digital disruption. Due to lack of qualified talent, digital transformation has been an uphill climb. Those who managed to secure quality talent now anticipate a pause in their transformation journey due to an increasing gap between the demand and supply of future-forward talent.

Skills gap: The barrier to progress
A report by McKinsey Global Institute in 2017 stated that by 2030, nearly 375 million professionals (14% of the global workforce) will need to upgrade their existing skills or acquire a new skills set due to AI and automation. Another McKinsey survey on future workforce needs has shown that almost nine in ten managers admit to having skill gaps in their firms and expect more of such gaps to surface within the next five years.

The talent crunch situation is likely to get worse in the future because of the mismatch between skills training that is delivered and the goals for professionals development. The existing training programs may cater to the current work situation and might be left rendered useless in the coming future. Here are some of the major challenges that organizations are facing while searching for quality talent with DX-related skillsets:

  • The skills in demand required by enterprises today are significantly different from what they needed earlier.
  • Since many DX implementations are new to enterprises, not many technology resources have had practical experience through capstone projects.
  • The demand for highly skilled professionals is way more than the supply of experienced professionals. Thus, creating the risk of such skilled resources being pilfered by competitors.
  • Traditional practices of recruitment are left ineffective when hiring people for managing the diverse processes and technologies
  • Current workforces must also modify themselves to sustain in an evolved ecosystem where man and machine join hands to collaborate on tasks.

This has resulted in a huge shortage of skilled professionals with appropriate credentials in such areas.

Addressing the lack of DX skills
In today’s dynamic technology ecosystem, a mere college degree cannot ensure a lifelong, successful career. Upskilling and reskilling not only help professionals future-proof their careers, they also reduce the existing gap between demand and supply of skilled workers.

Employee development programs offering exposure to authentic business environments can provide enterprises with stability and the much-needed confidence required to work with technology.

Some of the suggested strategies that help organizations safeguard themselves against shortage of tech-friendly talent shortage include:

  • Identify skill gaps that existing in your organization’s ecosystem.
  • Make learning and development a continuous initiative in the organization.
  • Decide on both short-term and long-term needs on the basis of future tech investments
  • Determine if the skill gaps that can be filled by leveraging training and development or by recruiting new talent
  • Invest in a comprehensive training program for skill development or upgrade.

Organizations that are denying the continuous learning to their workforce will find it tough to sustain in this era of machines, AI and automation. By joining hands with a strategic workforce training solution provider like NLL Academy, find the ideal way to digitally upskill your teams and address the wide DX skills gap.

Have a question? Reach out to us to improve how your employees learn, upgrade their skills and adapt to your exclusive transformation needs.

Upskilling | Workforce transformation | Talent retention | Learning and development

5 Ways To Achieve An Effective & Efficient Corporate Training Program

Admin

Veer Teneja

Vice President – Training Solutions
[email protected]
/Veer Taneja

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Learning leaders today are striving to adapt to a new ecosystem disrupted by technology. Training initiatives must be aligned with organizational objectives, participant expectations and digital innovations.
Training practices that stand alone often fail to address comprehensive business needs. The requirement for effective, continuous training that can be delivered virtually has become a necessity with today’s remote working culture. So how can Learning & Development leaders make corporate training programs more impactful? Let’s find out.

Understanding Needs
To begin with, determine the prevailing gaps between the business growth requirement and the skills of employees. A Training Needs Analysis (TNA) allows identification of these gaps. It also enables managers to figure out the current capacity of their workforce and their ability to upskill while consequently driving business growth. This is the first step towards coming up with an apt training plan that will ultimately improve the knowledge retention rate of employees.

Interactive Content
A well laid out employee training program should incorporate real life scenarios and practical applications of concepts in order to achieve excellence. The concepts covered should be easily comprehensible and simple to navigate and must encourage engagement and interaction. Creative formats that are highly engaging and user-friendly would create a stimulating environment to foster learning.

Long-Term Planning
Learning programs should be planned keeping in mind their long term effect on employees. These programs must promote continuous learning even after the training period is over. Post- training learning support should be made accessible through portals with relevant content and assessments. Keeping track of whether employees are applying the skills they were trained on will help build future-forward competencies and prepare professionals for futuristic roles.

Befriending Technology for Flexibility
Interactive training methods that make use of technology have made corporate training an easier affair and proven to be more engaging. Technology can be leveraged at every phase of the training process. Pre-assessment tools allow employees to prepare for the learning of new concepts, learning management systems allow room for smooth experiential learning programs and post-training learning portals with centralized content repositories help students retain their learning long after their programs have been completed.

Determining Program Effectiveness
A consistent evaluation of performance throughout these programs can help throw light on skills gaps, improve strategies and lead to optimization. Such assessments usually encompass both HR and business perspectives. The HR aspect of it can involve measures such as reduction in hiring costs, speed of training completion and satisfaction and retention of employees. The business assessment can analyze advancement in technology skills, improvement in business communication skills and comprehension of business fundamentals. Opt for blended training programs that consist of a mix of traditional classroom experience as well as technology. These help enterprises maximize the training output and return on investment.

Have a question? Reach out to us to improve how your employees learn, upgrade their skills and adapt to your exclusive transformation needs.

Upskilling | Workforce transformation | Talent retention | Learning and development