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.