From birth to death you are always preparing for your future. Whether you are getting your education or managing a company, being prepared for future challenges is an effective strategy one can ever learn. This is not only relevant at an individual level but also an organisational level. Companies and organisations need to plan out their future in this competitive world to increase the odds of success. The changing customer behaviours and buying patterns are only strengthening this argument. For management professionals and entrepreneurs, upskilling their current workforce is a dire necessity. A future-ready workforce can be an asset to have.
They must strive to increase employee productivity and boost their margins to succeed. Sticking on to the old models can put you and your company at risk of being outdated and isn't irrelevant. Adapting to the times is a necessity for survival. Building a future-ready workforce then must be on your priority list also. In this article, we will discuss how some organisations are satisfied building their future-ready workforce and why and how you can start working on that effectively.
What is a future-ready workforce?
A future-ready workforce is an employee section which is constantly learning to adapt to the changing nature of work. These employees are early adopters of technology and lifelong learners with a passion for exploring new possibilities. Here are some of these aspects of future work patterns.
1. Humans and machines
As you are already well aware, the future of mankind is going to be a lot more technology oriented. There will never be a shortage of new technological ideas and trends in the future. As you can see already happening, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and hyperconnectivity through the Internet are all expected to transform the working patterns of individuals in a very significant way. Unlike previous centuries, mankind has reached a higher level of intelligence to a point where it is now capable of creating artificial intelligence on its own.
The future employees will be working together with all these emerging technologies. As a result, they must be well aware of these technological trends and how to handle them. This is just like how the current workforce was acquainted with computers and the internet. Just like digital literacy has become critical for your career progress nowadays, the future will bring on the same adaptability challenges for the workforce on a larger scale. Working with machines and high-end software are going to be tough for the current generation. Hence, training your employees to be future-ready requires you to keep an eye on the happenings in the technological world.
There are already technological applications changing the work patterns of individuals significantly across several industries. Employees are already getting used to working with computers, robotics, and artificial intelligence, better than the previous generations. A future-ready workforce can only be achieved by additional efforts from both the employees and technology developers. Getting your staff ready for the future requires you to spend your money and efforts on employee training so that they do not lag behind industry standards.
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2. Sustainable workforce
The current trend in the workforce is not like in the past. In the previous generation, employees would work at an organisation for decades if not all of their lifetime. However, this is not the case in the modern workforce. The current generation of employees actively seeks better opportunities wherever they go. As a result, they are more likely to change their jobs in a very short duration of time. According to the U.S. Department of Labor an average employee will change careers 5-7 times during their working life. Further, around 30% of the total workforce will now change jobs every 12 months. Hence, the challenge rises in maintaining a good number of experienced and talented employees in your organisation.
Employee retention has become a major headache for owners and HR managers after the pandemic. They are looking for sustainable solutions to retain their high-performing employees. While some jobs are easy to fill in because of the larger pool of talent, several other jobs require highly trained and highly experienced employees who are nearly impossible to replace. One example of this would be the semiconductor industry. Here, talent decides the fate of the company more than anything else. Hence, for semiconductor companies retaining talent must be the highest priority task. Likewise, many other industries are also looking to cope with a talent shortage which is more likely to be amplified in the future.
Future work is more likely to consist of highly technological. Hence, keeping your highly technical, highly trained, educated, and experienced professionals must be a necessity. This can be a problem for human resources professionals as well as company owners as the workforce must be constantly learning and adapting to industry trends and technological innovation. This is why the future of the workforce relies on training the current workers to become learning-oriented rather than memorisation-oriented. Company owners must be ready to adapt their employees with training, and certification programs, and help them become early adopters of new technological inventions rather than using the old software solutions and becoming negligent to adopt in this fast-paced world.
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3. Learning
The future of the workforce is decided by one critical aspect which is the learning process of your employees. As time goes by, so do the technological appointments. The subsections of the business will get expanded further and further creating new domains. Just a few years back, several of the current management positions were never heard of. Things like cyber security and risk management were not necessarily critical parts of the business ecosystem. However, within a short period, these roles have become so significant that a business is doomed if they do not invest in these emerging industries and fields. This process that the learning curve of your employees and decides the future of your business.
Those who settle for what they know and do not wish to learn anything new every day of their life will be left behind by the future workforce. This is why you should be forcing your employees to learn new technologies and solve new problems. They must be able to come up with better solutions and stay competitive in the job market of the future. Keeping updated with industry happenings, world News, technology, business strategies, and employee trends will keep you updated and help you to choose which subject to learn in the future. In this way, your workforce will be agile and ready to tackle future challenges. For example, information technology managers must be vigilant about the inception of new languages in the emerging and trending programming ecosystem so that they can be sure to learn it as the trend continues.
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4. Endurance
Basic mundane and repetitive skills are not going to be the centre of the future workforce. In the previous century, skills dominated the foundations of the workforce. However, times are changing. Especially, AI, robotics, and machine learning have been emerging as the focus of a skill-based workforce rather than human employees. As we can already see, robots are dominating the manual labour force of several industries. Automation is reducing operational costs and making several manual labour jobs extinct. They are even performing highly-specialized eye surgeries in some cases. Through these are powered by human intelligence behind the scenes, the possibility of AI and machine learning becoming sophisticated in the future can reduce these human roles.
In such an environment, the future-ready workforce must not rely solely on skill enhancements. The future requires employees to be able to grow a mindset larger than skills or fear of technology. It needs you to endure what these technologies will throw at you. Human qualities like endurance, learning, adapting to changes, and applying what you learn can never be emulated by technology. Hence, these qualities need a push today than skills which can be easily learned and replaced by technology.
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How to build a future-ready workforce
1. Deploy workforce planning and analytics
Evaluate employee skills to identify what they are lacking and actively try to fill in the void. If you are an employer or a human resources manager, then it is your job to prepare your workforce for the future. That is why workforce planning, analysing what they lack, and acting on it are essential. Take a skill audit of your current workforce so that you identify all the skills they are possessing so that you can identify, connect, and improve those skills.
Make a list of future skills that the industry is going to need shortly. List all those skills and compare them with the current skill levels of your employees. This skill assessment will help you determine which skills need more focus and help you improve them so that your employees will stay relevant in the future. Prioritise improving these most important skills by providing them with upskilling, training sessions, certification programs, and even help them with higher education programs.
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2. Recruit for the future
It is a general rule of thumb your current workforce is not going to be consistent. A small portion of your current workforce is going to be retired within this decade. According to the Transamerica Center, 49% of workers expect to retire after age 65 or do not plan to retire and about 29% expect to retire before age 65. Moreover, new hires are more likely to leave your company within a few years looking for better opportunities. It is good to expect a large portion of your workforce to retire or leave your company sooner or later. Knowing this will make it easier for you to focus on upskilling your current workforce and optimise your future hiring processes. Always make sure that you hire the right people for the job. Hire employees who are technologically adaptable and teachable. Those with a learning mindset and are quicker learners help you build a future-ready workforce easily.
Focus on recruiting employees who have the skills you need for your future roles. Try to hire those who have already worked in an agile work environment and have been familiarised with new technological solutions, like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. This will give you a headstart in training these new hires rather than starting from scratch.
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3. Reskill and transfer skills
Even with the above points, it is important to not neglect your current senior employees. While this generation is yet to be familiarised with all technological solutions of the future, they are absolutely superior to younger generational employees in several key areas. Skills like professionality, soft skills such as communication and time management, experience, and people management skills are mastered by senior professionals. This makes them fit for leadership roles more than all other generational employees.
As a result, put the future leader in a leading position to mentor the current work. They have valuable skills to pass on to the next generation. Moreover, help your loyal employee base in your company with regular up-killing and reskilling. In this way, you will make your company a future leader. Your initiatives in mentorship, training sessions, upskilling, and the transition of knowledge from one generation to another still be enough to make your workforce future-ready.
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Conclusion
Building a future-ready workforce is a major challenge for human resources managers and business owners. you will face several challenges in getting your employees ready to tackle the challenges of the future. There will be challenges in adapting the ing attitudes of your employees. you will be adapting your employees to a future where technology makes it harder for them to cope. This is especially true if your employee base is made up of older generational employees. They must work harder to adapt to the changes than younger generations. Digital skills will be more relevant in the future. This is why training your employees with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality is crucial.
Providing them with training sessions, certification programs, and higher education qualifications can help them to adapt to an extent. However, it is the mindset of the employees that devices their fate. Curiosity and lifelong learning are the keystones of a future-ready workforce. This mindset will make them adaptable and tech-savvy.
And finally, enrolling in an online Masters degree program can also help in the refinement of skills and mindset. SNATIKA offers UK Masters degree programs for senior professionals with managerial experience. Our programs are designed exclusively for senior professionals who are looking forward to adapting to the future. The program is of high quality and highly flexible. It also gives you dual academic qualifications that are globally recognised. If you are concerned about the future of your workforce, you must be well-informed and well-educated to push your team to its limits.
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