Welcome to 2024! A year that will be shaped by post-pandemic recovery, ongoing market uncertainty and shifting skill demands due to AI’s rapid proliferation.
2024 calls for recalibration and reinvention in the ways we work to achieve better outcomes in today’s rapidly changing business landscape. This includes working out – future-skills required to work with transformative technologies; the demand for talent with specialized skill sets, and enhancing human abilities or soft skills like – creative thinking, complex problem solving, emotional intelligence, etc. – required to complement and augment digital advancement.
From upskilling initiatives and career pathing to innovative workforce management and skills-focused hiring practices, organizations are increasingly harnessing the power of skills to drive their talent management strategies forward.
For HR leaders, the benefits of skills-based practices are clear, and it is one of their top five priorities for 2024.
For professionals, skilling presents exciting new career opportunities, greater job security, and the prospect of a bigger paycheck.
Read ahead for compelling reasons why upskilling should be a top New Year’s Resolution for 2024 for both organizations and individuals; and what you need to know before you go all-in.
The Upside of Upskilling
According to the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2023, there will be a 44% disruption of skills in the next five years.
With opportunities to leverage and gaps to close, the skills game is advancing. Companies are all looking for adaptable, skill-hungry employees ready to embrace change and take on new challenges the future brings in.
Employees, on the other hand, constantly seek to be valued and empowered in their roles. A strategic investment in learning and development will go a long way in signaling a commitment towards their career progression. The result: a highly engaged and loyal workforce, significantly boosting long-term retention rates.
Some benefits of upskilling include:
- Attracting talent with critical skills
- Improving employee retention rates
- Better alignment of talent with changes in demand
- Enhancing workforce productivity
- Improving workforce adaptability and agility
- Helping employees with better career-pathing and growth.
The Upskilling Advantage for Employees
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report states that because of the growing uptake of technology and automation, half of all employees will need reskilling by 2025.
Upskilling improves worker morale, increases productivity, enables employee growth and development, and prepares workers for upcoming tech disruptions.
When an employer invests in learning, development, and growth, employees feel valued and are less likely to leave the company. A McKinsey study found that one of the main factors for quitting was that employees didn’t feel valued by their organizations.
Some critical benefits of upskilling for individuals are:
- To stay current with the latest industry trends and best practices.
- Help expand skill sets and develop new capabilities for today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, where job requirements constantly change.
- For personal growth and career development.
- Development of soft skills like problem-solving, communication, creative thinking, etc. to augment AI and ML technologies.
Building A Future-Ready Workforce
Mercer’s Annual Skills Snapshot Survey outlines how skills-first talent strategies are progressing. Skills-based hiring has risen in recent years, and job adverts are increasingly likely to outline required skills in addition to traditional responsibilities, tasks, and qualifications. Candidates are also more likely to be screened against skills, rather than simply their job history.
More and more employers are starting to embrace skills-based hiring practices to prepare for 2024 and beyond. And here is why:
Hiring through a skills-based approach can help organizations boost the quality and quality of talent who apply, help employees find more opportunities according to their skills and to advance internally, help employers improve retention, and help the community by creating opportunities for a broader and diverse pool of workers.
Why Organizations Should Invest In Skilling, Even When Times Are Tough
- Great companies need skilled workers that match company needs.
- To make teams more nimble and agile
- Avoid external hiring costs,
- Enable internal talent to advance
- Boosts employer brand
AI, Full-Stack Development, Cloud Technology, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Communication, and Project Management will be the most In-demand Skills Employers Will Be Looking For In 2024.
Skilling in the Age of AI
As AI-driven systems increasingly become part of daily operations, the demand for skills is accelerating. AI is reshaping industries, automating tasks, and augmenting human abilities. To cope with these disruptions, a number of organizations are already investing heavily in upskilling their workforces.
Here are some skills that will define success in the AI-driven future:
- Creativity and Innovation: Human creativity will remain one of the most distinguishing skills along with creative thinking, innovation, and the ability to generate original ideas.
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: In a world full of data and information, the skills to think critically, analyze, synthesize data, and solve complex problems are vital for effective decision-making, strategic planning, and troubleshooting.
- Emotional Intelligence: AI lacks genuine emotional intelligence like empathy, understanding, and interpersonal skills. Emotional intelligence is a core skill set with experts stating that it should be the most important skill a leader must have.
Learn more about the power of Emotional Intelligence in Diamondpick’s Hireside Chats Podcast episode – Leading with Heart: Embracing Emotional Intelligence in the Modern Leadership Landscape.
- Learning Agility: The ability to adapt and learn at the pace of technological change will be crucial. Learning agility, and the capability to learn new skills quickly, will set individuals apart.
- Resilience: The pressures and uncertainties of change and disruption, can be stressful. Resilience, emotional well-being, and stress management skills will be crucial in the future of work.
- Inclusivity and Diversity Awareness: Professionals will have skills to champion inclusivity and diversity will help to prevent algorithmic bias ensuring equitable AI technologies.
By harnessing the power of AI and cultivating these skills, individuals can find success in the rapidly evolving landscape of work and technology.
The Way Forward
Continuous Learning Culture can be an absolute game-changer for employees and employers. Gen AI solutions have the potential to cause an enormous disruption in the skilling space. It can be leveraged for:
- Content creation: Quickly create quality content to easily accommodate different learning styles and formats.
- Adaptive development plans: Everyone learns differently. Gen AI will be able to create employee development plans and adjust the level, pace, and content to accommodate each learner’s progress.
- Knowledge discovery: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can analyze vast amounts of data, such as documents, reports, and articles, to extract relevant information and generate summaries or recommendations.
- Skills gap analysis: Gen AI can help identify missing or underdeveloped skills to build targeted development programs that address these gaps.
- Assessments and Development: Gen AI will be able to analyze employee performance and competencies to help identify and develop high-caliber talent.
Invest In Tomorrow
To upskill or not to upskill is no longer a question. As we move towards the workplace of the future, remaining complacent just isn’t an option anymore. Organizations and individuals need to stay ahead of the latest technologies and advancements in the world of work. For organizations, make this a year of upskilling and upgrading the workforce, preparing them for tomorrow. For individuals, make skilling your top resolution, giving yourself the power to make an impact at the workplace and transform your career.
If you enjoyed this read, be sure to check out the latest episode of Diamondpick’s Hireside Chats Podcast – Upskilling: The Key to Modern Workforce Retention. Delve into the world of upskilling and its transformative impact on the modern workplace. Discover strategies for employee retention, increased productivity, and building a resilient workforce. Stream Now!