Marthle du Plessis
The world of work is changing. Greater technology adoption is happening more widely and frequently, diversity is essential, and the line between personal and professional continues to blur.
These changes, some of which were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, present a once-in-a-generation opportunity for business leaders, governments and society to re-imagine how work gets done.
Getting the best from your people at every level when there is constant change is key to a sustainable competitive advantage. Solid strategies, processes and technology alone do not deliver a highly motivated and engaged workforce.
Heightened by the “Great Resignation”, there is a war on talent globally, so attracting and retaining key talent is becoming increasingly important.
Successfully delivering on an organisation’s strategy means being able to secure the skills it needs, in an ever-changing and competitive job market.
Traditional job frameworks are becoming too rigid for companies operating in unpredictable environments. This requires us to think of how to operate competitively in the new world of work.
Hybrid working, which took centre stage during Covid-19, forced us to rethink skills development and retention, how we work and how we can explore new and better ways of creating value.
Defining this new world of work means organisations now have to make the new normal better. The way to win is to have the ability to pivot to skills-led talent strategies that can enable you to gain a competitive advantage by quickly recognising emerging new skills and integrating them into the roles of the ever-changing skills landscape.
This way you are being more intentional about hiring a candidate for their future potential, not their past history. Strategic workforce planning enables the breaking down of barriers and boundaries to pivot from traditional jobs to skills-based families.
In doing this, organisations will celebrate employees for the skills they bring, and enable cross lines of service work.
Pivoting from jobs to skills
Becoming a future-fit organisation requires the ability to understand the demands of the “new world of work” and the associated challenges your company will potentially face.
The people in your organisation with the most appropriate skills and experience are essential in this process. PwC’s 2022 Global Hopes and Fears survey indicated that within South Africa, most respondents (52%) felt the country lacked skilled workers and 50% said their employers were upskilling employees to address a lack of skills/labour.
Globally, among PwC employees, 89% feel they have the skills needed to work remotely. More than half (55%) nominated digital and technology skills as necessary for success in the future of work.
Respondents specifically felt that they needed enhanced technology skills and knowledge in areas such as automation, programming and coding, modelling and data analysis to thrive in a post-pandemic world.
The survey also found that acquiring so-called “soft skills” – leadership, creative thinking, problem solving and conflict resolution – will remain as important as ever as the pandemic reshapes the workforce in the months and years ahead.
The Future of Jobs, a 2020 report by the World Economic Forum, found that soft skills comprise eight out of the 10 most in-demand skills of the future.
We know that soft skills will play a starring role in the workforce of the future. Upskilling is transformational when it leads to developing attitudes and aspirations that will equip people with the skills to continually adapt to and take part in the changing world of work.
This will result in healthier societies, supported by healthier economies. Ideally work should be parcelled out to employees to enable a company to reap the benefits, which include obtaining vital insight into the skills gaps and people being successfully matched with jobs and projects.
The benefits also include the opportunity to design career paths based on skills and adjacent skills that will enable people to understand and navigate careers that suit them.
There will be greater transparency in talent processes as skills become a common currency on which to base job selection, development and certification, reward and career progression.
Marthle du Plessis is PwC’s Africa Workforce of the Future Lead.
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