How To Be Ready for The Next Generation of Workforce Talent

In the face of changing work dynamics and the demands of the next generation, leaders must embrace upskilling, reskilling, and understanding future talent needs. Aileen Allkins of elev8 discusses how these strategies can combat job fatigue and bridge the digital skills gap for a more productive and engaged workforce.

We all know the increased pressures workers faced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as changing policies, procedures, and technology use compounded uncertainties and fears about the state of the world. As difficult as those times were and with all we did to move forward, workforce stress may be bad or even worse. A recent studyOpens a new window found that over 40% of people with desk jobs feel burned out. Ongoing economic pressures, layoffs, and mandatory return-to-office policies are among their top contributors.  

Reimagining Training and Skilling Strategies

This atmosphere of staff uncertainty and frustration may make it the ideal time to rethink past strategies for training and skilling so you can create the optimum environment for today’s and tomorrow’s talent. As job satisfaction is vital to productivity and retention and digital talent sourcing is already a challenge, now is the time to look at three strategies for re-engaging current staff and offering what the next-generation workforce craves. 

1. The power of upskilling and reskilling to combat job fatigue

Learning new skills that enable us to tackle complex tasks and satisfy changing job demands more confidently can be a powerful way to reduce workforce stress. This is true for existing employees and is especially important when onboarding new talent.

Digital skilling can keep existing employees engaged and better prepare them for ongoing digital transformation. Research has shown that when companies invest in digital skilling, they can significantly boost: 

• Engagement: Upskilling enhances employees’ job satisfaction.
• Retention: Employees would stay at a firm longer if it invested in their learning and development
• Savings: It’s less expensive to reskill current employees than hire new ones
• Profit: Companies providing comprehensive training programs experience better customer satisfaction, expanded contracts, and profit margins higher than companies spending less on training.

For new hires, well-structured skilling programs can demonstrate that the business is prepared to help them achieve ongoing career success. The most effective programs include gap assessment, preboarding skilling, and reskilling/upskilling/cross-skilling aligned to career ambitions and defined career paths throughout a worker’s career to enable both employee and operational success. There is room to improve new-hire skilling operations; according to a Gallup pollOpens a new window , only 12% of employees think their companies excel at onboarding new hires.  

See More: Why Upskilling and Reskilling Are the Future of Workplace 

2. The increasing challenge of the digital skills Gap

We have faced a digital skills shortage for years. The scarcity of tech talent has been caused, in part, by the rapid business changes of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the effects of Covid-19, and the Great Resignation that followed. And it gets even more challenging as technical job requirements keep changing each time our workforce and business goals shift. 

All these factors, plus the recent rounds of tech layoffs, have forced many organizations to operate leaner. They are now seeking people with specific skills to move their business forward. These organizations need to address their current digital skills gap strategically. This can include identifying essential job roles and ensuring people have the skills needed. For example:

• If there is an increasing need to protect against cyber-attacks, this requires having cyber-skilled people in the company and knowing what specific roles they will play and how many are needed now and in the future. 
• If more and more business processes are moving to the cloud, this may require a different set of roles to be filled, such as cloud architect, designer, and support. 

To know what skilling is required most today, you can list the essential competencies for each needed role. Beyond simple job descriptions that identify responsibilities, you can fully document the abilities and characteristics of an effective security coder or great cloud architect, for example. This can include necessary technical skills in cloud computing, AI, data, or cybersecurity.

See More: Digital Transformation Impact on the Technical Skills Gap

3. Meeting the needs of a new generation in the workforce

The next generation of workforce talent seeks careers driven by purpose and providing ongoing growth opportunities. This is where preboarding skilling, upskilling, and cross-skilling can play a crucial role. It’s also important to go beyond technical skilling to include soft skills or “power skills.” Improving your talent’s problem-solving, communication, creativity, strategic, critical thinking, empathy, and leadership skills helps improve customer experiences. Skilling programs that use innovative active learning methodologies through practical workshops and coaching sessions can effectively combine technical training with power skilling, improving retention rates and performance of existing employees and new hires. 

Strategic upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling are important to employees who want to futureproof their careers and employers who want to retain top talent, especially in today’s digital world. According to a study cited by GrowthSpaceOpens a new window :

• 86% of millennials would stay at their current position if their employer offered training and development
• 94% of employees would stay with a firm longer if it invested in their learning and development
• 70% of surveyed employees are more likely to leave their current employer for a company that is known for investing in employee development and learning
• 70% of individuals who receive comprehensive training report enhanced job performance

Well-designed skilling programs attract potential hires, engage existing staff better, and give employers granular control over subject matter to provide greater confidence that tech talent’s skills always match existing challenges.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

We’ve all been facing a tech talent crunch for years, and now we have the added pressure of an existing workforce weighed down by frustration and fatigue. Now is the ideal time to rethink your approach to creating the most attractive and productive work environments so you can consistently deliver on your mission and better achieve your business objectives. Strategic skilling, upskilling, and reskilling is the best way to reengage current employees and ensure you meet the needs of the next generation of workforce talent.

Which steps have you taken to re-engage your staff and meet the demands of the next-generation workforce? Please share your thoughts with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

Image Source: Shutterstock

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