Why Are We Still Talking About Digital Transformation?

Strategic tips for digital transformation leaders to empower upskilling and growth.

Last Updated: February 13, 2023

Systematic upskilling is the need of the hour. Annee Bayeux, chief learning strategist at Degreed, shares what transformation leaders must focus on to enable relevance and help workers navigate the future of digital transformation.

In October 1957, a beach ball-sized aluminum sphere soared across the American night sky 100 miles above the earth, broadcasting a squeaking, wobbly beep. 

The sight and sound of Sputnik, the first human-launched satellite to orbit the earth, set off a wave of fear in America and a revolution in education. The nation immediately responded to what it saw as Russia’s emerging Cold War challenge in science and technology by reengineering the way it taught its students math and science.   

Today, we face another Sputnik moment. The fourth industrial revolution – the introduction of technologies such as AI, robotics, cloud technologies and IoT – is leaving thousands of companies and millions of workers ill-equipped to compete in a reinvented world. 

As a result of this constant reinvention, the new reality for all workers is the need to upskill continuously. Learning must include every worker from C-Suite offices to factory floors. In fact, investment in that type of education is already taking place. 

Two years ago, 73% of all companies did not have digital roadmaps to guide them through this process. Today, half of those companies have digital roadmaps. According to the consulting firm IDC, direct digital transformation investments are expected to accelerateOpens a new window by 16.5% between 2022 and 2024 and make up 55% of all IT investments by the end of that time. 

In the United States, the potential gain in GDP from upskilling could be $900 billion by 2030, equivalent to 3.7% of GDP, according to the World Economic Forum’s “Upskilling for Shared Prosperity”Opens a new window 2021 insight report.  

But the benefits of upskilling workers are not confined to cutting-edge industries or developed nations. 

My colleague, Kelly Palmer, who works with the World Economic Forum, has told me that half of all employees around the world will need reskilling by 2025, not including people who are currently unemployed. There is, however, a major disconnect today between education programs and the skills that employers need now and will need in the future.

Systematic upskilling, the report found, could create more inclusive and sustainable economies and lessen the polarization that comes from the unequal distribution of incomes and wealth. Wide-scale investment in upskilling could boost worldwide GDP by $6.5 trillion by 2030.

See More: How to Ensure Successful Digital Transformation in 2023 and Beyond

What Does the Knowledge Worker Need to Know?

The new employee needs to be not only a great learner, but also an expert knowledge worker. This means they need foundational skills that support their daily performance and also need to be experts in navigating the information and opportunities within their wider ecosystem. This tacit knowledge isn’t found in formal education. It is gained by interacting with others in their corporate culture and networks.        

IDC also lists the leading digital transformation trends as the introduction of analytics, AI, machine learning, robotic process automation, low-code tools and cybersecurity. 

To create a truly agile organization ready for the next digital transformation and emerging technology, business leaders need to focus on building the T-shaped individual, an individual with both depth and breadth. Developing such a knowledge worker is the new business challenge. 

To build these T-shaped skills, there are three general skill areas that companies should focus on building:

    • Power skills: formerly known as soft skills, agile skills such as change management, communication and team building are at the forefront of the new power skills. These human and interpersonal skills remain durable over time and can be portable into newly created roles.
    • Functional skills: core subject matter skills that are required to perform a specific job but can be transferred to perform other jobs in the right situations. Here, think of project management skills that can travel from function to function with small tweaks. 
    • Transactional and hot skills: these high-demand skills are required to perform critical jobs related to a business strategy but often have a short shelf life. Ten years ago, being a data scientist was the hottest thing in IT. Today, analysts are predicting that AI will soon be able to do most of what data scientists do today.

Combining these skills will improve overall job performance and success at strategic priority projects while increasing organizational agility and creating greater business value.

What Transformation Leaders Need to Know

L&D leaders need to be closely aligned with project leaders to understand the skills required. This could be a CIO, CTO, chief digital officer, chief data officer, chief innovation officer, or other C-Suite executive. When Capital One implemented a cloud-based digital transformation, its CIO worked closely with senior L&D leadership to build out the required skills, assignments, and content. Cemex did something similar when it built its Supply Chain Academy – they partnered with the CEO and heads of operations. When Pepsi built its Finance Academy, the CFO was the sponsor.

The most advanced CLOs understand the importance of keeping an eye on emerging skills. Vidya Krishnan, the chief learning officer at Ericsson, says that new 5G technologies have changed everything in the telecommunications industry. New products, services, business models, and consulting skills have been created. Therefore, a 5G engineer or product manager must understand these adjacent and multidisciplinary domains.

But beyond this, content is process. If you know the digital transformation strategy and priorities of a given project, you can break them down into roles and tasks, then into skills. You can then map these against your existing workforce skills to see where there are gaps that can be filled through upskilling and reskilling.

Previously, this was a manual task. But more recently, AI has helped to improve the identification, assessment and skills in mapping gaps on a continuous basis. Ironically, the task of understanding your transformation capability is being seamlessly managed by the same AI technology that is forcing the upskilling in the first place.

You should not underestimate the critical role that managers play in upskilling. In organizations with positive learning cultures, employees are much more likely to have discussed growth opportunities with their managers and are more than three times as likely to have had their managers seek out assignments for them to practice their skills.

Success in upskilling teams also requires enabling managers to develop learning opportunities. Managers need access to skill and learning data on team members to inform their team’s development and career conversations.

Effective Upskilling for Sustainable Transformation

Closing the skills gap could generate an additional 2.7 million jobs Opens a new window by 2030, with business services, health and social services expected to gain significantly, according to the World Economic Forum report.

Effective upskilling can also broaden the talent pool and provide a corrective to the labor market for lower-skilled, undervalued people by creating an environment that encourages people to enter sectors where upskilled jobs are better paid. All of this would add up to an “upscaling revolution,” giving people around the world the opportunity to participate in society and in the workforce of the future.

What are your thoughts on the next chapter in digital transformation? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

Image Source: Shutterstock

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Annee Bayeux
Annee Bayeux

Chief Learning Strategist , Degreed

Annee Bayeux is the Chief Learning Strategist at Degreed, an education technology company, workforce capabilities accelerator, and innovator in professional lifelong learning, where she proudly claims that she's helping humans to stay relevant. Annee has 20+ years’ experience in L&D, M&A, Talent and HR Technologies with international blue chips like Bosch, Alstom, General Electric and Danone. She has led learning design and delivery organizations, including building centers of expertise around design, digital transformation and HR technology. Prior to Degreed, she served as Chief Learning Officer at Danone, where she focused on workforce capability and readiness. She spends her time evangelizing about the Future of Work and "smart work culture" to anyone who will listen.
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