Top Skills for Workforce Resilience in Troubled Times

The global pandemic has created a complex economic future and leaves many organisations with workers ill-prepared for the major disruptions they faced. HR and People Operations staff have had a hard time dependent on the sector they were in, such as dealing with massive job loss, new digital job creation, upskilling existing staff, and an increasing hybrid or part-time workforce.

These trends are likely to be with us for many years, and the digital job creation and hybrid workforces are likely to stay. This has led to organisations having to pivot quickly to accommodate drastic changes in company hiring plans, replace in-person interviews with video interviews, and address the mental and emotional health of their staff and team leaders.

The top skills in 2022 in demand for today’s workforce

From eCom’s work with a wide range of organisations, in 2022 we have seen the following key training identified:

• Engagement; understanding the organisational objectives, clarity of roles and processes, key business activities, quality assurance.
• Digital skills; including basic computer literacy programmes, cloud computing systems, online presenting, working with data, information security and overall cyber awareness.
• Leadership skills; including well-being of staff, building resilience, communication and reporting of KPIs.
• Self-development opportunities; range of courses developing creativity and adaptability.

Skills being promoted are: Leadership, Resilience, Digital, Creativity, Collaboration, People management, Critical thinking.

Understanding the vulnerabilities, challenges and opportunities your business is likely to encounter while upskilling the workforce

The great resignation is real and it is a challenge that many organisations are facing, with employees having had the time to reflect on their careers, work-life balance and choice of life-style.  Managers are now navigating the ripple effects from the pandemic, as employees evaluate their careers and move jobs in record numbers.

However, as we now turn towards recovery, the staff shortages in many organisations are starting to affect viability and profitability.  When employees were asked why they moved on, generally it was due to the lack of training, opportunities to develop their skills, along with the opportunity to work more flexibly. Organisations that want to retain and attract talented staff are treating this with a high priority.  In the past many small organisations worried about training staff as they would then leave to larger companies, but now it is a case of train them or they will leave.

How industry leaders are making workforce skills development central to their organization’s workforce resiliency strategy

Small and Medium sized companies have seen the biggest growth in training in 2022 and this is likely only to increase into 23-24.  Hybrid workforce training, along with a greater emphasis on inclusivity, participation, engagement, and performance, will define the L&D strategies in 2022-23. 

Supporting the resilience of your workforce over the next 2-3 years is going to be key to ensuring your organisation works through the ongoing turbulent economic conditions. Mental health really suffered during the pandemic as many employees on furlough were unsure of their futures.  These employees are now in your organisation and have little resilience to change and lack of respect shown by the public.   You will increasingly see large organisations adopting well-being strategies to develop staff resilience and are now asking the public to have respect when dealing with their staff.

Developing your resilience strategy is key to supporting and developing your workforce’s skills in 2022.

So have a pause and reflect, and review your L&D initiatives in 2022

• Identify the priorities and focus areas for 2022-23. 
• Identify what skills and L&D trends are necessary for your hybrid workforce in 2022.

What has eCom being doing. eCom has been championing the move to new technologies for many years, COVID has seen many more businesses realise they need to start upskilling staff fast if they are to survive the changes that are going to arise over the next 5 years.

Digitisation and Robotics are moving at pace, so many old routine jobs are being automated. It is considered by the CBI - that nine in ten employees will need to learn new skills by 2030   That is why eCom welcome the UK Government Skills for Jobs White Paper, and The Lifetime Skills Guarantee which  opens the door for many to retrain, although more information on how business will be able to get involved and access any supported training is not clear, other than individuals using the Government commitment to delivering the flexible loan entitlement and boosting access to modular learning.

We work with clients not only to help them deliver their training activities via the cloud, but also to support their culture and ensure organisational effectiveness and return on investment.