The world of work is continually changing. What was relevant in terms of job skills that employers are looking for tends to increase by 10% each year, according to a recent study conducted by Gartner. That means that some 33% of the job skills needed just a few years before are no longer required or relevant.
HR Dive’s Ryan Golden reports that while workers and job seekers alike are continually updating and upgrading their skills to meet what organizations believe that they want and need, they are only using or applying just over half (54%) of those skills.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has primarily caused workers to have to adapt quickly and often learn new skills on the fly. What organizations used to view as digital initiatives, have now become digital imperatives, and that’s left HR professionals and C-Suite executives scrambling in order to adapt to today’s workplace challenges. The study found that nearly two-thirds of the respondents are approaching these challenges reactively, creating further frustration for workers and executives alike.
When HR professionals, executives, and workers try to predict what will be the next in-demand skillsets, they often focus on the wrong ones. According to Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, the pandemic has shown how much the global skills gap is widening.
It was revealed in a meeting at the National Skills Coalition in April of this year many workers lacked sufficient digital skills in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, and retail. During the pandemic, organizations surveyed had shifted between 85% to 99% of their in-person learning programs to online learning formats to help workers meet the challenge of the constantly changing workplace landscape.