Article: Skill shift, automation and the future of the workforce

Employment Landscape

Skill shift, automation and the future of the workforce

Employees with specific skills can be shifted to new roles or have their roles redefined to better serve the company’s needs.
Skill shift, automation and the future of the workforce

The more technology increases and changes, the greater the skills of workers need to shift to adapt to the changes. With AI-powered automation, and the need for remote, digital business operations across all verticals being increasingly felt, there is a massive skill shift underway. There is a change in the nature of jobs today, and a greater demand for technological, social, emotional and superior cognitive skills. Employees as well as employers must be ready to change their approach accordingly. While manual and physical skills will never go out of demand, these must be augmented with digital and cognitive abilities for them to be job fit. Existing employees will have to reskill and upskill themselves to stay relevant in their domain of work. On the other hand, freshers will have to acquire newer skills as per the prevailing trends. 

About 85% of the jobs which will be available in 2030 don’t even exist yet! According to a report, adopting AI and automation will require three types of essential skills: information processing and statistical analysis; social skills such as adapting to a changing business landscape and managing teams; and data analysis or technical skills.

Even in labour-intensive fields such as manufacturing, warehousing and driving, automation will bring about a change in workforce patterns. While automation is one side of the story, some other factors in play include pandemic-induced hybrid working, emergence of the gig economy, and expectations around flexibility in working apart from seismic shifts such as the great resignation. Companies are thus looking for new strategies around hiring and retention of talent which makes it imperative to reorient the existing talent acquisition and management processes in more ways than one. 

Reskilling: Existing workforce must be reassessed on technological, interpersonal and cognitive parameters. They must then be provided with adequate retraining to keep the personnel relevant to their future roles. Advanced IT skills, knowledge of coding, critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities are essential for those looking to make the most of automation and AI. 

Reallocation of the workforce:  As skillsets and expectations change, there will also be a need to redeploy the workforce. Those with greater creative skills might go to relevant departments, and people with advanced IT, coding, or analytical abilities working in roles that don’t leverage these traits, will have to be repositioned. Most enterprises prefer to realign the KRAs and roles of their employees instead of letting them go as long as there is a demand for the skillsets. 

Recruitment restructuring: The hiring processes for fresh talent must be revised to ensure all new hires have the skills necessary for future readiness. 

Releasing talent: It is also important to let go of employees who fail to keep up with the demands of automation-based business operations, and are not gainfully redeployed. They can be identified through an adequate skill assessment and companies can plan strategic layoffs for the improvement of their financial health. 

 The challenge in transitioning to automation

One of the biggest challenges faced by companies while hiring the right resources or assessing their existing workforce is the problem of skill mismatch. Conventional assessment processes for IT employees fail to find the sweet spot between technical, interpersonal and other skills which make them suitable for their roles and the company culture. 

Bad hires end up costing companies several times more as the person would most likely fail to deliver on the expected parameters, plus there would be costs of training and induction. This is where advanced AI technology is helping automate assessments for the IT, ITES, BFSI and other sectors. Curated pre-hiring assessment tests help understand the suitability of the candidates on technical skills alongside evaluating them on other parameters. Leading pre-hire assessment solutions can optimize the screening process and help organisations seamlessly hire the right personnel across skillsets and job roles ranging from entry-level to C-suite positions.

 The way ahead

With automation becoming the standard across industries, it is time to leverage the power of AI and automated pre-hire assessments. This approach can enable thousands of enterprises globally in streamlining and speeding up their hiring processes with precision. Automation further makes the entire hiring experience less tedious and free of repetitions for the HR and the candidates alike. Companies that are keen to make a mark on the business landscape in the years to come must therefore integrate AI-driven automated pre-hire screenings into their recruitment processes!

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Topics: Employment Landscape, #AutomationAndJobs

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