It’s been more than two years since the pandemic struck, upending the rhythm of life. Businesses have been struggling with covid curbs, many have shut down, while some others have had to let go of staff to merely survive, as restrictions froze commercial activity and strangulated demand for goods and services. This has dramatically altered the business landscape, prompting organisations to reinvent the way they operate. As organisations slowly emerge from the pandemic, they would look to not only make up for the lost time and output, but  also accelerate their productivity journey in 2022. Old ways may no longer work, and organisations will need to heavily invest in building the key skills required for the new era of work. As a result, skilling and digital learning will take center stage in 2022. 

Faster implementation of reforms will enable the learning ecosystem to improve course completion rates by 25%, reduce dropout rates by 20%, as per the latest insights shared by TeamLease EdTech. 

“The sudden shift to digital learning resulted in the ed-tech sector growing by 65% and creating close to 1,25,000 new employment opportunities,” said Shantanu Rooj, CEO & Founder, TeamLease EdTech.

In 2022, the need of the hour is to enable faster, seamless implementation of these reforms. Investments are required to further boost the adoption of technology and the creation of a stronger digital learning ecosystem. “One of the major paradigm shifts in 2022 is the role that online universities will play with regard to massifying higher education in India and improving overall gross enrolment ratios,” added Shantanu. 

The collaboration between universities and corporations will help tackle the challenge of skills shortage. But before that happens, it is critical to address and identify what skills India Inc is hiring for?

Skills in demand

While task-oriented skills remain critical for success at work, LinkedIn’s report shows that employers are giving equal importance to soft skills that play a critical role.

Among soft skills, emotional intelligence makes a new entry to this year’s top soft skills list.  Additionally, organisations can also be seen prioritsing skills like creativity, collaboration, persuasion and adaptability. 

“As we continue to evolve in the new working model, there is a lot of emphasis on soft skills. In organisations such as ours, the success of initiatives depends on the employee’s ability to collaborate, think win-win, effective listening, and teamwork are prized soft skills,” Ajay Sreedhara, CHRO, Cleartrip, told People Matters. 

StanPlus founder & CEO Prabhdeep Singh shared, “Analytical thinking and innovation will be most in demand.” Along with this, leadership and stress tolerance is a key skill in many roles now, he added. 

Many companies can be seen hiring for soft skills and going beyond degrees, qualifications, and experience. The focus is more on the potential.

On the other hand, with organisations prioritising their digital efforts in 2022, skills including blockchain, cloud computing, analytical reasoning, artificial intelligence, and UX design are also in demand.

Pallavi Tyagi, CHRO, India, Capgemini, shared with People Matters, “In 2022, hiring will be across emerging digital skills such as cloud, engineering and research and development, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, edge computing and cybersecurity. This graph is only going to go upward from here.”

Founder & CEO of INT. (Indus Net Technologies) Abhishek Rungta of says that the top skills that will be in demand in 2022 are: Data science, AI architect, UX design, blockchain programming, data, and IT security, cloud architect, product managers, and DevOps engineer. 

While companies boost their hiring initiatives to onboard these in-demand skills, the job market doesn’t seem to be offering these skills. Most of these skills are new and a vast majority of talent is not equipped with them. Hence, the talent leaders need to invest more in training and development and work along with educational institutes and the government to nurture a skilled workforce.