There isn't just one skills gap; instead, there are multiple skills gaps that exist across cities, for specific skills, at specific points in time- Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn 

The widening talent gap has resulted in Indian talent leaders waking up to the need to look at talent management more holistically. Changing technologies, market structures, and consumer preferences have kept all the industry leaders on their toes, and the managers are in a constant hustle to stay updated with the changes. To crack this code of disruption, it is essential to anticipate the business changes and trends in order to innovate and create. Hence, they must up-skill their employees by anticipating the changes and observing the current business landscape and building insights about future changes. 

Human resource management is experiencing a significant change. From new technologies used for hiring and recruiting to revamping the learning programs for employees, everything is affected by technology.  For e.g. Artificial intelligence is one of the hot topics in all the industries, and it has not been left behind in the workforce management as well. AI has been used by organizations to reduce the turn-around time for recruitment by deploying chatbots and other automation tools for filtering out candidates. As per the LinkedIn survey, 67% of global respondents said that AI helps save time and 43% believe that it removes human bias. Data also suggests that AI will impact recruiting especially in functions such as sourcing candidates (58%), screening candidates (56%) and nurturing candidates (55%). Additionally, LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends report for 2018 found that interviewing innovations are extremely important to the future of hiring for 61% of Indian respondents.  

Following are some trends shared by talent leaders in LinkedIn’s Annual Coffee Table Book: Workforce of the Future:

Irfan Abdulla, Director - India & South Asia, Talent Solutions & Learning Solutions - ‎LinkedIn shares, “By 2020, 35% of core skills will change across industries, and upskilling will be the only way forward for professionals to counter skills disruption. To keep up with a dynamic marketplace, recruiters will give preference to hybrid digital skills in AI, Big Data, and Cloud Computing and an agility to adapt to new technology while assessing high-potential talent. Moving forward, strong soft skills in leadership and communication will be as important as domain skills for career success.”

According to RCM Reddy, CEO and MD of IL&FS Education & Technology services, repetitive tasks are vanishing, and employees who can add value through creativity and influential interpersonal skills will thrive in the future. Talking about the future of technology, Sunil Somarajan, CHRO of Reliance Capital Limited says, “In the last few decades, we bought into concepts of personnel management and labor relations to manage humans. This was followed by managing our workforce with the aid of technology. Today, we are discussing management of technologies for human beings. Finally, there would be a revolution where technology would manage technology. This is a paradigm shift”.

Narendren Nair, Executive VP & CHRO of Voltas Limited gave his insight on the trends of technological changes and outsourcing and was quoted as saying, “Thanks to the effective use of technology, organizations can determine the core activities which have to be performed in-house and the tasks which need to be outsourced. Work of the future will play a critical role in shaping responsibilities for the workforce of the future”. 

On the evolving employee’s expectations from their professional life Rajesh Padmanabhan, Director and CHRO of Welspun Group say, “Workplace of the future will be skewed towards life. It will be more about being, than doing. People will not only seek fun, happiness, and wellness in their personal lives but also in their professional pursuits. Companies need to enable employees to fulfill their ambitions. It calls for a huge mindset change.” 

Naveen Kumar, VP and Head HR of JSW Group adds on a reformation in L&D saying, “The change in mindset on learning and talent management needs to start at the leadership level. Leaders will have to adapt and build a learning culture. Going forward, the CEO will become the Chief Learning Officer for the organization.” Rituranjan Goswami, Vice President and HR of Hinduja Group on the need for gaining skills says, “Earlier, one could spend their entire career with limited expertise. Now, an individual has to be curious and versatile enough to add new capabilities or face the risk of being redundant. We need to be ready for more than one career during our lifetime.” On the same topic Sandeep Chatterjee of, Principal Director of Accenture Strategy has to say, “Organizations must rapidly re-skill the existing workforce to make them future ready and focus at the intersection of digital and human skills across all levels.”

Though there has been a constant debate on the impact of technology on the current job roles and skills, all the changes will augment human capabilities instead of replacing them. Anticipating changes with the proper amalgamation of intuition and observation we will be able to harness the potential of future work trends effectively.