Addressing skills gaps
It is no secret that employers today are struggling to find people with the right skills to employ. The rapid changes in technology are making workers’ skills obsolete more quickly than ever before. Business owners feel that their organisation is facing a major change due to digital technologies. Many employers will tell you that their employees do not have what it takes to adapt.
The job market is changing at a rapid pace and workers need ongoing training to keep abreast of the changes. However, some places of work do not provide the necessary learning environment to address workers’ skills gaps. Research shows that workers born in the 1980s and the 1990s place a great importance on training. Some say though that they are likely to leave their job because they are not keeping up with the changes.
To keep up with the changes on the job market, employers need to train their workers for future work. The advent of digitalisation, robotics and artificial intelligence makes essential human skills such as empathy and strategic decision making ever more crucial as workers are increasingly working and interacting with machines.
The managers of different sections at work need to work together and share the same vision to prepare their teams successfully for the future of work. Team leaders should meet and discuss the organisation’s future skills needs, consider how these needs will help expand the business and create a plan that incorporates the fast tracking of skilled workers and training of others to meet the business objectives.
Employers need to prioritise training programmes that help close the skills gaps and provide existing workers with the knowledge and the skills they need to further their careers.
They can do this by identifying skills gaps early on. Before investing in particular training programmes, employers would be wise to first identify which skills are lacking in their workforce. With this information, workplaces can develop the right training programme to ensure the ongoing development of the required skills.
Employers should strive to create a culture of learning and development. A strong learning culture is built on the values of a workplace that is dedicated to knowledge and development. The best way to ensure that this culture runs through the organisation is by making sure that the training is developed alongside the strategic aims of the organisation.
With such a culture and processes in place, workplaces can create training programmes that motivate workers to grow, thus minimising knowledge and skill discrepancies.