Innovation in Developing Human Capital

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

It’s an understatement that technology is reshaping the nature of work. During the pandemic when lockdowns occurred around the world, technology literally saved our bacons by enabling us to continue communicating, collaborating, and working, albeit in limited ways.

But these so-called limited ways soon turned into opportunities that organisations have begun to recognise and are learning to adapt to, and leverage upon.

So, what are the takeaways for employees and organisations? What are the new skills we need to learn for the post-pandemic way of work? What strategies should organisations have in place to reskill and upskill their workforce?

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Manager of Policy and Insights, Michael Frank, moderated a panel of HR leaders to glean their thoughts.

He asked, “Technology is fundamentally related to the nature of work, it is at its core and is a combination of labour and work – do people have the skills necessary so automation will make them more productive?”

 More urgently, what skills development strategies should organisations no matter its size, have in place?

Raghav Gupta, MD for Coursera in India and APAC shared three things that he observed was happening.

He said, there are digital transformation journeys that many companies are on, and as result they are investing more in technology now than they were before the pandemic. “The numbers are very large, upwards of USD15 billion in investment every week is happening in technology around the world.”

 More urgently, what skills development strategies should organisations no matter its size, have in place?

The second thing he observed was many  companies saying their workers will continue to work from home, to a large extent.  “So, there will be virtual teams working from home after the pandemic as well.”

The third thing around traditional jobs have seen many  people losing these  jobs and not getting work. “Instead organisations like the World Economic Forum is talking about a whole lot of reskilling and new digital jobs that are going to be created.

‘And there is talk about over 150 million additional jobs being created in the next four years.”

Because of what Coursera does as an e-learning platform, the research they do find 80- to 90-percent of companies undergoing transformation.

The irony is, about half  of employees in those companies feel they are ready for this transformation. So, the answer to the question of whether employees are actually ready for this upcoming change, is possibly No in general, according to Raghav, who recognised that different companies are at different levels of maturity in terms of the skills of their workforce.

So, the answer to the question of whether employees are actually ready for this upcoming change, is possibly No in general.

Employee experience

Charise Le of Schneider Electric commented about how the speed of tech innovation is pushing companies to rethink their employees experience.

She believed it is important to overcome the common perception that tech will supersede the human at the work place. “These are the things we have to keep in mind.”

Charise had an important note about people, data, and technology, and firmly opines that the three should be integrated.

She believed it is important to overcome the common perception that tech will supersede the human at the work place. “These are the things we have to keep in mind.”

 “Somehow we need to ensure all three enable each other,” she said giving the example of an internal HR platform her organisation had introduced to its workforce in 2019, which transparently exposed jobs and project opportunities, and used AI to match skills and interests with relevant opportunities.

“It’s a total shift of how we empower our employees to own their careers and also their learnings,” she said.

Vikrant Kapur from Indiabetter.com, commented about AI complementing people skills.

“I think we’re all aware that as more and more technology like AI becomes available, and scalable, it should free up an employee’s mind space for more creative and more thoughtful outcomes. And that’s across industries across functions, across roles.

The role of humans then, is going to become increasingly consultative and advisory in nature.

Petronas’ Nor Hazleen Madros said, “Alot of automation, IoT, digitisation, all those things had started even before the pandemic.  For us in PETRONAS,  that was really the case.

“Agility was very key. Digitalisation, digital knowledge skills was very key. And I think customer focus was also something that was very key for us.”

Priority shift?

Coursera, compared top 10 skills employed individuals wanted to learn in 2019 versus 2020.

Here it is also worth noting the platform has over 80 million individuals from nearly 6000 organisations, learning on it.

When top 10 skills of the two years were compared, Raghav shared the difference could not be starker.

“In 2019, Python was number 1, followed by neural networks, algorithms, deep learning, supply chain cloud, data skills.

“But in 2020, the top skill was writing, followed by strategy, then Python, then mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, kindness, listening, algorithms, and listening!

“So, this shift we saw from tech and data science skills to human skills and ability to navigate massive change all around us, leads us to believe that the future of the working professional is a combination of digital skills and human skills.”

Meeting People development objectives

Michael asked, “How does this change courses and skills that Coursera offers, and also how Coursera works with partners on reskilling and upskilling initiatives?

Raghav said,  Coursera has always envisioned the complete employer is going to be a combination of somebody with functional skills, and also human skills.

So, this shift we saw from tech and data science skills to human skills and ability to navigate massive change all around us, leads us to believe that the future of the working professional is a combination of digital skills and human skills.

That said, the platform contains 11 domains of content which numbers in the thousands.

So, a new outcome of the pandemic is a Leadership Academy to help learners navigate the thousands of courses on the platform.

In essence, the platform’s architecture is simplifed to better meet a learner’s objectives for learning, as well as meet Coursera’s intent to future-ready the learner with a combo of digital and human skills.

Vikrant, noted that one overall theme he saw was this new sense of self-enablement.

“What we truly need to be able to do is enable our folks and help them see what’s in it for them… have them become a part of their learning journey.

“The other reality is  people like to develop multiple skills, and be multi potential,  to be able to become functional in different spaces.

Vikrant, noted that one overall theme he saw was this new sense of self-enablement.

Given these realities, organisations have an opportnity to step up, but what steps can they take?

It’s a change management activity

For Vikrant, this involves thinking about how to invest in programmes and products that enable multi-skilling or reskiling.

He cautioned that it’s not just about rolling out a programme, but rather a change management activity, with part of it ensuring the new skills acquired can be leveraged at the workplace, because especially tech skills have limited shelf life.

‘So, given the limited shelf life of skills, how so we ensure people and that skill set continues to be relevant in the future?

So, those are a few things that as organisations I’m sure, and all of us are thinking of.”

Vikrant addressed this in an interesting way. He set up several flex teams which are able to provide cross-functional  support to the business because they’re multi skilled on more than one tech stack, or they have mastered more than one business process function.

“So, I think that’s that’s one part of thinking that exists. But definitely, one challenge that remains on the tech side is the shelf life of certain skills and platforms and how to constantly evolve so that people and skills relevancy are future-proof.”

Responsibility to support

Cherise pointed out it is the company’s responsibility to support and help their employees be future ready.

“I think this is also a key mission of the company,” she said while opining that transparency is an important element for conversations with employees about key trends in terms of skills and roles within and outside the organisation.

“And we found that there is actually a very high level of correlation between those companies that have high levels of skill proficiency and how they perform on the stock market if they are a publicly listed company.

“This requires the organisation to also be able to provide learning and development faster, more effectively, in a way that is personalised and also on a larger scale.

As though on cue, Raghav shared about research Coursera has done around correlation between a company’s skill proficiency levels and its stock performance.

“And we found that there is actually a very high level of correlation between those companies that have high levels of skill proficiency and how they perform on the stock market if they are a publicly listed company.

“Being able to link the two was a bit of a revelation,” Raghav conclluded.