Having the right know-how and being able to adapt to changing trends and industry shifts can make all the difference to how a business functions today.
In a burgeoning economy that has been characterised by almost constant change, employees have taken cognisance of the need to remain relevant amidst a technological revolution.
Over the last year, several conversations have been kick-started around the need for upskilling and reskilling, with companies and employees alike taking proactive steps towards the same.
In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, 50% of employees worldwide will need reskilling as technology adoption increases – and this need has likely only increased given the pandemic.
A survey Skilling Today, conducted by global outplacement firm Randstad RiseSmart, revealed that 77% of companies that offer skilling make it available to all of their employees.
This means that employers in India recognise how rapidly the world of work and job market are evolving and, as a result, are embracing skilling.
Skilling Today's report features inputs from a global pool of 1,099 HR professionals and 1,142 employees, across eight countries (including India) and 20 industries.
The survey took into consideration 152 HR professionals and 154 individual employees from India, representing businesses of all sizes.
Based on this study, here are the 5 skills to future-proof your workforce in a post pandemic world.
1. Artificial Intelligence
As businesses seek to give their users an enhanced experience, technology and predictive tools are playing a critical role in enabling the same.
To this extent, AI has emerged as one of the hottest skills to have, and its demand is only set to increase as technology adoption continues.
Being a highly scientific field, employees seeking to upskill in this area have taken on a pragmatic approach that translates knowledge into real-world skills and helps them develop capabilities to create data sets, build machine learning models, and use Python and/or R programming to deliver measurable results.
2. Adaptability
When the pandemic set in, businesses had to transform their operating models practically overnight.
One of the major takeaways from this, was the need for adaptability to be able to handle such situations.
In today's highly dynamic work environment, it is no surprise that adaptability is one of the most sought-after skills, required to meet the demands of the day.
Being able to adapt to changing situations with ease, and in an efficient manner is a sign of a strong leader.
Having the right know-how and being able to adapt to changing trends, destabilization, industry shifts can make all the difference to how a business functions today, and hence will see a strong demand from employers.
3. Creativity
As an in-demand skill, creativity goes beyond having the ability to look at a situation differently.
Today, creativity encompasses being able to overcome challenges in new ways, and with ease.
Lateral thinking, and visual reading are just a part of the components of having a creative bend of mind.
Creativity among employees also extends towards the way they view failures -- as opportunities to learn, improve, and rethink their ideas until they arrive at a solution.
4. Blockchain
What was initially designed to be a technology to support Bitcoins has now evolved into a revolutionary means of handling data and doing business in a digital world.
As the demand for blockchain technologies in daily operations increases, so has the demand for resources with a strong knowledge of the same.
Within this space, employers have laid emphasis on identifying and recruiting talent with a strong knowledge of understanding cryptography, distributed computing, security and consensus algorithms.
5. Affiliate Marketing
With large scale unrest and uncertainty in the market, trust between consumers and brands is at an all-time low.
In order to remedy this, affiliate marketing is an important skill today.
Being an affiliate marketer involves constantly ideating to solve problems and bring in solutions that will restore customer's faith in brands.
From research and analytics, to planning and executing well-crafted campaigns that deliver measurable results, affiliate marketing has a lot of potential to change the face of the sales game.
