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Building a Skilled Workforce: Trends that Define the Future of Work

Workforce planning March 16, 2023




Building a Skilled Workforce: Trends that Define the Future of Work
Vijay Swaminathan

Chief Executive Officer, Draup

Contributors

Anubhav Bhatt
Anubhav Bhatt

Content Developer

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  • Despite the advent of automation, humans remain crucial for things like complex decision-making, Emotional Intelligence, and Critical Thinking.
  • HR must educate leaders about infusing Soft Skills in traditionally hard-skilled fields like Software Engineering.
  • HR should adopt a more inventive, tech-driven talent management strategy as governments rethink their industrial policies.
  • De-Risking, Staffing Ratios, Skills Specificity, Reskilling, Skills Architecture, Retention, Remote work, and Diversity form critical trends for 2023.
  • As more and more organizations declare a shift towards automated processes, the effects of automation on the global business ecosystem will only increase. 

    What can be automated will be automated, but humans will remain crucial for things like complex decision-making, Emotional Intelligence, and critical thinking. 

    HR has a critical role in informing leaders about the significance of Soft Skills in traditionally hard-skilled areas such as Software Engineering and Product Management.  

    While nations are redesigning their Industrial Policies, the timing is perfect for HR to transition towards a more innovative, tech-driven approach to talent management.  

    This includes developing a framework to run several ‘what-if’ simulations that will help HR leaders stay on top of evolving talent requirements. These simulations need to be run with emerging talent management trends in mind.  

    Here are a few of these trends that HR must leverage to redefine Talent Management for 2023. 

    De-Risking 

    Companies are actively considering new delivery sites to limit risk and optimize cost savings. This technique may involve analyzing emerging cities in developed nations or identifying wholly unique locations that provide a mix of quality and cost. 

    Doing so would enable the companies to get access to wider, more diverse talent pools at a much lesser cost compared to local hiring. 

    Staffing Ratios  

    As Cloud and AI become more popular, companies find that they don’t need as many people for specific tasks as they thought. They find that some technical functions don’t need to be scaled up quickly. 

    We’re already seeing a large scale effect of such a mismatch. In 2023, tech layoffs, especially from fast-growing tech giants are dominating the business headlines. A WaPo report estimates nearly 200,000 IT professionals have been laid off since November 2022. 

    This phenomenon has further brought attention to Tier 2 cities in the US, Europe, the Nordics, China, and India, which now have a talent pool companies can target.  

    Some companies in Europe and the U.S. are already focusing on smaller cities to meet these newly optimized staffing levels. 

    Skills Specificity 

    A business has several functions, and within each function, the availability of specific skills is limited. As a result, companies are now emphasizing developing specialized skills for each job function. 

    For example, a Data Analyst’s primary skillset comprises of Problem-Solving, Critical Thinking, Data sourcing and Management as well as Visualization tools. This skillset is largely concentrated to this role with some aspects similar to the Data Scientist role. Each role will require a specific skillset that combines both hard and soft skills in the correct balance. 

    Reskilling 

    Specialists are needed to transform global businesses using new technology. This unexpected requirement for specialized skills makes a large percentage of the workforce “obsolete” and destabilizes the global talent pipeline. 

    Reskilling can be a game-changer by infusing quality talent with specific skills to boost corporate growth in the coming decade. 

    Several transitions are already being targeted for reskilling, such as a Data Analyst transitioning into a Data Engineer or a Program Manager becoming an Agile Manager. 

    Skills Architecture 

    Structured job hierarchies that clearly define roles, responsibilities, rewards, and growth routes have been the foundation of enterprise workforce strategies for quite some time. 

    More and more businesses are considering possibly incorporating skills-based architecture into their systems. The primary goal is to use current systems to their full potential rather than spending extra money. 

    Retention 

    Keeping talented people at a company is hard when they come from different cultures, have diverse educational backgrounds, and have different personalities.  

    Losing employees hurts productivity, puts the company’s finances at risk, and, most importantly, can make employees lose interest in their work. 

    Even though big tech companies are still focused on short-term layoffs, there is a growing concern about losing exceptional talent in the process.  

    Specific plans are in development for keeping quality talent and getting a better idea of the Employee Value Proposition. 

    Remote Work 

    The pandemic re-evaluated work-life balance and family time for people. Looking beyond traditional 9 to 5 jobs, employees now want to be more involved in their lives than before. 

    Businesses are defining remote and flexible work more clearly globally by working on more concrete global guidelines on what Remote and Flexible mean in 2023. 

    Another focus area is the Hybrid Work Model. 87% of employees prefer to work from home one day a week. 68% of American employees think working remotely and on-site is ideal for 2023. 

    Diversity & Inclusion 

    The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics reports that 35% of STEM workers are women who earn less than males. 

    Women executives quitting tech businesses is a global problem. Inclusion challenges across gender, ethnicity, and cognitive abilities dominate boardroom discussions. 

    Draup’s data-driven talent intelligence platform provides organizations with real-time insights to help them make informed talent management decisions and improve their overall success.  

    With Draup, businesses can access detailed talent profiles, including skills, experience, and job performance data. This information can be used to identify skill gaps, develop customized training programs, and make informed hiring decisions. 

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