Key Takeaways
- In a fast-changing world, agility is key. Adapt swiftly to new technologies and evolving trends to stay ahead of the competition.
- Invest in developing skills to meet future challenges. Prioritize lifelong learning to bridge the gap between employer expectations and employee capabilities.
- Success lies in empowering your workforce. Prioritize employee development and create a work environment that fosters growth and productivity for all.
The automotive industry is an accurate barometer for how quickly business leaders need to think, act and adapt. Trends like battery electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and shared ownership are upending more than a century of traditional auto manufacturing in just a few years, forcing legacy brands to rip up decades-old operating models, innovate like never before and be more nimble.
No sector is immune. Healthcare is fast embracing remote patient care and wearable devices. Agile fintech start-ups are eating into traditional financial institutions market share. Government is waking up to the power of digital services. And so it goes on.
The lesson from all this? Adapt quickly and you thrive. Adapt slowly and you risk losing momentum to competitors.
Skills are the new currency in this dynamic digital age, but they are in short supply. Even though 90% of CEOs expect digital transformation to disrupt their company, for example, only 30% believe their workforce is ready with the right skills. Moreover, many of the skills needed for the future do not yet exist. Who could have predicted 10 years ago that ‘bioinformacists,’ ‘drone operators’ and ‘camera algorithm engineers’ would be today’s in-demand skills?
Employees, particularly millennials, have also changed their expectations when it comes to career development, with a focus on empowered learning, real-time performance feedback and continuous lifelong learning. If these expectations are not met, you can guarantee they will be on LinkedIn in a flash finding an employer with these rewards.
This has led to a skills confidence gap between employers and employees, with almost half of employers citing talent shortages as one of their top three most urgent concerns in the next three years. These employers also see a strong positive correlation between business performance and the quality of new skills development opportunities offered to employees.
So what’s the secret sauce to staying ahead? Unite your business around the workforce. Develop the skills they want to succeed. And give them modern, experiential learning opportunities in the flow of work.
A new world demands new rules. It’s time for talent leaders to create a work environment that inspires growth, productivity and success for all.
The Cornerstone EMEA Trends Report for 2023 surfaces nine people and workplace trends expected to unfold in 2023. The following is a flavour of some of the insights in the report.
In the HCM space, for example, one of the predicted trends this year will be for employee retention programs to better match expectations. Employers will focus more on developing skills at the time of need and potentially deploying an ‘opportunity marketplace’ to connect talent to work opportunities. Moreover, analytics will play a vital role in retention success: by collecting more information about the employee experience and acting on these insights, organisations will be better positioned to meet changing employee expectations.
The report also predicts changes to content too. There will be growth in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging content alongside health and wellbeing content. Both are vital to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging to improve reputation and retention. Sustainability (environmental and social governance) content is anticipated to grow by 100% too – with demand likely to overtake other learning priorities in the coming years.
The report also surfaces new learning trends. In 2023, organisations will continue to harness to power of learning experience platforms (LXPs) to democratise teaching and learning. LXPs bring together experiential learning, content and skill building, transforming learning into a connected engine of growth, agility and mobility. This in turn drives a sense of inclusion and autonomy across your organisation, fuelling satisfaction and retention.
Make no mistake: the way we manage people and develop skills will be very different in the next five years compared to the past 20. The best companies are the ones that continue to reinvent themselves in today’s rapidly changing business environment.
Talent leaders play a crucial role in connecting people with growth opportunities and business goals. The skills confidence gap between employers and employees highlights the need for companies to prioritise lifelong learning and provide employees with the skills they need to succeed in the digital age. By doing so, they can close the gap and stay ahead of the competition.
Now is the time for action: consider implementing a training and development program that focuses on empowering your employees with the skills they need to thrive in the future.
All of this is covered in depth in the new Cornerstone EMEA Trends Report for 2023. Offering rigorous, in-depth insight into the people and workplace trends shaping the future, the report is an indispensable way for forward-thinking organisations to prepare for what’s over the horizon.
You can read the full Cornerstone EMEA Trends Report 2023 “People and workplace trends for the year ahead” here.
