Reskilling for sustainable growth 

The AI-volution is here. Generative AI (Gen AI) is transforming the nature and future of work in the fourth industrial revolution, and it is happening at unprecedented speed. According to the World Economic Forum, 80% of today’s current jobs are likely to be transformed by Gen AI; 19% of these jobs will see 50% of their tasks automated or augmented and up to 30% productivity gains are estimated by 2027. But, what does it mean for the work people do and the skills they need? How can HR ensure organisations rise to the challenge that new technology creates and equally help employees embrace the exciting opportunities it provides? 

The impact of technology has compressed more change in how work is done during the past five years than the previous fifty. So, it’s no surprise that Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2024 found the biggest challenge facing organisations is how to create talent agility and sustainable people practices. The rise of human-machine teaming places greater emphasis on uniquely human skills such as critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and lifelong learning, which the World Economic Forum sees as among the top future skills less susceptible to automation. 

Yet technology-driven change is far from the only challenge. The combination of geopolitical instability, inflation, increasing labour costs and skill shortages creates pressures for organisations to build greater flexibility and resilience; flexibility to turn existing talent models inwards to strengthen skills and resilience to create more sustainable working practices, enhancing the overall employee experience. Our Global Talent Trends study found 85% of investors strongly agree that internal people practices are a top investment priority for companies in 2024 – to protect corporate value that can be at risk with unsustainable work practices. 

Against this context, many organisations now accept the cost effectiveness of investing in skills: investment in reskilling and learning how to continually grow employee skillsets is a top 3 priority, as reported by executives. Specifically, providing upskilling (the ‘build’ element) and reskilling (the ‘bridge’ solution) are increasingly the preferred options over the historic default of recruiting externally (buying talent) or using contingent workers (borrowing skills). 

Fortunately, this matches what employees seek: the opportunity to learn and grow in their roles. The convergence of these imperatives provides HR with a significant opportunity to ‘square the circle’ between what organisations need and what employees want – provided they rethink several established People processes. Leading organisations on the skills-powered journey, such as Standard Chartered Bank, have realised cost savings of up to $49,000 per FTE from calculated severance and hiring costs by investing in upskilling and reskilling their existing workforce. 

Very practically, successful organisations are taking a strategic approach to understanding how work is changing, the skills required for new work with AI, assessing current versus future skills and proactively fulfilling skills gaps with internal development solutions. Those who are ahead of the game have placed emphasis on practices that enable people to reskill, upskill and cross-skill. 

Learning and Development teams have a big task on their hands in this regard, finding new ways to democratise learning, and digitalise content to equip employees to ‘learn in the flow of work’ to progress their careers, close skills gaps and create a high performing workforce. 

Ensuring people sustainability and future employability through skills, careers and learning is now a critical part of the AI-volution that employers need to address. As the great futurist Alvin Toffler wrote in his 1970 work ‘Future Shock’: “The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can’t read and write. It will be those who can’t learn, unlearn and relearn”.