- Real-time guidance platform simplifies the training process
- Digital adoption platform helps reduce employee resistance to change
- Employee learning should be a non-stop process
- Digital technologies help improve collaboration and decision-making
- Strategic partnerships assist companies with their digital transformation
- Innovative platform improves digital readiness
- On-the-job learning helps employees advance their careers
From automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks to enabling remote work, digitalisation is having an incredible impact on the world of work. Although technology has generated new job opportunities, it has also created major skills gaps, and the biggest fear among employees is that digitalisation will make their roles obsolete. Research conducted by Skillsoft, a leader in corporate learning, has shown that 47 per cent of IT professionals claim their departments don’t have the right skills “to meet the needs of the business today.” The same research also revealed that 81 per cent of respondents say they’ll need to learn new skills in the next 18 months to remain employable. So, to make the workforce more innovative, empowered and proactive, businesses need to create a culture of digital dexterity.
Described as “the ability and desire to exploit existing and emerging technologies for better business outcomes,” digital dexterity is fast becoming a priority for modern-day enterprises. Gartner’s research reveals that 77 per cent of CEOs plan to increase their investment in digital capabilities, and 82 per cent already have a digital transformation initiative in place. Since it’s estimated that a quarter of the workforce will need new skills by 2023, organisations must be quick to respond and offer their workforce more training opportunities.
Real-time guidance platform simplifies the training process
To make the workforce digitally dexterous isn’t easy, but there’s plenty of solutions on the market designed to simplify the process. Whatfix, for instance, offers a real-time training platform that employees can use to access all the resources they need for training within their company’s web application. This will help them save time, reduce errors and increase their overall productivity. The platform is easy to use as it allows management and leadership teams to create interactive training guides with zero coding knowledge. After the training guide has been designed and made accessible to employees across multiple touchpoints, the Whatfix platform will use its advanced analytics to measure employee engagement and determine the effectiveness of the training program.
The same tool has been used by Corrigo, a company specialising in mobile applications, as part of its customer training model. Whenever Corrigo released a new update, it created confusion among customers, and the company’s support team was overloaded with requests for assistance. Creating a one-size-fits-all training program wasn’t an option since Corrigo has a wide range of features and a diverse customer base. Thanks to the Whatfix platform, the issue has been solved, and Corrigo’s customers are now provided with step-by-step guidance and training for each update the company releases.
Digital adoption platform helps reduce employee resistance to change
WalkMe offers a similar solution. Its Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) makes it easier for employees to use any web-based application or software. The platform provides contextual assistance, identifies obstacles, and implements the corrective action. Besides featuring guided walk-throughs in real-time, DAP generates visual and statistical insights about employee behaviour and actions within the system. This kind of solution enables companies to accelerate training, improve workflow and reduce employee resistance to change.
Employee learning should be a non-stop process
Savvy businesses know that the key to success lies in a modernised and innovative workforce, which is why Singapore Airlines released the SIA Future@Work program. The aim of the program is to promote continuous learning and help employees stay agile. Employees can take part in workshops, training sessions, and listen to expert talks to learn about data analytics and design thinking, and improve their digital skills. In 2015 SIA launched an app challenge, which became an annual event. Every year, teams from all over the world take part in the competition and submit ideas to solve issues within the industry. In the 2020 AppChallenge, whose grand finale will take place in October, teams are asked to submit ideas on how to use gamification to assess candidates for cabin crew roles, how to address customers’ health & safety concerns during their flight, and many more.
Digital technologies help improve collaboration and decision-making
Digital transformation is essential in today’s digitally driven world, and one of the most effective ways to automate a company and reinvent its business model is by implementing data analytics and AI. Consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G), for example, automated the task of retrieving and aggregating data and performing data analyses. Using a web-based customisable dashboard, the enterprise can now track the most relevant data and improve its decision-making. Another innovation the company decided to implement is known as the Business Sphere. This is “a patented physical environment for information-based executive decision-making” where leadership and management teams can get together to collaborate, review products and make decisions for the future. Effective collaboration is vital in the business world. Hence, we’re witnessing an intense adoption of digital collaboration tools. User-friendly collaboration software from Coolfire helps teams deliver critical information, better organise tasks, and get their jobs done faster and more efficiently.
Strategic partnerships assist companies with their digital transformation
Adapting to the digital era can be quite a challenge for companies who relied on decades-old business models. To assist organisations with their digital transformation strategies, CoreView, which provides a SaaS Management Platform (SMP), established a partnership with a leader in digital transformation services, Metsys. The two companies will combine “intelligent SaaS management, technology development & deployment, and end-user adoption tools,” to help enterprises in France accelerate their digital journey and achieve digital dexterity. CoreView’s technology provides organisations with actionable insights into their Office 365 environment, which helps improve efficiency, reduce operating costs, and avoid security risks. Similarly, Metsys offers IT consulting services and helps companies overcome their digital transformation challenges.
Innovative platform improves digital readiness
Digital Readiness Ideation Velocity Engagement (DRIVE), developed by the Voith Group, is another useful solution designed to improve digital readiness. The DRIVE platform can be used on almost any device. It targets manufacturing companies who need help with educating their workforce on how to utilise digital tech. The platform relies on chatbots to provide initial assistance and also features games through which employees can learn to understand the impact of digitalisation in an entertaining way. DRIVE also offers industry-specific web-based courses to provide the workforce with additional skills and enable employees to learn about the IoT, AI, and other automation technologies.
On-the-job learning helps employees advance their careers
To stay employable in the future, people need to constantly upskill themselves and work on their career development. But throughout this process, they need support from their employers. For this reason, Skillsoft developed Skillsoft Aspire, an on-the-job digital learning tool that provides curated learning paths to help professionals gain new skills and improve their knowledge of technologies, including machine learning, data analysis, and programming. The innovation “delivers learning journeys that provide a clear and detailed roadmap for enterprise technologists and developers to advance their careers while also adding value to their organisations struggling to acquire talent to fill many business-critical technology roles,” explains Mike Hendrickson, vice president of Technology & Developer Products at Skillsoft.
Companies across industries are facing growing skills gaps, and many roles are in danger of becoming obsolete. In order to meet future employment demands, organisations must reskill and upskill their workforce and make it more digitally dextrous. To future-proof their workforce, companies should implement on-the-job training, and deploy innovative learning platforms as well as collaboration tools.
