INTRODUCTION

Against the backdrop of rapid technological change, businesses are rapidly transforming. What sets this particular transformation apart from those that have gone before is the sheer scale and speed at which it is radically redefining the way we interact – both with technology, and indeed with one another – not just in the workplace, but across society as a whole.

Much has been written about both the threats and the opportunities associated with a greater reliance on technology, but until now the collective voice of those standing to be most directly affected by this change has been somewhat absent from mainstream discourse.

That is why Capita has published a new report, ‘Robot wars or automation alliances? People, technology and the future of work’, which addresses important questions about how the full potential of automation can be unlocked, while also harnessing ‘meaningful work’ for people into the future.

Skills are the new competitive advantage

At a macro level, what’s intriguing about digital transformation is that it has galvanised a movement for organisations to rethink the relationship between their people and technology. Seven out of 10 business leaders see the creation of a ‘hybrid’ workforce as being their biggest challenge. As a result, this has called for them to also re-examine what they see as being of value.

The prevalence of artificial intelligence, process automation, and machine learning means that despite driving upfront benefits, technology alone will soon not be enough to differentiate businesses – and give them a competitive advantage. Instead, what becomes crucial is the unique set of skills and attributes that people bring to an organisation – as well as how successfully these are leveraged in tandem with new technology-driven resources.

Quite simply, the optimal state is one of complete symbiosis between people and technology. If technology is no longer the differentiator, then the notion of skills as future currency becomes a central trope for any success story.

Employers want skills on demand

What we’re seeing in today’s environment is a paradigm shift in the way that organisations regard their talent. With the shelf-life of traditional qualifications diminishing, businesses are far less interested in the rigid academic qualifications that were a pre-requisite historically or well-defined role profiles and far more focused on understanding and utilising individuals’ specific skills, mindsets and behaviours. As a major supplier of talent services, we’ve witnessed the shift first-hand; organisations are adopting an increasingly agile approach to talent attraction and deployment – one that places far more emphasis on the ability to access skills at the point of need.

Make no mistake, this change isn’t solely driven by organisations. Society at large has a vastly different view of what it means to work today versus ten years ago. The workforce encompasses five-generations from traditionalists to digital natives. There’s a growing expectation of individuals to work when, how and for whom they like, giving rise to a gig-economy that is only set to gain momentum.

Employer access to skills: build, borrow, or buy?

All of this challenges the notion of the traditional employer-employee contract and asks us to carefully consider what it means to cater for such diverse workforce demands. It also tests us to rethink traditional ‘job’ categories in favour of a more fluid approach to skills. Gone are the days of a linear approach to talent management; instead, business leaders are now faced with a number of options to ‘buy’ ‘borrow’ or ‘build’.

Buying skills: the traditional approach

Buying skills is the traditional talent acquisition approach and one that isn’t going away. Organisations will continue to need to develop pools of talent from which they can draw both their core and their peripheral workforces. They’ll need to ensure that at the same time they’re enabling their employees to do their best work and providing them with a best-in-class employee experience across the moments that matter. They must attempt to re-hire their people every day and ensure that when they do leave, they’ve left as advocates and will likely return with their vital skills, time and time again.

Borrowing skills: flexible and cost-effective

Borrowing is an agile, cost-effective approach to accessing the right skills at the right time. We’re already helping our clients to do that through our Novus Programme, in which we recruit Computing graduates, train them in a range of specialist IT skills and then place them with clients on a variety of projects, for flexible amounts of time. When they are no longer needed, we take them back. At the Ordnance Survey, our Novus consultants helped to cut costs and implement new agile working practices quickly and effectively, by supporting its senior engineers. We see this module continuing to become more and more prevalent.

Building skills: upskilling employees

The hybrid workplace is where I see building skills coming into its own. Organisations know they have to respond, with 88% of business leaders believing that upskilling employees in new and emerging areas are essential. Equally, employees expect a strong focus on learning, with 60% believing that AI makes the ability to rapidly learn new skills a pressing priority. People will need to constantly update their skills, to make sure they stay relevant and employable, and organisations will need to keep up with fast-changing technology, which means learning and development have a critical role to play.

A blended approach to employer skills strategy

I believe the most successful organisations will blend three approaches to access skills – buy, borrow and build. As the leader of Capita People Solutions, my teams are ensuring organisations realise the true value of their human potential. To tackle this, we must champion the development of transferable skillsets for the future, accelerating support for reskilling and building a shared base-level of digital understanding across the workforce. Skills are undoubtedly the enabler of future success.

If your desire is not only to survive in the future but thrive, putting the skills agenda front and centre is an absolute must. For Capita, this report is the start of the process of thinking about how these new technologies work for everyone – and will form the basis of discussions we’ll be having with businesses, policymakers, our clients and employees about automation.

Download the full report ‘People, technology and the future of work’ now at capita.com/futureofwork