Skills-Mapping in the Workplace: How Organizations Will Compete in the Future of Work
Develop Your Workforce
Working at such a strategic level within your company, you’re probably not worried about losing your job to a robot anytime soon. But can your employees say the same?
As we witness the expanding role of automation and digitization in the workforce—what researchers are calling the 4th Industrial Revolution1—automation and digital technologies are bringing about incredible amounts of change in the modern workplace and driving the half-life of skills down from four to five years to 12 to 18 months.2 In fact, it’s estimated that 65% of today’s students will graduate into jobs that don’t yet exist3 and that by 2030, 375 million workers will need to switch occupational categories and adapt to co-exist with machines.4
Of course, it’s unlikely that technology will completely take over all of the jobs that humans currently perform today. But there’s no escaping the fact that as automation takes over detail-oriented, technical, and repetitive tasks, the role of the employee and
the skills they need to be successful in the workplace will shift drastically, putting increased pressure on universally-useful “soft” skills like logical thinking, communication, and resilience.
