Digital technologies and AI are revolutionising the labour landscape, and today’s workers must acquire new skills and constantly adapt to new challenges. The emergence of the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated this transformation process. However, there still remains a point of uncertainty regarding the specific skills that will be required of the workers of the future.
The McKinsey Global Institute has analysed the landscape of jobs that will be lost and those that will be created with the advent of automation, artificial intelligence and robotics.
The demand for manual and physical skills, as well as basic cognitive skills, is expected to decrease, while the importance of technological, social, emotional and higher cognitive skills will grow.
Governments are interested in promoting the development of these skills among their citizens, but the precise definition of the necessary skills is a challenge.
In an increasingly automated, digital and dynamic labour market, all citizens will benefit from possessing a set of core competencies that meet the following three criteria, regardless of sector or occupation:
Academic researches such as that of the Rome Business School shows that while it is important to ensure an adequate professional reward system within the company. It is also crucial to recognize that the integrated development of personalized growth processes plays a crucial role in attracting and engaging staff.
Compensation management has the task of maintaining employee loyalty by offering company benefits in line with market expectations.
However, pay equity is only one of many factors that determine the attractiveness of a company. In addition to remuneration, the quality of working life, interpersonal relations and the working environment play a significant role.
The total reward approach distinguishes itself by evaluating employee compensation not only in terms of salary, but also by dividing it into four specific categories: pay, benefits, learning and development and work environment.
This approach aims to ensure a comprehensive and customized incentive package that reflects the needs and expectations of employees and thus contributes to improving staff satisfaction and commitment to the company.
The World Economic Forum report also shows how the skills required by companies are increasingly evolving: company reports predict a change in the importance of the skills required by their workforce over the next five years.
Cognitive skills are expected to experience the fastest growth, reflecting the increased importance of solving complex problems in the workplace. And creative thinking is expected to grow slightly faster than analytical thinking, while competence in technology is seen as the third fastest growing.
Self-efficacy skills are expected to surpass interpersonal skills in terms of increasing importance, as reported by the interviewed companies.
Social-emotional aptitudes such as curiosity and continuous learning; resilience, flexibility and agility; and motivation and self-awareness are expected to increase significantly.
Adding to this is systematic thinking: AI and Big Data, talent management, and service and customer service orientation round out the top 10 skills predicted to grow in importance.
These findings underscore the changing landscape of in-demand skills and underline the need for workers to cultivate a wide range of skills to thrive in the future world of work.
