How to ensure your workforce is ready for Industry 4.0
According to a recent The recruitment agency by 2030 as many as 375 million workers – that’s roughly 14 percent of the global workforce – may need to change occupational categories as digitisation, automaton and advances in AI disrupt the world of work.
The impact that Industry 4.0 will have on businesses around the world is something that we can’t afford to underestimate. As much as we’re all getting our heads around the technological implications of smart factories and the role of automaton and artificial intelligence, it’s still all about the people.
A well-adapted workforce is one that is ready for the innovation that’s to come. It’s educated, informed and retrained in a way that means it not only harnesses the new Industry 4.0 era, but makes it work effectively for your business.
So what role can employers play in enabling this workforce transition? In the short-term it’s all about evolution, not revolution – retaining your current talent and developing the skills you ready have.
We need to understand how skills are changing
In less than four years, one third of desired skill sets that employers will look for are not yet considered important to the job today. This evolution of skills is based on The Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum, and may give us an insight into how employers might be looking to shape their future workforce.
Top 10 skills in 2015
- Complex problem solving
- Coordinating with others
- People management
- Critical thinking
- Negotiation
- Quality control
- Service orientation
- Judgment and decision making
- Active listening
- Creativity
Top 10 skills in 2020
- Complex problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- People management
- Coordinating with others
- Emotional intelligence
- Judgement and decision making
- Service orientation
- Negotiation
- Cognitive flexibility
In summary, active listening and quality control have been replaced by completely new skills lie emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility. Existing skills like creativity and critical thinking will become much more desirable.
The challenge of a growing skills mismatch
The recruitment agency, Randstat, have identified four reasons why there’s already a growing mismatch between what companies need and what talent can offer.
First, the growing role of automaton means that jobs are changing, with a need for more high-level and strategic roles.
Second, there’s an acutely heightened need for talent with advanced technological skills to work with new technologies such as AI, data analytics, robotics and blockchain in setting ranging from smart factories to networked supply chains.
Third, as technologies and machines become more advanced, new, untapped roles are opening up involving programming, supervising and troubleshooting interconnected machines.
Fourth, technologies of the future will require skills that we can’t even begin to predict right now.
It’s clear that if we don’t start skilling now, we risk falling even further behind as Industry 4.0 continues to evolve. Mitrefinch has looked at some of the important ways employers can specifically help retrain and re-educate their workers.
Ways to get the workforce ready
Developing new skills
Many workers are highly skilled in computer use but can expand their skillset by being retrained in data-based decision making. This means less time on repetitive and predictable tasks and more time on creative endeavours. Data interpretation and trend analysis will become important skills.
Restructuring teams
When younger employees are integrated into existing teams, they have the opportunity to inject vital energy and impart new tech know-how into the group without disrupting a well-performing model.
Demystifying technology
Workers are less intimidated by new and complex technology when they understand its main principles of operation. Regular briefings on new Industry 4.0 tech upgrades are a must-have, so it becomes organically integrated into the way people work, rather than bolted on.
Clarifying roles
Good leadership is required to prevent any lack of productivity that comes from confusion over evolving roles and positions. Clear direction helps avoid any internal divisions and misunderstandings driven by the fear for job stability. HR departments have a big role to play here, translating management decisions into actionable, well-communicated plans.
Retraining at all levels
Individual workers needs should be considered, with relevant on-the-job training that includes in-the-flow learning, which allows the person to pick up the skills slowly over time, to ensure that as much knowledge as possible is being absorbed. There’s also an opportunity for workers to upgrade their skills.
Keeping communication channels clear
Encourage information sharing, as opposed to information hoarding. Also make sure the communication flow of information is all-inclusive, so no workers are left out of the shared knowledge. Both can be achieved by introducing processes like collaboration incentives and internal communications apps and forums.
The workforce of the future
The HR Director has published the following figures: An additional 1.8 million engineers and technically qualified people are needed by 2025 according to research by Engineering UK, with a 20,000 a year shortfall in the number of people with these skills being produced by Britain’s education system.
The US faces a need for nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs over the next decade, and 2 million of those jobs are likely to go unfulfilled due to a skills gap, according to research from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.
Every industry in every country will have its own set of projected statistics, but the challenge is the same; we need to start putting the workforce of the future in place now. As Smart Factory Logistics observes, this might require a shift in recruiters’ mindsets: instead of determining whether new talent is qualified by looking at degrees and certificates, hiring managers will need to look for flexible, adaptable employees who are willing to succeed no mater what new technologies emerge around the corner.