Talentwise: Future-proof your team

In the era of rapid change, AI and automation, how do we ensure that the workforce stays relevant and productive? Constant upskilling, with an emphasis on hybrid knowledge profiles is the order of the day. A combination of technical skills and interpersonal skills will be required for the world of tomorrow.

A roundup of the season’s highlights, featuring our stellar line-up of guests.

Even with new technologies and AI, human expertise will always be in demand to create the algorithms. SMEs have to contribute in every process, such as say sales, which till now, the human understands far better, due to empathy, social skills and creativity.

Businesses must undergo dual transformation. On the one hand they must reposition themselves to cope with change in society and consumption. And on the other they must plan to evolve to keep up with the future.

The staffing Industry in India has grown in the past few years. Temp staffing has also grown and distinctions between permanent and temp have also become fuzzy. Some organizations have policies where staff can leave any day, without any notice period. So the distinction between temp and permanent has become fuzzy.

Changes and disruptions have happened throughout history, and today’s change is no different. Changes will take place slowly and unevenly across sectors, allowing people to adapt to such changes. Rather than many people losing jobs, people will adapt to the technological changes that will happen.

HRMS platforms and other technologies are enabling people to work remotely and log in from far away, creating virtual offices. Recruitment platforms are enabling automatic evaluation of candidates, bringing in sea changes in the HR space.

Vernacular, on-demand, continuous micro-learning is the solution to many of the obstacles faced by organizations today in the field of training. It imposes no restrictions on dedicated training time, and is easier for trainees to grasp since it is imparted in bite sized chunks in a language they understand.

The shift brought in by technology ensures that what we learn today is no longer enough tomorrow. People also live longer, and thus have to be able to sustain themselves longer. The age when people worked in the same job with the same knowledge their entire careers is gone. Everyone has to remain relevant and keep learning.

We are now entering the creative economy, moving on from the knowledge economy. Passion, dedication, creativity cannot be demanded, unfortunately.

Automation is inevitable and everyone, from management down to the shop-floor blue-collar worker, understands this. But only workers who are completely unwilling to upskill stand to lose their jobs.

While disruption is not a new phenomenon, automation and robotics are indeed new fields. There is a need to understand technology across domains and have a flexible mindset to remain relevant for the future.

Today focus on growth and the future needs to percolate across the organization, from the CXO level down to each and every employee.

Teams of the future will be nebulous entities, working from flexible pools of human resource. Training will be left to the individual rather than the organization, as they just get to pick and choose talent for optimizing their output.

Teams of the future will be nebulous entities, working from flexible pools of human resource. Training will be left to the individual rather than the organization, as they just get to pick and choose talent for optimizing their output.

There is no silver bullet and not one idea fits all. Our objective is to bring to the surface thoughts and trends in Human Resource and Future of work that will impact each and every business as we move into the Knowledge era driven by computing power.

Welcome to a special episode of TalentWise where we talk about the Future of Work. We have been speaking to some of the best minds in the industry on How to Future Proof your team. In this special episode we present a roundup of our discussion with guests who have been speaking to us for the past few weeks.  Our objective is to discuss thoughts and trends that will impact talent and business as we move into the Knowledge era driven by computing power. I hope you enjoy the episode and would request you to share it and rate it at iTunes and Google Play while you download or subscribe.   Run time - 32.13 mins.

Rahul Gupta Companies exist to make human life better It therefore makes no sense if employees work towards making other people’s lives better but are miserable themselves. Organizations must therefore pay heed to the welfare of their own employees. Employees should be motivated enough to think that they want to get to office in the morning and start working on a project that ties in with the objectives of the company.  Young people are underrated, and higher-up executives are overrated. A young employee gives the maximum bang-for-buck, when the early days they are highly enthused and motivated. More attention should be paid to the younger executives.  These and more insights from the ground in this great episode of TalentWise.    Run time – 31.46 mins.

Bhawani Singh Shekhawat Education today is making the youth, at the very best, exam ready- but not job ready. Moreover, the grading system today leaves much room for doubt about the real abilities of the examinees.  It is a monumental waste of time and resources if the employer has to train the young workers all over again after they have spent 25 years of their lives in an education system that is not in tune with real-world requirements. The social sector faces challenges in obtaining resources, since it is more lucrative to invest resources elsewhere. But at the same time more and more young people are also being attracted to work in the social sector.  These and more insights from the ground in this great episode of TalentWise.    Run time – 27:58 mins.

Ravi Mathur How the learning interventions fail without a proper follow up mechanism - The key issue of low retention is lack of follow up to carefully planned training sessions. What needs to be done to change that. Manager’s lack of commitment for training of his team - Many a times the reporting manager fails to plan for the time that is required for the trainings and calls back the trainee mid-way for office related tasks. This is a big mistake. One size fit for all training doesn’t work - Here the onus is on Trainers themselves trying to peddle the same basic training to companies without actually assessing their real needs. This is impacting the beliefs of the customer companies about the efficacy of the training programs on the whole. This needs to change.  These and more insightful thoughts from the ground in this great episode of TalentWise. Run time - 26.53 mins.