Whilst Millennials and Generation Z expertly use digital technology – as, for the most part, it’s had a natural introduction into their lives – the older generation can often experience difficulties with unfamiliar workplace technology and software. Gavin White, Managing Director at Autotech Recruit, looks at how business owners can successfully bridge the skills gap.
Recent research carried out by FSB and LinkedIn has revealed the true impact the digital skills shortage is having on many companies.
A broad range of areas are affected due to a gap in digital understanding and expertise; productivity, recruiting top talent and businesses are now also at exponential risk of losing their competitive advantage. In particular, SMEs are being hit by this shortage.
It’s rare that you’ll find a business that isn’t keen to bridge the digital skills gap. But, with more than a quarter (26%) of business owners in England lacking confidence in their digital skills – and more than a fifth (22%) who believe their employees’ lack of digital skills is negatively impacting the business, too – how can we expect to shift this change any time soon?
Let’s take a look at how business owners can work to bridge the digital skills shortage in their own companies and, therefore, contribute towards improving the issue across all industries.
Provide insights, inspiration and information
As a business owner, if you aren’t actively investing in digital skills training for your staff – and yourself – you’re stifling any chance of your company going through a digital transformation.
Education is key. How can you expect your staff to actively start exploring training options to deepen their digital knowledge if you’re not demonstrating this yourself? With two out of three employees believing that training is now more important than it was two years ago, and with one of the main reasons workers start looking for employment elsewhere due to a lack of training and development opportunities, it’s time to step up a gear. Training doesn’t have to be costly, with every employee attending a course – skill sharing across the business can be equally as effective.
Whether you own a business within the recruitment sector or within the automotive industry, the truth is digital skills training won’t just help employees in their current role within your business – it’s something that they’re going to need for the whole of their career. Whilst you’re most likely seeking to keep your employee retention levels high, encouraging staff to seek digital training with the understanding that this will benefit them for all their future roles is an advantageous way to heighten their interest levels. To them, this shows that you’re not only investing in them to improve performance within your company, but also in them as individuals with their own personal career aspirations.
Recruit smartly
As we touched on earlier, the digital skills shortage is leading to businesses losing their competitive edge – and this runs the risk of crushing recruitment efforts.
Arguably, it’s now more important than ever that your business stands out from your competitors when recruiting; whether this is through salary – you’re paying for the best, remember – benefits and employment perks or genuine promises of further training and qualifications, you should be looking within your company to work out the competitive edge that you can offer. Draw on your best qualities, too – is your working culture focussed on attaining a healthy work life balance, or are you perhaps a relatively young and hungry recruitment business looking to grow substantially over the next couple of years? These are all things you should be drawing on to appeal to prospective candidates.
Alternatively, if your employees are showing active signs of being enthusiastic about undertaking training and development programmes to improve their digital skills knowledge, consider recruiting from within the company rather than via external routes. Research has shown many employees have worries around whether their skills will still be needed in the coming years, so now is an ideal time to reassure current employees that you want to invest in them. A report by Capgemini and LinkedIn highlights that these worries occur throughout multiple industries; almost half (48%) of employees in the automotive sector, 44% of the banking sector and 39% of the telecom sector believe that their skill set will no longer be essential in their industry in the next five years.
Bridging the digital skills gap across industries
If only one department within an organisation is focussing on equipping their team to improve the shortage in digital skills, the company as a whole will never see success. Ultimately, you all have to be in it to win it.
It is easy to make the assumption that all industries are now structured around technological advancements and whilst most of them are, it is still important to be one step ahead and focus on preparing your business for future tech introductions. For example, the automotive industry has made positive steps towards bridging the gap and it’s very common for automotive professionals to use tools, tech and diagnostic equipment to improve the likes of customer services and efficiency – this is also apparent in the recruitment industry too; social media is now a big part of recruiters’ approach to hiring for a new role.
With consumers investing now more than ever in electric vehicles it’s inevitable that vehicle technicians, MOT testers and other automotive professionals are going to have to improve their already-up-to-date skills in order to maintain momentum and to keep progressing. If you’re in a managerial role or are leading a team it’s important to keep up to date with new technological trends and ensure your staff are skilled when it comes to using them – this is essential for all industries to improve and gain results.
It’s time to face it – the future is digital in every industry, whether it’s recruitment, automotive, retail or even health. We may be witnessing it in some industries more than others for the time – the increase in the use of apps to hire private taxis over hailing a black cab, for example – but digital transformation is undoubtedly on the horizon for your sector. In order to avoid – or undo – the effects of a lack of digital skills on productivity and close the digital skills gap, business owners need to start introducing digital training programmes, seek new and experienced talent and encourage the entire company to be on the same page, starting from today.
By Gavin White
Managing Director