Skills of the Future within the Workplace

Learn what skills will be needed within the workplace in the future and why the workplace is evolving.

The world of work is constantly changing. Technology, skills and our society will always move forward with new ideas, processes, and ways of working. Our workplaces need to adapt to this. This is why it becomes so important for us to continually be learning and developing new skills which are relevant and useful in today’s world.

This blog explores these issues further and considers how each of us can prepare ourselves over our lives to help us deal with this change effectively. We’ll look at the skills that we want to develop.

The skills for the future consist of:

• Effective Communication
• Creative and innovative mindset
• Active learning
• Social and emotional skills

Effective Communication:

Communication is vital part of a business, and good communication is at the heart of a productive team. Being able to build strong working relationships with your employees and managers, either in person or remotely, will enable you to create meaningful connections. This then helps your organisation to function as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Effective communication skills are absolutely necessary in the workplace. Employees who have great listening skills, speak clearly, and can write professional emails and letters are able to create a positive impact. They will not have a hard time giving information to their fellow employees nor potential clients. With that said, it is essential to invest in soft skills training, especially when it comes to employee’s communication skills. This training includes honing an employee’s active listening ability, emotional intelligence, written communication, verbal communication, and so on.

Creative and innovative mindset:

Cognitive skills can be influenced by environment and education, such as reading and writing development. Employers in many roles increasingly look for cognitive skills in workers. These include the ability to learn quickly, adapt to change, and work independently. Learning how to develop these skills can help you succeed in the future workplace as an L&D expert. It also affects your creativity, innovation, and overall performance in the workplace.

Cognitive skills, such as creative thinking and self-regulation, and social skills, such as taking responsibility, require the capacity to consider the consequences of one’s actions, evaluate risk and reward, and accept accountability for the products of one’s work. This suggests moral and intellectual maturity, with which a person reflects upon and evaluates his or her actions in light of his or her experiences.

Having developed these skills will allow you as an L&D expert to help find solutions to complex problems. In the future of work, technology is being relied on more and more. However, according to ‘OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030’ “Over recent decades, computer-controlled equipment has replaced workers in a wide range of jobs that consist of routine tasks. These are tasks that follow procedures that can easily be expressed in computer code. Most routine work, such as repetitive calculating, typing or sorting, and production tasks that revolve around performing repetitive motions, have been automated since the early 1980s. (See picture below). At around the same time, the demand for non-routine interpersonal and analytical skills increased dramatically. The explanation is straightforward. As computer technologies have changed labor in routine tasks, they have also created new employment opportunities for workers with non-routine cognitive skills, such as creativity, and social and emotional skills.”

Active Learning:

Learning is about doing something – actively engaging in activities that will provide you with knowledge and understanding. The more active you are when you learn, the more likely you are to retain the information. Therefore, being actively engaged during learning sessions will help you to remember what was learned. Learning is one of the most powerful tools available to anyone who wishes to improve their lives and achieve success. The more knowledge you possess, the better equipped you’ll be to make decisions and solve problems.

Active listening is another key aspect of successful learning. When someone speaks, they may say something that is not entirely clear. By actively listening to what is said, you can understand exactly what it means. This will allow you to focus on what is being said rather than getting distracted by other things going through your mind. If you do this regularly, you will be better equipped to take advantage of all opportunities available to you.

Social and Emotional Skills of the future:

This also includes empathy, self-efficacy, responsibility, and collaboration skills.

Empathy is the ability to see yourself in others. Therefore understand why they think and behave as they do. Self-efficacy is the belief that you can organize your thoughts and emotions to produce desired results.

Responsibility is the willingness to take charge of your own life and be accountable for your choices and actions. Collaboration skills are the ability to work with others to reach common goals. These skills are particularly useful in today’s complex and fast-changing world. They ensure that everyone involved in a project shares the same vision, understands and agrees with each other’s intentions, and works together towards achieving those shared objectives.

Why is the workplace evolving?

According to “The Workforce of the future” there are multiple reasons as to why the workplace is evolving.

Technological Breakthroughs:

One of the reasons is technological breakthroughs. This means rapid advances in technological innovation. Such as automation, robotics and AI are. They are “dramatically changing the nature and number of jobs available. Technology has the power to improve our lives, raising productivity, living standards, and average life span. Also, free people to focus on personal fulfillment.”

Demographic Shifts:

Another reason would be demographic shifts. The changing size, distribution, and age profile of the world’s population. With a few regional exceptions the world’s population is aging, putting pressure on businesses, social institutions, and economies.

Another reason would be rapid urbanization: which means the significant increase in the world’s population moving to live in cities.

Alternatively, another reason is the shifts in global economic power. This would mean the power shifting between developed and developing countries.

Another possible reason could be resource scarcity and climate change. The depleted fossil fuels, extreme weather, rising sea levels, and water shortages.

In conclusion, being able to adapt to the changing environment of the workplace is key. You should have excellent communication and collaboration skills, as well as the problem solving skill set required to see tasks through. Learning to adapt to, and balance the increasing number of tasks in the workplace is vital for mental health and your long-term success as an L&D Expert. The workplace is continuously evolving and so should our skills.

Check out our blog on The Future of the Workplace and the Trends of 2022