As AI continues to dominate the workforce, desirable skills and hiring plans are shifting at an equally rapid rate to keep up. But between a lack of training for technical skills and lack of proper teaching around soft skills within higher education, colleges and universities aren’t preparing current students properly for the modern workforce. So how can employers step in and help their newest employees reskill and upskill to thrive in their first professional roles? In this article, Ian Cook, VP, People Analytics, Visier discusses four ways companies can reskill their workers in the age of AI and how companies can remain ahead of the reskilling curve to meet business and employee demands better.
Despite rising concerns that robots are coming for our jobs, past economic revolutions tell a different story. Just a few hundred years ago, 90% of Americans worked on farms. Now, only about 1% doOpens a new window . Of course, 89% of U.S. workers haven’t become unemployed. Instead, the Industrial Revolution created new jobs, which required more diverse skill sets.
And that’s already happening in the AI revolution. Artificial Intelligence is poised to eliminate millions of jobs while creating new ones in its wake, leaving many employers facing an imminent skills gap in their workforce.
Educational programs can help organizations upskill employees to fill new roles, but a data-driven approach is critical to their success.
Looking Backward To Move Forward
By studying past large-scale economic transformations, we see that humans tend to do what humans do best when presented with new technologies: evolve. Hunter-gatherers evolved into farmers, who evolved into factory workers, some of whom evolved into knowledge workers.
These evolutions are always driven by new technology. Combines replaced farmers. Power looms replaced weavers. Digital projectors replaced film projectionists. Yet humans have always adapted.
Now, the introduction of new technologies is once again threatening to displace jobs. AI and automation are already taking over repetitive tasks that traditionally required hours of tedious human labor. The most prevalent example of this displacement is in the manufacturing space. Robots now perform tasks like packing, welding, and lifting to improve efficiency and decrease the risk of human error and safety incidents on the factory floor.
According to Oxford Economics, automation is projected to displace 20 million jobs globally by 2030Opens a new window  — in manufacturing alone. But at the same time, the manufacturing industry is experiencing a massive skills gap, which will require billions of dollars to addressOpens a new window . That’s because manufacturers now need workers who can program and troubleshoot machines, supervise robots on the floor, and handle more strategic tasks.
AI and automation will soon displace jobs across other industries as well. Telemarketers, bookkeepers, receptionists, and salespeople could all be replaced by robots in the near future. The potential for disruption is so high across so many industries, and there is an entire websiteOpens a new window  dedicated to the likelihood of your job being replaced by robots.
But, as with past technological revolutions, humans have already begun to evolve. Just as ATMs’ advent didn’t put an end to bank teller jobs, these positions grew in numberOpens a new window  as banking transactions became more frequent, requiring enhanced customer service — AI won’t eliminate work. Instead, fast-food companies like McDonald’s are transitioning cashiers into table-service rolesOpens a new window  after introducing self-service kiosks into their restaurants. Similarly, Amazon warehouse workers are transitioning from stacking 25-pound bins to supervising robotsOpens a new window .
Of course, all this transitioning does not just magically happen on its own. Workers must be retrained and upskilled to take on the new tasks required of them.
HR Must Lead the Charge
The key to pivoting is preparation. Suppose your organization waits until there’s an urgent need to fill a new role. In that case, chances are you’ll be hard-pressed to find qualified candidates (look to the manufacturing talent shortage, for illustration).
The pressure to fill these roles will largely fall on HR’s shoulders. But there’s no need to waste time and resources on recruiting new talent when retraining existing workers is often easier, more cost-effective, and yields better retention and employee engagement.
However, developing a reskilling program requires a data-driven strategy, so you’re not investing dollars into people and training initiatives that won’t pay off. Follow these steps to design a learning program that sets your company — and its people — up for success:
- Align people and business goals. Hopefully, your organization isn’t simply jumping on a technology bandwagon but rather has strategic goals for implementing new tools. These business objectives should help inform the people skills you want to prioritize moving forward. For example, suppose your business goal is to provide customers with a more seamless digital ordering experience. In that case, you may want to retrain sales reps to handle customer service or technical troubleshooting.
- Identify the gap. Once you’ve aligned your people and business goals, you need to look at your existing workforce to determine skills gaps. Who already has the skills you need? Who could be trained to fill gaps where you’re missing critical skills? To ensure you’re not wasting time and budget, leverage predictive analytics technology to identify the employees most likely to leave versus those most likely to benefit from reskilling.
- Deploy and tweak training. For your learning program to be successful, you’ll need to analyze and optimize continuously. Identify key metrics such as time to productivity to track outcomes over time. Don’t be afraid to test various training initiatives and compare their success rates against each other. Likewise, if your business goals change, so should your training goals.
- Develop a talent pipeline. To ensure a healthy stream of new talent as employees naturally turn over or age out of the workforce, consider partnering with educational institutions. Current curricula aren’t evolving fast enough to prepare students for the workforce. By playing a role in their education, you’ll make valuable connections with potential employees who have the skills needed at your organization from day one.
The AI revolution is already here. As with past technological transformations, many jobs will be displaced as a result. But if we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that humans always evolve. Businesses can jumpstart that evolution with data-driven HR strategies that fill skills cracks before they become vast gaps.