Business strategies for addressing skills shortages

With the technological acceleration of the last decades and the virtualization shock pandemic, many skills, knowledge and work processes have become obsolete sooner than previously thought.

In this context, companies have begun to implement programs for constant updating and learning of new skillswith the idea of ​​keeping their workforce up to date and trying to cover the shortage of certain profiles.

According to data from consulting firm Cegid, 65% of companies recognize that they have significant value skills gaps you have to cover to achieve your goals. Thus, the concept of “lifelong learning” has been replaced in managerial jargon by those of “retraining” and “retraining”.

The first refers to a type of training in which workers incorporate new skills to improve performance in the position they hold. The second is used when the goal is for them to acquire different skills to adapt to a new job, which implies a change in their professional career.

“Many companies have begun to realize the importance of these two processes such as effective methods to prevent a skills shortage”, Says Marina Ierace, general manager of Cegid Latin America.

“With the increasing incorporation of technology into processes, the need to always have human resources trained to apply it has become one of the most important challenges,” he adds.

reconversion

“Upskilling” and “reskilling” become strategic to cushion the impact of digital transformation. “The transition from manual to symbolic work requires other skills,” says Virginia Borrajo, director of HR Talent at Estudio Locht.

Furthermore, “in factories, with automation and robotics, how do we reconvert that workforce so that it is not excluded from the labor market?” He asks. Organizations should keep in mind that “the work of converting is difficult: requires skill and desire. For most of the workers it is a change that they have not chosen, that comes from outside, ”she stresses.

According to Ierace, to implement “upskilling” and “reskilling” programs, the first step is identify the skills gap of the company. For this, it is necessary to measure and analyze the capabilities of each individual and team.

In this analysis, the so-called soft skills, such as sociability, responsibility, empathy, active listening, creativity and communication, should not be underestimated. “These are often even more important than technological skills, as these are human traits that technology can never replace,” emphasizes Ierace.

On the other hand, it is important that organizations take into account both their own interests and those of employees. “There is no point in having team members who are too proficient in areas that don’t interest them”Warns Jerace. “This will only result in less engaged, job-dissatisfied employees who won’t reach their maximum productivity.”

At the same time, companies can engage employees teaching them the skills for the positions and areas they want to fillinstead of forcing new projects or tasks for the role they currently hold, advises the expert.

Pandemic and after

“In these two years of the pandemic, the context has changed so much that our roles and tasks have been configured differently. And he taught us that everything can always change ”, reflects Josefina Schaer, director of Institutional Relations at Despegar. Therefore, the incorporation of new skills is something “necessary and constant”.

In the company, he says, “we are constantly exposed to challenges. Changing areas is something super open, ”she points out. Skills improvement and retraining are part of the “daily” job.

“I have no doubt that companies will have to do this all the time,” says Nicolás Brodtkorb, director of human resources at JP Morgan Argentina, likewise. “Already we are not looking for careers but personal characteristics that allow people to continue to develop. Training and retraining are becoming more and more important, ”she says.

On the other hand, “the technological challenges are changing faster,” Schaer notes. Even in Despegar, when they look for talent, they don’t look so much to technical skills but to the fact that new employees “can learn and enter new contexts”.

In the case of programmers, “a programming language can change”, exemplifies. “The important thing is that they have a basis, with mathematics, to think and deal with problems, not that a type of language is what defines them.”

“Either new technologies or new roles appear: necessarily something new will have to be constantly learned”, Says, for his part, Nicolás Schvartzer, Head of Culture and Development at redbee, an engineering, design and technological innovation company. There they implemented a quarterly survey “to detect retraining and early retraining needs,” he says.

With this diagnosis, they organize internal courses, workshops and “communities of practice”, in which similar profiles in the organization share good practices. In addition, they have a “redbeeteca” which groups all training courses and allows for knowledge sharing. on request.

But not only the technological areas change and push towards the acquisition of new skills. “Our brands and direct sales they are undergoing transformation themselves, ”says Lucila Canónico, Human Resources manager at Natura and Avon, alluding above all to the development of digital sales channels.

The company accompanies the changes with “retraining” programs. “For that same personal direct sales consultant or reseller, it can also sell in a digital realmyou have to be trained in the management of apps and languages, to prepare yourself mentally to develop a more digital-oriented thinking “, he explains.

The company offers a variety of learning systems: “out-of-the-box formats that meet a specific need, longer training, online or face-to-face courses, and self-accessing material,” lists Canonical. As for the contents, these are organized around digitization, agility and the hybrid model.

An example of redevelopment is the program Technological connection by JP Morgan, which trains employees who do not have a technology career but are interested in retraining. The program lasts from 6 to 8 months and in that period the participants acquire the basic knowledge to be able to take a technological position.

Because it’s a niche where talent is scarce, “we have to help people so they can come together,” says Brodtkorb. “We have had many successful moves from the operations area to the technology area,” he says.

Within that area, they also have the program Code for non-programmersaimed at employees who already work in technology but they want to become developers. “Age is not a factor for programs of this type: career changes can be made at any age,” says Brodtkorb.

The telecommunications company launched the program this year Level upintended for senior developers “seeking new challenges in your career“. After going through a recruiting phase, they enter the company and train for three months on new technologies.

Once their “retraining” is complete, they join the company’s business projects. “This creates the opportunity to create technical skills in people who already have a professional path, which speeds up the time of incorporation of these profiles to the pace of work of Telecom”, assure the company. In the first phase of Level Up, 50 people from 30 locations across the country entered.