Leave no one behind in the new digital world

It’s going to be a long road until employ­ees feel emo­tion­al­ly and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly pre­pared for post-pan­dem­ic work. So remem­ber, there’s much more to a hap­py work­force than just flex­i­ble work­ing. 

Rapid accel­er­a­tion of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion over the last 12 months has undoubt­ed­ly had many pos­i­tives. Hav­ing forced com­pa­nies to adapt their sys­tems to allow for remote oper­a­tions, the pan­dem­ic has demon­strat­ed the val­ue of flex­i­ble work­ing to even those busi­ness lead­ers who were pre­vi­ous­ly scep­ti­cal. 

But as the need to quick­ly embrace tech­nol­o­gy has fur­ther increased demand for dig­i­tal tal­ent, it has also widened an already large dig­i­tal skills gap.

Con­sid­er­ing the skills gap was already a cause for con­cern before the pan­dem­ic, it’s an issue that should be a pri­or­i­ty for all of us now, not least because it could lead to an even larg­er inequal­i­ty cri­sis across many dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties and areas. 

COVID-19 will leave a per­ma­nent mark on how peo­ple work, with the poten­tial of a new-found flex­i­bil­i­ty that can enable bet­ter work­ing envi­ron­ments for every­one, but to ensure nobody is left behind in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my, it is cru­cial that busi­ness­es com­mit to dig­i­tal reskilling. 

“We need to be care­ful we don’t cre­ate a two-tier soci­ety in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my,” says Adam Spear­ing, Europe, Mid­dle East and Africa field chief tech­nol­o­gy offi­cer at Sales­force. 

“There will always be sec­tors of soci­ety that can’t work from home because of the nature of their job. It’s not just about coders and pro­gram­mers, dig­i­tal skills can encom­pass every­thing from cre­at­ing a spread­sheet to even using Zoom. Those of us work­ing from home today need a lev­el of dig­i­tal skills. We have to bring every­body along in this new world. 

“We also can’t ignore the need for soft skills, even as sim­ple as read­ing social cues. We’ve all got bet­ter at look­ing at mul­ti­ple faces on a video call and spot­ting when some­body has their hand up or is lean­ing for­ward to say some­thing, which we nor­mal­ly recog­nise instinc­tive­ly in a phys­i­cal office envi­ron­ment. 

“Younger gen­er­a­tions are much more com­fort­able with this tech­nol­o­gy. Com­pa­nies need to think about the dig­i­tal and soft skills they need, and how they can help peo­ple thrive in the new econ­o­my, what­ev­er stage they are at in their career.”

We need to be care­ful we don’t cre­ate a two-tier soci­ety in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my

A recent sur­vey by Sales­force found half of UK and Irish work­ers are look­ing to reskill post-COVID, pri­ori­tis­ing soft skills for the future of work. In the study, soft skills such as adapt­abil­i­ty to change, resilience, col­lab­o­ra­tion, crit­i­cal think­ing, cre­ativ­i­ty, empa­thy and inclu­sion were all ranked high­er in impor­tance than data analy­sis, data sci­ence and cod­ing.

World­wide, Sales­force and its ecosys­tem are expect­ed to enable the cre­ation of 4.2 mil­lion jobs between 2018 and 2024, accord­ing to IDC, while over the same peri­od, the use of cloud com­put­ing by Sales­force cus­tomers will add $1.2 tril­lion in new busi­ness rev­enues to their local economies.

Many peo­ple think they are barred from these oppor­tu­ni­ties because they have no for­mal dig­i­tal edu­ca­tion. This is dri­ven by a lack of under­stand­ing of just how acces­si­ble dig­i­tal skills can be. Sales­force tech­nol­o­gy, for exam­ple, isn’t only for the dig­i­tal­ly edu­cat­ed. Rather than just sell­ing tech­nol­o­gy, the com­pa­ny is com­mit­ted to mak­ing dig­i­tal skills learn­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ties acces­si­ble for every­one, what­ev­er their back­ground and wher­ev­er they live.

“There are large parts of soci­ety that com­pa­nies are ignor­ing as poten­tial tal­ent of the future. They have to broad­en the fun­nel of who they con­sid­er as poten­tial employ­ees,” says Spear­ing. “Most organ­i­sa­tions have always been pret­ty rig­or­ous in say­ing these are the hours you work, you’ve got to be in this spe­cif­ic loca­tion and you’ve got to work in this way. But now there’s a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to adapt the way we work to people’s lives.

“We know, and it’s evi­denced every­where, com­pa­nies that embrace the dif­fer­ent aspects of diver­si­ty are rich­er, stronger, more robust and suc­cess­ful. If we can empow­er every­body with dig­i­tal skills, it means they can work to suit their own lifestyle. That could mean geo­graph­i­cal­ly, in terms of where they live, or if they have young chil­dren or oth­er com­mit­ments. By rein­vent­ing the work­place around flex­i­bil­i­ty, we are able to give peo­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties they wouldn’t have had oth­er­wise, ulti­mate­ly increas­ing equal­i­ty.”

Dig­i­tal reskilling needs to be at the heart of that work­place rein­ven­tion. Recog­nis­ing this, Sales­force pro­vides free access glob­al­ly to Trail­head, a dig­i­tal learn­ing envi­ron­ment it orig­i­nal­ly built for its own work­force. Any­body with access to the inter­net can utilise the plat­form to learn deep tech­ni­cal or soft skills, or domain knowl­edge on a range of sub­jects. 

Being able to learn in a self-paced way allows peo­ple to build it into their own lifestyle. The learn­ing tool opens up a career in tech­nol­o­gy to any­body who wants to join it, which is vital at a time when, for rea­sons relat­ing to COVID-19, automa­tion or oth­er dis­rup­tors, peo­ple are being dis­placed from their jobs. Though they may feel exclud­ed from tech­nol­o­gy, Sales­force is keen to remove the bar­ri­ers and the uncer­tain­ties of dig­i­tal by mak­ing tech­nol­o­gy acces­si­ble. 

Com­pa­nies have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to upskill the cur­rent and future work­force to ensure no one is left behind. If they com­mit to dig­i­tal upskilling, they can future-proof their busi­ness and cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ty for every per­son who wants to par­tic­i­pate in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my.

“This pan­dem­ic has been hor­ren­dous, but it has pre­sent­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate a bet­ter soci­ety for every­one,” says Spear­ing. “If we grav­i­tate back to how we used to work, we’ll lose this chance. Yes, com­pa­nies need to be prof­itable and cre­ate val­ue for share­hold­ers, but if they pri­ori­tise pur­pose too, they will build a far stronger com­pa­ny in the long run. 

“The com­pa­nies that return to growth will be those embrac­ing this oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring oth­er peo­ple into their organ­i­sa­tion and broad­en their appeal to cus­tomers. It’s a chance of a life­time to enhance social inclu­sion and our plan­et, improve the diver­si­ty of com­pa­nies, make them stronger, and bring more of soci­ety along with us. There’s no log­ic to not doing it; it’s just about whether we’re bold enough to take the step.”

To find out how Sales­force is pow­er­ing the work­force of tomor­row, vis­it trailhead.salesforce.com.