Change is coming… Be ready
Even for those not focused on actively pursuing revolutionary change, change is unavoidable. There is no sector untouched by technological advancements and the result is a combination of entirely new job roles and a major reworking of existing ones.
The businesses that will succeed in the future will be those led by managers who make training and upskilling as fundamental a part of their business strategy as they do marketing, sales or budgeting. It must become a deeply ingrained mantra.
Leaders have to allocate more resources than ever before to keeping an eye on the technology that will help them remain relevant and facilitate the training of staff accordingly. Similarly, recruitment must prioritise quickly sourcing the talent that can plug the gaps that exist in a firms skill set.
Whilst the above may seem no different to recruitment today, the key is the change in mindset needed. The rapid pace of digital evolution means upskilling will be needed every couple of years or even months, as opposed to every couple of decades.
At Hassle.com we place little store on someone having followed the traditional education path of school, college and university. With coders we look at the practical skills they possess and dont care whether they are self-taught or formally educated. Skills alone are what matter.
Indeed, we often look to see what people have done with these skills outside the workforce. Perhaps they volunteer to code for charity by helping to build a website or maybe they spend a lot of time exchanging ideas with other coders or join in with hackathons. Such things are good indicators that their skill set is constantly being honed and they are always keen to learn.
Ensuring people are highly skilled when joining you (in practice and not just in theory) will be a major advantage. Some experts predict that young people entering the workforce can expect to have anything up to 20 jobs before retiring. As a result there will be less time to onboard them than ever, so making sure you sign up those actively brushing up on their skills will help you stay ahead of the game.
The skill of learning
Success is increasingly tied into agility, rather than budgets and large workforces. The ability to adapt to new practices and new technology quickly will need to be in the DNA of all businesses.
Learning a particular set of core skills at a young age and relying on them for the rest of a career is unlikely to be enough for most professions and entrepreneurs must remember this in everything they do from hiring, to planning to their own personal development.
For the leader of the future, the skill of learning will become one of the most critical skills of all.
Jules Coleman is the CPO and co-founder of Hassle.com. A key figurehead in her native Irelands tech scene and named in the Irish Independents 30 Under 30 Shaping Irelands Future list Coleman believes in taking a hands-on, direct approach to life and business.
