“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business”
-Bill Gates
The past decade has been all about digitization, no matter what industry you are in you need the digital presence to address the audience of the new era. With growing internet penetration and affordability of smartphones, the digital world has seen a huge surge.
From cutting down your marketing expenditure to reaching customers all across the globe, the digital world has a lot to offer. From banking to retail commerce every industry has been influenced by the digital buzz and customers have been blessed with improved services and higher convenience. Now, this whole transformation requires the workforce to have the required skills for staying competitive in the game.
Let’s dive deeper into the digital skill gap that persists in the contemporary.
Understanding the digital skill gap
What exactly is the digital skill gap? To have a comprehensive understanding of the whole situation it is important to get the context here. All this exponential growth in the digital space is powered by tons and tons of data that has been collectively given the name of the Big Data. Whether it is a personalized recommendation in e-commerce space or contextual banking in finance, everything is backed by a massive amount of data. Naturally, with the surge in the digital space, data has taken a front row and the jobs in the data science and tech industry have been exponentially growing.
The demand for labor in the data industry has not been matched by the labor supply, the skills required to do the job is still lagging behind in the workforce. This has created a scenario of the digital skill gap. The future is all about AI and advanced technology, this requires the workforce to upgrade their skills to contribute to the digital transformation. If a business has to succeed in the era of this digital buzz, they need to plan a robust digital transformation strategy.
Bridging the skill gap
Now that we have an understanding of the digital skill gap challenge, let’s see how we should plan to bridge this digital skill gap that is hampering the growth of various organizations. The most prominent challenge is finding professionals who understand both the technical and business aspect of the organization. It is crucial for organizations to link the training of their employees with the long term digital strategy of the organization. On the employee’s part, they should be aware of their strength and weaknesses in the digital arena and should up-skill themselves accordingly.
Learning the art of managing data is a must-have skill in the contemporary scenario. Employers should train the employees to be able to extract and analyze data because every industry is running on data in the digital sphere. One of the most important aspects of bridging the skill gap in the digital world is planning ahead for future requirements based on factual evidence and data.
Given the dynamic nature of the digital world, there is a constant need for businesses to train and hire new people with relevant skillset. Instead of hiring new talent or spending a huge amount of money on training programs Businesses can rely on contractual workers and freelancers who are equipped with the relevant skillset to perform the task. Given the paucity of skilled professionals in the digital arena, corporations can lure in the right talent through a good remuneration package and incentive.
Conclusion:
The digital world has totally changed the game for businesses and workers. Corporations are facing the challenge of the digital skill gap and are missing out on the opportunity that the digital world has to offer. A robust digital workforce planning is a must-have to survive in the digital space, looking out of the usual pool to find relevant talent is a good option for the dynamic digital space.
