Reskilling in Business/Corporates - Industry is always on the lookout for methods to improve and increase productivity, decrease cost, increase savings, and create operational efficiencies and effectiveness in systems and processes. Automation and digitisation, therefore, are the obvious adaptation that all businesses are working towards and welcoming with open arms.

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By Lipika Mohanty
RE-SKILLING
IN TIMES OF TODAY
T
oday, countries and
corporates are planning and
chalking out their growth
plans based on automation and
digitisation.
Automation like any other
growth enabler will have its
own advocates and oppositions.
The key is in understanding the
role, significance, contribution
and creating an awareness and
capability around it. It is imperative
to adopt and adapt to the changes.
As automation focuses on
eliminating the dreary and lower
level work, it increases efficiencies
and enables individuals to focus
on higher end work and look at
enriching capabilities.
The news headlines shout out: “A
recent World Bank report states that
automation threatens seven out of
ten IT jobs in India”; “Recruitment
of the hundreds of graduates from
Indian engineering colleges has
reduced as they automate”. Well…
that is one side of the story, which
is being highlighted and is seen
shouting out of the pages. What
also needs to be acknowledged,
understood and made aware of is
that the focus of the education and
corporate segment is now shifting
from just hiring into skilling and
hiring or in case of individuals and
corporates to re-skilling.
Let’s take a look at re-skilling in
both the industries – education and
corporates; as one cannot do away
with the other and have to co-exist
collaboratively.
Re-skilling in Education Sector
Our education system that forms
the base for creating the skill em-
ployability of individuals has started
adapting to the new digitisation and
automation wave. There is a further
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need to re-skill and add far more
innovative and business value add-
based skills and that too at a faster
pace in future as a lot of jobs that
exist today will not exist.
The approach in such a case
will be two prone, where the
management and faculty gets
exposed to the fast changing and
newer trends in the business and
look at re-skilling themselves to
create more flexible, creative and
engaging approach of educating
and skilling individuals and making
them ready for the current dynamic
market place. Relook at approach
and the model of education
dissemination is also taking a
major makeover in this process.
private and public in all nook and
corner of the country picking up
such initiatives and opportunities
to participate in such forums and
associations.
Additionally, the education
system will also need to equip itself
to handle re-skilling of employees
who are in their mid-careers and are
returning to education to re-skill
and up-skill. They also have a pivotal
role to play in supporting corporates
in re-creating skills or enabling
individuals in adapting to the new
demands of the new/changed roles,
thus helping them to adapt to the
changing work environment. It may
also have to plan and accommodate
continuous life-long learning for
opportunities for their own up-
skilling.
Reskilling in Business/
Corporates
Industry is always on the lookout
for methods to improve and increase
productivity, decrease cost, increase
savings, and create operational
efficiencies and effectiveness in
systems and processes. Automation
and digitisation, therefore, are
the obvious adaptation that all
businesses are working towards and
welcoming with open arms.
With businesses, individual
employees who have adopted and
adapted the new wave have benefited
in terms of value they bring to their
jobs and the job satisfaction they
achieve through the enrichment of
their jobs.
As the tide of automation sets in
companies, new roles take shape as
machines start assisting in various
processes that are mostly repetitive
and transactional in nature. One
can clearly identify three changes
in the role depending on the nature
of work and the kind of automation
adopted:
1. As more and more operational
and transactional tasks get
automated, individuals are ready
for more role enrichment or job
enrichment;
2. High-end automation
resulting in requirement of higher
capabilities and skills;
3. Creation of new roles and jobs
that involve new way of managing
work with increased automation.
To stay relevant, it therefore
becomes critical that the workforce
transitions and moves into roles
of problem solvers, value creators
and business enablers. They need
to be retooled and re-skilled to
OFFSHORE PERSPECTIVE
Industry is always on the lookout
for methods to improve and increase
productivity, decrease cost, increase
savings, and create operational
efficiencies and effectiveness in systems
and processes
Online programs, simulation
based programs are some of the
techniques adopted that benefit
from automation and technology
and in turn help in the re-skilling
initiatives.
New approaches and Initiatives
are increasingly seen in reputed
private institutes. They also have
initiated programs, which involve
all the stakeholders in the form
of frequent forums discussions
and interactions between faculty,
corporate and students. What will
need to pick up speed is the coverage
with more and more institutes both
individuals to adapt better to the
new emerging world of technology.
Standing out in this shift towards
automation and digitisation is
also the group of newly emerging
technology and automation related
businesses and new-age businesses,
which create and provide for
more automation through the
use of technology. Educational
institutes have given a boost to
such businesses by start-up and
incubation centres, which not
only promote these businesses
but also help the existing faculty
and management in creating

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have insights of the business and
to create value in collaboration
with automation and technology.
The workforce typically would
have a combination of roles and
people which/who can be re-skilled
easily, and those that will turn
out to be a challenge. Companies
need to identify and sometimes
individualise the development
programs and development plans
to build capabilities around re-
designed roles, include incentivised
self-learning to enable and effect
change.
The change waves are not
only for those who are required to
handle and face the direct brunt
of technology changes, but the
effect also travels upwards in
the hierarchy since the middle
management will have to re-skill
themselves to manage employees
with the newer skill sets at various
levels of the hierarchy.
In addition to the current
changes and adaptation to
technology, the organisation needs
to plan and also prepare for the
continuous and fast changes that
are a part of the technology world.
They have to acknowledge, accept
and prepare for the new skill getting
obsolete in a few years and their
need to again adapt and learn a new
skill that will become the need of the
hour.
With automation, it is not
only the skills (technical and soft
skills) that need to be developed/
re-developed, it is also essential
to prepare and enable employees
to adapt to the changing work
environment that accompanies
the automation and digitisation
wave at the workplace. It becomes
essential to relook and develop
the cultural aspects to support
the changing dynamics with new
generation of tech savvy employees.
Building a culture of innovation
and encouraging a passion for
continuous self-learning would be
some of the starting points.
The leadership and the
management are the key change
drivers in an organisation; one
that actively accepts change and
innovation ignites the spark of
continuous learning and re-skilling,
and leads employees to think about
the possibilities and opportunities
of new technologies.
The Individual in the Midst
Individuals now will have to
transit themselves from a mode of
completion of education once out
of the education system to a mode
of lifetime continuous learning
and learn new ideas and skills
throughout their working career.
They have to transition from being
skilled and expert in one area to
being multi skilled. Each individual
has to realise that the support
system in the form of educational
institutes or the workplace can
provide the structure and facilities;
but it is they who needs to mould
themselves to have flexibility in
attitude, approach and openness to
the changing world around them.
How an individual prepares to
re-skill oneself to remain relevant
in the job market will define the
individual’s career.
Digital transformation is the
truth of the day and it is taking
place at a much quicker pace than
we may be ready for. Each of us has
to play our roles in embracing the
change rather than protecting the
past and fighting the inevitable.
All stakeholders need to be deeply
involved in preparing for the rise
in automation not only to tackle the
issue of redundancies, but also on
re-skilling and capacity-building, at
a faster pace.
The writer is Director - HR,
Acidaes Solutions