Reskilling in the Age of AI

Article originally appeared in Harvard Business Review, September-October 2023

By Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic and Raffaella Sadun
 

What (focus)

As flagged by the OECD in 2019, new automation technologies are changing the nature of work – both repetitive and manual tasks, and also increasingly knowledge-based work such as research, coding, and writing. It is estimated that 14% of the world’s jobs could be eliminated in the next decade or so, with another 32% radically transformed. As a result millions of workers need to be reskilled, not just upskilled. This article reports on a study with 40 organisational leaders around the world who are investing in reskilling programmes. The findings reveal the five paradigm shifts emerging in reskilling.

How (details/methods)

The first paradigm shift is reskilling as a strategic imperative rather than reactive response to soften the blow of layoffs or create a positive PR narrative. This approach allows companies to build competitive advantage quickly by developing talent and filling skills gaps to achieve their strategic objectives. Infosys, for example, has reskilled more than 2,000 cybersecurity experts. Reskilling is also a way to tap into broader talent pools, such as by preparing graduates from diverse backgrounds for frontline managerial jobs.
The second shift is making reskilling the responsibility of every leader and manager. Traditionally siloed in HR, reskilling needs to be visibly championed by senior leaders. For example, Ericsson is systematically defining critical skills connected to strategy, and tying these to a variety of accelerator programmes, skill journeys, and skill-shifting targets. Their aim is to transform telecommunications experts into AI and data-science experts.

Third is treating reskilling as a change management initiative to create an organisational context conducive to success. Important tasks include understanding the skills available internally and externally, and the skills needed to beat the competition. Drawing up a skill taxonomy is a first step, followed by mapping skills to jobs, and determining future needs. Other change management tasks are recruiting and evaluating for reskilling, keeping in mind skill adjacencies. Involving managers in reskilling programmes for talent development can reduce resistance to taking on reskilled workers, and prevent talent hoarding. In terms of learning, building skills in the flow of work is effective, and avoids taking employees away from their day jobs. Change management can also involve matching employees with new jobs to capture interest in reskilling, and supporting employees to integrate successfully, using a buddy system for example.

The fourth paradigm shift concerns employees’ willingness to reskill. Many employees are aware of the changes coming and that it makes sense to remain competitively employed. It is important to treat employees as partners and design reskilling programmes that appeal to them, with an emphasis on new jobs and security. Allowing dedicated days for learning and development, covering fees, and paying for training hours creates time and space for reskilling success.

The fifth shift is recognising that reskilling takes a village. The wider ecosystem includes government incentivising of reskilling, and partnerships with academia and other education and training providers to develop skill-building techniques. Industry partnerships also feature, with companies teaming up to conduct joint training efforts, develop industry-wide skill taxonomies, and pooling the knowledge and resources needed to invest in certain types of capabilities, such as cutting-edge AI skills.

So what

Recognising the rapid pace of technological changes, many companies are already intuitively embracing these five reskilling paradigm shifts. A further necessary step is measuring what actually works and knowing how to scale up what is working. This requires a systematic, rigorous, experimental, and long-term approach to learning from current approaches.