1. Vital Employee Training Needs to Adapt to the New Normal

Now is the time for us to look after the people who work for us. When a company steps up at a time like this, it builds loyalty, commitment, and long-lasting teams.” – Arjun Agarwal, Director, Cinerama and Founder, Ontum.

Across the world, workforces are a formidable and complex eco-system involving several factors that impact all related decision-making. Aspects like gender and salary parity, the balance of employees and gig workers, technological advances, the need for micro-specialization, prospects for growth, are all part of the machinery that is the workforce. Adding a global pandemic to the mix has complicated things in an unprecedented manner.

There have been widespread layoffs – a survey by the Institute of Management Accounts (IMA) says that 20% of Indian companies had to let go of most, if not all, of their employees. This figure is the highest in the region, followed by UAE. Industries have seen a muted growth, if at all, and career trajectories have come to a standstill, especially for new entrants. In its wake, the pandemic has changed dynamics in the workspace too. It has brought in a new era of working from home – with employees now having to focus more on the work-home balance and working in solitude. Managers have realized the necessity to focus on the mental health of their employees. Additionally, the gig economy has seen tremendous growth in India possibly going up to 90 million jobs in the non-agriculture sector in the next decade according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group.

While job losses have been high, there has been an increased demand in specific domains like cloud computing, data-specific domains, and cybersecurity, among others. An area of concern though has been the high rate of attrition of IT professionals amidst huge demand and the opportunity to work from home for practically any company around the world. On-boarding of recruits amidst lockdowns and work-from-home situations has been largely online and in a rapid manner.

With such a dynamic scenario in the workforce eco-system, training is important now, more than ever. It needs to be dynamic enough to address the broad needs of the industry, especially those that are currently evolving. It also needs to look at specific issues that have gained prominence in these times. With the right kind of training, you can help your employees:

Minimize the spread of COVID-19.
Help them serve customers more sensitively in these times.
Reduce day-to-day errors that could impact business negatively.
Make efficient use of tools and technology at their disposal.
Work with diverse employees.

Here are some forms of training you can focus on or introduce:

Health and Safety Training: While basic knowledge about health and hygiene – personal and while interacting with one another – is abundant, it is important to keep reiterating it. When new employees come on board, training them in the company’s safety culture is important and will help set expectations of the company from their recruits in this regard.

Training for sales and customer interaction: Interacting with customers is no longer what it used to be. Every company has evolved new processes on how they interact with clients and potential customers. Modes of communication, tone of language, etiquette, and even the way you discuss a company’s offerings have all been altered to suit the sensitivity of the current situation. Training employees to meet this new code is essential.

New employee training: Hiring new employees to fill in empty spots or to meet the demand of an economy that is opening up can lead to lapses in the onboarding process. This can prove harmful to the company as mistakes are bound to happen. Training new employees in the protocols of the company is critical to ensuring that you start on the right foot. A single act from an untrained employee can result in mistakes leading to bad customer experiences which does not bode well for a company.

Online security training: With a larger number of people working from home, the need to understand cybersecurity is high, especially when dealing with important company data, transactions, and virtual meetings. Many companies adopt several new software or technology to cope. Training your employees on best practices when using these is essential to seamless functioning. Besides basic how-to guides, employees will need to understand possible vulnerabilities, the technology’s policies, and possible consequences of ignoring protocol.

Training on workplace behavior: With more people working from home, there is a need to create a training module that speaks about workplace behavior – online interaction etiquette being primary. Not muting your microphone or turning off your camera at the right time can often mean that an unexpected burp or unfolded laundry thrown on the treadmill is there for all to hear and see!

The module should also address what constitutes inappropriate behavior, how to ensure open lines of communication, how to report a possible issue, recognizing signs of mental health concerns, and seeking help in these trying times. This smoothens the process of transition from the workplace to work-from-home which many are struggling with. It also provides a framework of functioning for recruits.

Covid-19 is forcing employers to create an eco-system that helps workers attune to the new reality. I leave you with this quote by Andy Grove, CEO, Intel Corporation: “There are only two ways a manager can impact an employee’s output: motivation and training. If you are not training, then you are neglecting half the job”.

employee training knowledge economy

What are the key skillsets needed in today’s knowledge economy?

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” -Isaac Asimov

When I speak at mentoring sessions to students and startups, one constant question I am asked is the skillset needed to succeed in today’s technology dominated world. This seemingly straightforward question does not have a straightforward answer. We are knee-deep in a knowledge economy, and this is forcing us to revisit our core beliefs about the skillsets we need to hire/acquire.

The Industrial economy’s mantra was efficiency and quality. A knowledge based digital economy means that these are no longer critical skillsets. Building new skillsets is indeed a humongous challenge for business owners, executives, HR directors, professionals and universities alike.

So what skillsets does the knowledge economy demand?

The world in the knowledge economy will be dominated by numerous digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Automation, etc. To be effective in this world, core skills in the field of mathematics, language, information communication technologies, etc. will no longer be enough. These skills must be augmented with the foundational skills like problem solving, critical thinking, curiosity, and persistence, etc. World Economic Forum classifies the skillsets relevant for the knowledge economy as:

Image courtesy: World Economic Forum

Skillset Versus Mindset in the knowledge economy

If you look at the image above, those skillsets that come under foundational literacies and competencies can be generally acquired via education, training and on-the-job projects. But the skillsets under the third column – character qualities – is the new landscape in which businesses and professionals need to excel in. I would like to call these character qualities under a different name – MINDSET. And mindsets are definitely harder to train for, or acquire. It is precisely why these skills are a precious resource, and the reason why today’s professional has to really work hard to master them.

Let us take an example to understand why traits like curiosity, critical thinking, persistence, and collaboration are highly relevant in the knowledge economy. Any digital application you access these days like Maps, Facial Recognition, Voice Assistance, etc. is not a standalone atomic solution. These applications are an intelligent combination of diverse solutions. A recent Harvard Business Review article defined the design of voice assistance like Siri, Google Now or Alexa as following:

“AI program divides the audio into chunks, sends them into the cloud, analyzes them to determine their probable meaning and translates the result into a set of search queries. Then millions of possible answers to those queries are sorted and ranked. Thanks to the scalability of the cloud, this takes just a few dozen milliseconds.”

To envision, design, architect, and implement a solution where multiple technologies from diverse fields come together to create value, hard skills like mathematical ability, statistical knowledge and other subject matter expertise must be augmented with the foundational skills like problem solving, curiosity, communication, collaboration, persistence, and creativity.

The challenge that faces business owners today

Training our employees for these mindsets is not an HR role. Nor is it the responsibility of colleges, universities or governments. It is also not a typical learn-once and forget-it approach. These mindsets require the right environment, supported by management policies, willing professionals who are ready to dedicate time and effort, and a feedback mechanism that provides positive incentives repeatedly for the right actions.

Moreover, each company focuses on different mindsets that help them succeed. It is impossible to have a general list of mindsets for every company. It is easier to recruit, hire and train your employees for mindsets based on your corporate vision and culture. For instance, at Suyati, we focus on fostering three mindsets that we believe is critical for our success: Continuous Innovation, Ownership, and Customer Delight.

The following statement by Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart Doug McMillon in a recent shareholder meeting succinctly describes how we all should prepare for this shift to the knowledge economy:

“No doubt our work will be different in the future —robots, drones and algorithms will do some work that we used to have to do. Some people are afraid of what these changes will bring. I don’t think we should be. Instead, I think we should recognize that we’ll be able to learn, grow and change together.”

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employees hr IT It innivation IT skillsets knowledge economy skillsets