Race to Reskill

‘Half of the companies do not know what skills their workforce has today’.

The global pandemic has turned worker’s lives upside down and accelerated workforce disruption from record levels of job losses to widespread automation anxiety about the rise of robots and job automation.

The pandemic has been an accelerant for digitisation and job automation forcing many companies to rethink how they will prepare their people for new jobs that don’t exist yet.

The race to reskill has therefore never been more urgent in the age of AI and robots.

Key Findings

• 1/3 workers believe their jobs will be part or fully automated in 5 years

• 2/3 companies don’t have a future of work plan in place

• 1/3 workers believe companies are preparing them for the future of work

• 93% leaders agree preparing for the future of work is a top priority

• 49% do not know what skills their workforce has today

• 83% leaders believe automation of jobs will accelerate 3.5x due to the pandemic

• 35% workers believe their companies are preparing them for the future of work

• 81% workers experience barriers to reskilling: time constraints, overworked and lack of race to reskill strategy

• 97% leaders expect technology to continue as a primary job disruptor in next 3 years

• Just 33% of UK leaders are investing in future of work and race to reskill training and workforce upskilling today

• 87% leaders believe curiosity, lifelong learning, agility and resilience will become top drivers of future job success

• One silver lining that 53% of leaders believe there will be a net gain of new types of jobs that don’t exist yet in the next 5 years

Summary

• British Companies losing the race to reskill

• 1/3 workers fear their jobs will not exist in 5-years due to automation

• 2/3 companies don’t have a robust reskill roadmap in place

Covid-19 has accelerated the urgency to win the Race to Reskill threat. There will be winners and losers in the race to upskill. Companies must rise to the challenge to ensure today’s workers and future generations have the tools to not just survive but reinvent themselves.