Workforce Agility: Closing the Workforce Readiness Gap

Change is inevitable, and the world of work is changing faster than ever. In fact, the pace of workplace change has accelerated so much that the workforce is often unable to adapt rapidly enough.

The result of this imbalance can be referred to as the workforce readiness gap. To thrive in this environment, today’s employers must understand what this gap really represents and then embrace the tenets of workforce agility that close the gap and benefit employers and employees alike.

Understanding the Workforce Readiness Gap

The workforce readiness gap isn’t just about the here and now — it’s also about the future. Ensuring that workers have the talents and skills they need to succeed today is challenging enough, but they also must be able to continually build the skills they need for tomorrow. In other words, there’s a gap if workers aren’t thriving now, but also if they’re unable to adapt and evolve as demands of the work world change.

By the way, this gap can impact both direct employees and indirect labor resources. And it’s a concern not just for employers but also for workers themselves — they want to feel certain that they’re ready for tomorrow, and they want confidence that their employers will help them be ready.

One of the many tricky things about accelerated change is the fact that many jobs of the future have not yet even been invented. It’s clear enough, though, that automation is impacting millions of people and that remote work continues to change processes. All of these things feed the workforce readiness gap.

Though it sounds daunting and a bit fuzzy, the workforce readiness gap really boils down to three main buckets:

• Employees are having trouble keeping up with changing requirements for skills.
• Employers aren’t living up to employee expectations for skills development.
• Employers don’t have good visibility into their workforce — the skills that are out there now as well as the skills that will be needed from their team down the road.

Amid those uncertainties is the reality that the workforce readiness gap is costly. Skills shortages get in the way of corporate performance, and the resulting unrealized revenue adds up to trillions of dollars a year. Customers are less satisfied, productivity drops, expenses increase, and employees go job hunting. In short, employers and society as a whole can’t afford to ignore the workforce readiness gap.

Aiming for Workforce Agility

Two words point to the solution to the workforce readiness gap: workforce agility. Workforce agility is the ability of employers to understand both the current skills and the aspirations of their workforce, gauge where the needs are or will be, and then nurture development and growth in all the right directions.

Workforce agility focuses on developing people, because organizations adapt best to change when their people can learn, grow, and contribute. Organizations must gain an in-depth understanding of the ecosystems of their people’s strengths and preferences, to help them thrive and meet business objectives. And although prudent organizations already have workforce-development infrastructure in place, it’s important to recognize that yesterday’s approaches alone won’t meet tomorrow’s need for proactivity.

That doesn’t mean ditching the traditional talent development tools, such as learning and development (L&D) systems, talent mobility offerings, performance management processes, skills management programs, analytical tools, and culture surveys. These technologies still have plenty of merit, but workforce agility requires integrating them with new concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI), so the processes become personalized, customized, and tailored to the needs of the people who use them. Workforce agility is about turning the organization into a skills marketplace.

Success in workforce agility means improving culture and technology, upgrading the skills strategy, turbocharging L&D, personalizing learning content, refining performance management, boosting talent mobility, and greatly enhancing talent data and analytics.

An agile workforce is proactive in anticipating and solving change-related problems. It’s constantly adapting and learning, and it’s resilient in the face of ever-changing circumstances. When the workforce is truly agile, it shows up in stronger organizational results.

Bringing Workforce Agility to the People

As is often the case in business and in life, problems are really just opportunities waiting to be tapped into. The workforce readiness gap may be a problem today, but a workforce agility strategy transforms it into a launchpad for future success.

First, all employers know that turnover is costly, so it makes sense to retain employees as much as possible, hiring or promoting from within when it’s feasible. The key to making that work is upskilling and reskilling with the help of more accessible learning experiences and smart technologies for skills management. Formal training is part of the recipe, along with on-the-job learning, observation, feedback, and coaching.

Smart employers also recognize that what’s good for their people is great for the organization. Getting employees invested in their own careers and letting them know their employer has their back is powerful medicine. An AI-enhanced talent marketplace system helps chart both traditional and nonlinear job progression that matches personal skills and goals.

That, in turn, helps the organization transform strategically. The end result of a workforce agility strategy is better preparation for the future. The sky is the limit when personal aspirations are aligned with the organization’s goals and future talent needs. Skills data becomes more closely linked with career and succession planning.

The result of these efforts is workforce agility that builds a bridge over the workforce readiness gap. When executed properly, it’s a win-win situation. Everyone benefits, including the organization and all its people.

To find out more about workforce agility, check out Workforce Agility For Dummies, Cornerstone Special Edition. Head to www.cornerstoneondemand.com/resources/article/Workforce-Agility-For-Dummies-Cornerstone-Special-Edition/ for your free e-book and to start planning how you can build more workforce agility and close the widening workforce readiness gap.