I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of work, with a focus on both the trends that will impact jobs and professions, as well as the skills employers will demand as a result. As with many of us, my first thoughts go to technology – it seems that every report we hear talks about disruption and automation, and how so many jobs will be eliminated as a result. According to RBC’s Future Launch report “How Canadian Youth Can Survive in the Age of Disruption” (which is a great read, I highly recommend it), more than a quarter of Canadian jobs will be heavily disrupted by technology in the decade ahead.
As a 'glass half full person', I tend to think about exciting ways technology can change our work for the better, and how we can prepare ourselves. One of the ways to find some certainty in these changing times is to understand what the sought-after skills will be from employers’ perspectives. Easier said than done, right? Of course, there is no silver bullet - we will still have seemingly infinite types of careers to choose from, but finding some commonality isn’t too hard if you try. To keep it simple, let’s focus on the big picture, and contemplate just two ideas here.
First – we all need digital fluency, which can be defined as “…the ability to leverage technology to create new knowledge” (plucked from Jennifer Sparrow’s article “Digital Fluency: Preparing Students to Create Big, Bold Problems”). If you’ve grown up with a device in your hand, you’re likely well on your way to achieving digital fluency. If you’re like me, a proud Gen X’er, you’re likely a competent technology user who occasionally asks their teenager to help them out with an Instagram post. Either way, the future demands that we leverage available technology not only to just ‘get by’ in our jobs, but to make us efficient, valuable contributors to the organization’s strategy. If you’re in HR, how can you automate the candidate screening process to find the right candidates faster? If you’re an accountant, leveraging financial software will automate some of the more routine processes, and give you access to comprehensive data – enabling you to be a business advisor to your clients, instead of just ensuring their books are done right.
Second – given that we are increasingly living in a time of fast-paced change, our current jobs and those we’ll hold in the future will require us to hone the skills that help us learn and acquire knowledge. Based again on the research done in RBC’s Future Launch project, some of the most critical, in demand skills going forward are active listening, critical thinking, social perceptiveness, problem solving and a service orientation (to name but a few). Interestingly, these ranked higher than skills such as mathematics and programming. This research makes sense to me and ties in with an interesting book I read recently, titled “You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a Useless Liberal Arts degree” by George Anders.
Hopefully this give you some food for thought and makes the seemingly uncertain future of work a little more clear!