While it’s largely foolhardy to place too much faith in the various estimates of individual jobs vulnerability to technological and economic disruption, what seems far more certain is that disruption will become a way of life, especially in an era where our life expectancy continues to grow and therefore our time in work stretches outwards.  The need to successfully transition from career to career is likely to be just as important at an individual level as the ability to successfully pivot is for organizations attempting to ride the winds of change.

Alas, attitudes towards retraining are far from uniform, and indeed those who are most vulnerable often have the least aptitude for developing the new skills they need to successfully transition to a new career.  A new report from Capita attempts to shed light on the landscape for both upskilling those already in the workforce, or re-skilling those who have been displaced.

“We heard a strong desire for timely information about and sufficiently detailed insight into the future so that plans could be made,” the authors say. “These people also desperately want the training and support that would help them make their planned transitions that automation inevitably involves.”

Views from the frontline

The report is interesting as rather than focusing attention on those in managerial positions, the attention is placed instead on those who need to retrain.  The authors wanted to explore just how people, and especially those in low- to medium-paying jobs, think about the prospect of refreshing their skillset to remain valuable in the labor market.  

They began by trying to explore some of the opportunities and challenges this group of people saw as they envisaged the future ahead of them.  Across numerous focus groups and roundtable discussions, the authors spoke directly with workers across the United Kingdom, with the findings shedding new light on those in the crosshairs of automation.

Four core themes emerged from the conversations that provide a degree of direction for any future activities by employers, employees and policy makers.  The first of these is that people are generally excited about the possibilities new technology can bring to their personal and professional lives. This excitement was especially focused on the potential for technology to eradicate the various boring and tedious tasks that so dull their enjoyment of work.

Time to prepare

Despite this general excitement, however, there was an appreciation that change was inevitable.  A consistent finding was that people were ready for such a challenge, but required sufficient time to prepare for it.  For instance, if people were in control of their own destiny, they felt far more confident of their ability to adapt successfully.  When change arrived suddenly and unexpectedly however, people were much more apprehensive and uncertainty clouded their thinking.

The process of introducing new technologies into the workflow of people creates an inevitable period of adaptation that is likely to render people less efficient while they develop new ways of working.  As with learning any new skill, the report revealed a real sense of accomplishment when everything clicked and people became more productive, but doing so often requires a degree of support that is far from guaranteed.  As in so many aspects of working life, it’s during the difficult times when the role of managers comes to the fore, but people often reported these times as being typified by an absence of managerial support. This resulted in confidence in the new ways of working being undermined.

This support is often least forthcoming among those in low skilled roles, and it can often be difficult for organizations to successfully make the case for training and development opportunities for such workers.  As such, when training is offered, it can often be delivered electronically, where cost effectiveness is often a presiding priority. Alas, respondents in the research highlighted how despite high levels of comfort with such approaches, there was nonetheless a high degree of frustration that they were often accompanied by a lack of involvement and support by managers, without which the true potential of e-learning would not be reached.

Smarter learning

The report concludes with a number of recommendations for organizations that wish to provide better support to employees whose job is being disrupted by new technologies:

• Build enthusiasm for change, with particular emphasis on how jobs will change but won’t be automated away, so that employees appreciate how technology will benefit them.

• Provide a clear roadmap, so that any anxiety employees feel is dissipated and they can take ownership of the changes they will need to make, with clear support from the organization to help them.

• Support learning, with a particular emphasis on clear walk-through demonstrations of the changes new technologies will bring to workflows, with an opportunity to try things out in a no-pressure environment.
• Ensure face-time during training, as even with increasingly powerful digital media, peer support, coaching and mentoring remain crucial if learning is to succeed.

“Automation fails without people – and there’s work to do in getting workforces on board,” the authors conclude.  “To unlock the full potential of technologies business needs to consider a comprehensive future of work management prior to making a significant investment in automation.”

We’re entering an age where speed of learning is increasingly a competitive advantage, and the report provides a timely input into how organizations can better achieve this, especially across lower-skilled roles that are too often an afterthought.