Skilled Yourself To Upscale In The Post-Pandemic World
In the wake of the pandemic looming over the world, research suggests that 135 Million Indians could potentially find themselves unemployed. On the flipside, companies have been closely weighing their options and the consensus is that the extensive and easy availability of communication technology has enabled people to smoothly adapt to the new work-from-home setup. Essentially, while we gaze at the future of our economy with uncertainty, what is certain is the paradigm shift in the way we work.
Organizations are methodically taking steps to enable a unified digital workplace, with increased work flexibility to its employees as well as clients. From a wine tasting company that has started offering wine tastings to people in the comfort of their homes to fitness companies offering workouts over videos, there is one sentiment prevalent across the market – ‘Pivot or Perish’.
With companies having to shift tracks, adapt to the new changes and make significantly different decisions, what are the implications for individuals?
Companies are hiring differently, and professionals must respond to that.
Take my case, for example. I am a young entrepreneur and I run a digital platform that helps women to build careers they love. Because of the lockdown, I was forced to take a new approach. I pivoted our strategy to prioritize setting up a marketplace for independent women professionals to find work. With that shift arose a need to change the way we hire. Now we need people who have multiple skill sets, so that they can execute and deliver independently when needed.
The post pandemic world will need more people who are dexterous, adaptable and multi-skilled. With the demand for freelancers likely to rise post-pandemic, as companies decide it is better to hire temp workers rather than full time staff, people who can execute end-to-end on projects and tasks will be in high demand.
Up-skilling cross-functionally is indispensable whether you go back to work or not.
For those who might head back to work, roles, responsibilities and work in general will look incredibly different than what we’re used to currently. Returning back to work might mean that employees will be subjected to a higher demand of being able to perform multiple roles and pick up on the leftover slack too. Therefore, survival in both of these scenarios will be heavily dependent on the ability to learn and up-skill. So if you feel apprehensive of the path to tread on , try your hand at developing different skills before anything else. There is tremendous likelihood that you will be called upon to demonstrate many of your advanced skills in the post-pandemic world.
In a nutshell, cross-functionality is the ability to do and engage with more than just your area of expertise. So try to develop a basic working knowledge of all areas of business - the roles, goals and demands of different verticals, while having an in-depth expertise in one of those areas.
Here are some ways to upskill:
1. Prioritize a career driven approach
Foster yourself on in-demand industry skills by way of remote learning methods available to you right now. This approach will, without a doubt, prepare you for a sustainable career in the long run.
2. Digital Competency is key for remote work
Most industries have transformed much of their previous face to face work to online platforms. Count digital competency as a definite fundamental skill, see what areas you lack in, and train in those.
3. Upskilling looks different for self employed professionals
Delving into solo-preneurship requires you need to pick up a lot more work that you usually would either delegate or have another team member do for you. Right from cash flow management to project management, you will need to be a jack of all trades, master of some.
4. Give soft skills a chance
Creativity, innovation, the ability to communicate effectively and work in a team - all these are soft skills which are even more important given that remote working seems to be a certain possibility. Don’t overlook them!
The ability of individuals as well as establishments to pivot to newer, pioneering consumer-centric solutions radically determines their capacity to lead the change. Setting archetypal standards of commitment, enthusiasm and openness to evolve by learning gets driven at all levels when the calling is to serve in unprecedented times.
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