Digital Transformation of Your Organization towards A Billion Dollar Gateway!

Digital technology and transformation are becoming a hot topic for companies around the globe. Executives in almost all industries are making use of digital advances such as social media, analytics, emails, and mobility to improve their presence and enhance customer relationships and value propositions. Some of the challenges being faced by organizations to transform their business successfully to digital technologies are:

• Shortage of Digital Skills in the current market place Skill shortage is creating a war for talent! There is a situation where companies are competing for the best talent with new categories of players. Unlike in the past, hunt for the best talent is no more limited to localized skills. An important question that arises – Do organizations include digital skills as a key component in their workforce plan.

• Companies are not investing in Digital Skills Over 87% of companies realize that digital transformation is a competitive opportunity, but only 46% of them are investing in the development of digital skills.

• Training programs are out of sync Only 4% of companies are aligning their training efforts with their digital strategy. Such poor investment clearly reflects the limited reach of training initiatives.

Most relevant Digital Skills for the Digital Age! The proliferation of digital tools and technology indicates that business workers have to also learn sufficient technical skills. There is a need for evolved professionals that are comfortable with both business and technology. Some of them are:

• Demand for new types of Technical skills Over 50% of companies realize that mobile is a key skill for digital transformation, however, 80% of them face a talent shortage in mobile

• Business professionals must understand the language of IT 90% of all jobs will require Information & Communication Technology skills. Therefore, there is a need for business professionals to understand the language of IT.
• Technical talents need a strong understanding of business According to Markus Nordlin, CIO of Zurich Insurance; Successful leaders of tomorrow are going to be true hybrid professionals that have spent some time in IT, but have shifted to operations and vice-versa.

Efforts required by Organization to plug a skills gap Growing demand and a limited supply of digital talent are placing immense pressure on organizations to scale up their digital skills. It is important for organizations to accelerate digital training programs, initiate innovative recruitment methods, and enter into partnerships with various communities to plug the digital skills gap. Some methods that can be incorporated to overcome this challenge are: 1# Employee exchange programs with technology companies that aid in accelerating digital training Training programs on digital skills help employees to understand and implement new digital technologies. During such programs, employees from both organizations participate in each other’s training programs to share digital knowledge and enhance their skills. 2# Identifying future skills requirement It is very important to define a clear digital skills vision for your organization. Identify the skills that the company requires to meet its digital transformation goals. 3# Conduct skills gap analysis After identifying the future skills requirements, organizations will need to conduct a self-assessment test of their existing skills. It is time to compare their existing skills with the desired level of proficiency and determine the skills gap. In addition to all the above-mentioned methods, organizations will also have to continuously work towards sustaining the advantage that they gain through these digital skills. Such efforts include regular methods to train and re-skill the employees to ensure a successful digital transformation.