TIPS TO PREPARE YOUR WORKFORCE FOR A DIGITAL WORKPLACE IN 2022

As vaccinations roll out and the world goes back to a sense of normalcy, many companies will still choose to keep a majority of their operations online. This past year has taught us how valuable it is for a company to be able to adapt. Only those who already had an online presence or were able to go online quickly mitigated the effect of the pandemic on their bottom lines. 

Over 100,000 small businesses have had to permanently close their doors since the rise of the pandemic last March, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and University of Chicago. There’s no arguing that COVID-19 has transformed communities around the world and has had a huge impact on workplaces, workplace culture and on operations themselves. 

As 2022 continues, it’s time for leaders to think about what the digital landscape will look like and what long-lasting transformations it will bring. We know now that organizations will depend on their ability to adapt, innovate and change their ways of working in order to be successful. We need to continue to be flexible in many areas including location and technology to help make sure that our productivity is optimized. 

The Digital Skills Gap

The digital skills gap refers to two main factors which affect different sectors and economies at different proportions. The first factor is the fact that there is a lack of digital skills within existing workforces, and the second is that there is a lack of adequately trained graduates to fill in the digital positions in growing technological industries. 

Both of these factors can greatly impact the growth of businesses and whole economies, even to the point of causing contractions. This lack of digital skills among the workforce exists even in businesses with highly skilled workers, many of whom are unable to adapt to the digital technologies that will advance their business. 

Taking on the challenge of upskilling an entire workforce can certainly be daunting, however organizations who fail to rise to this challenge will fall to others that do, or by new competition unburdened by a workforce who lack those digital skills.

Preparing Your Workforce for a Digital Workplace in 2022

Here are the tips and steps you can take to help close the digital skills gap within your workforce and prepare for a digital workplace. 

Keep Taking the Digital Workplace Home

The transition to working from home was one of the biggest challenges that companies faced globally. Organizations that had only operated entirely on-site had to make sharp pivots. Everything from training to onboarding had to be conducted in a digital setting, and the existing workforce needed to be set up to be able to work from home for an unknown length of time. 

Even though a majority of employees are set up and able to work from home the challenges that come with remote work are still present. With many companies set to work from home for the rest of the current year, there is still much work left to be done about ensuring accessibility in a remote workforce. 

Some challenges that remain in the digital workplace include the need to ensure all work processes are adapted correctly to support this type of working. For example, onboarding now needs to be done completely online. It’s important for organizations not to just simply move traditional practices online, but to create a new process specifically designed to provide the best experiences online for everyone. Situations like these need to be comprehensively re-evaluated in order to ensure successful execution and integration. 

Evaluate Your Employees’ Current Skills

Take stock of what digital skills your workforce currently possess that can add value to your business. These include anything from software knowledge to G-Suite experience, or experience with using internal, proprietary systems. This will also help you reveal any gaps in knowledge within your workforce which helps you understand where you need to focus your efforts. Will you be able to teach your current workforce the necessary skills for a digital transformation or will you need to hire outside talent?

Use Technology to Enhance Your Digital Workplace

Keep up to date with the latest sales or recruitment tools emerging within the digital market to ensure that you are using the best solutions. With that being said, if you do not have the correct digital ecosystem in place to support these tools then the technology will not work for you, or you will be limited in what you can do with it. Every single digital tool should be viewed as a cog in the machine, not as an individual system. It needs to be able to easily and fully integrate with your existing systems. 

Every organization will have different technological needs depending on their size and industry, but in general both marketing and IT teams will have to closely align on how technology can be used in order to smash business objectives without causing disruptions in the digital ecosystem. 

Implement On-The-Job Training

Continuous education and training in the workplace can have a huge impact on your employees’ skill set. According to the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, about 66% of adults found on-the-job training incredibly useful to improve their work skills. 

This is why many businesses trust 1Huddle as their primary training platform to handle all of their employee training and development needs online. 1Huddle seamlessly integrates within your business’ digital space, is fully customizable and conveniently controllable via your cloud-based dashboard. You can get new training programs up and running within minutes or update your traditional training materials into fun and interactive gamified training programs designed to keep your employees highly engaged while they learn. Request a demo today and level up your workforce to meet the ongoing demands of a digital workplace.