Dive Brief:
- HR professionals will need to focus on developing employee skills to help their organizations grow in 2020, according to Gartner, a research and advisory company.
- Automation and digitalization are rapidly changing the skills required for success, Gartner said, "and organizations are having trouble keeping up." To ensure employees have those skills, HR should partner with business leaders to address emerging needs, Gartner advised. HR also must work with managers to demonstrate the value of such skills to workers and to connect employees to learning opportunities.
- Gartner also offered four more suggestions for HR pros hoping to help their employers grow: cultivate a strong leadership bench; involve employees change decisions; become a trusted advisor on digital transformation; and prioritize the employee experience.
Dive Insight:
Gartner's recommendation echos what many others have said: to thrive in the future of work, employers will need to upskill today's employees.
Others have noted, however, that upskilling is only part of the answer to the skills gap. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, warned that U.S. stakeholders will need to improve policies to build better careers. And some say that a mix of "building and buying" talent will be necessary. "It's critical to train existing people, but sometimes as strategy changes, you'll need different skill sets to achieve goals," Courtney Cook, VP of strategic development at Korn Ferry, previously told HR Dive.
Research also agrees that leadership development should be a priority for HR. It's an area that both managers and employees say needs attention, according to an earlier Gartner study. When workers lack confidence in leaders, employers may find themselves unprepared for the future of work — and facing a retention problem.
