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Stephanie Neusser
Marketing Lead
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What are the top skills for your employees that will make your company future-proof in 2023 and beyond? Is your company well positioned on the market?
Many companies fear that they could lose their competitive advantage in the market in the near future. Digital change is dramatically changing our world. Not only is our private life affected, but also the business world. Completely different and new industries and work requirements are emerging. These new industries and occupations require new skills to master them. If your employees have the appropriate skills for the new working world, you can strengthen your company's position in the market now and in the future.
In the following, you will find out which skills you should pay more attention to when selecting applicants and — more importantly — which continuing education opportunities you should offer your existing employees.
“DATA IS THE NEW OIL” - CLIVE HUMBY
You're probably familiar with this quote from British mathematician and Tesco marketing mastermind Clive Humby, who said: “Data is the new oil.” It is proven that intelligent data enables companies to make better decisions, create more transparency, streamline processes, increase productivity, and achieve higher profits. But many companies still need help to equip their employees with the skills they need to make good use of data. For this reason, data skills have become one of the most important skills in many companies.
The ability to read, work with, analyze, and reason with data is known as Data literacy referred to. Interaction with data is constantly increasing in all areas of a company, whether in marketing, sales, human resources, or project management. As a result, companies are building data expertise not only in their data and IT departments, but also in other departments. As a result, improving data literacy today is less about individual expertise and more about understanding data, sharing knowledge, and having meaningful conversations about data.
Agile project management (APM) is a project management philosophy that focuses on collaboration between individuals and customers, rapid delivery, and flexibility when change occurs. In this new world of hybrid and decentralized work, much more planning and support is needed to ensure team cohesion and coordination.
As a result, every team member at all levels, including management, now needs communication, organization, and agility skills. As a result, cross-functional roles such as agile coach, product owner, and project manager are on the rise. These roles are responsible for bringing departments and team members together and promoting collaboration within the company. They require a specific mix of skills, including frameworks like SCRUM, project tools like JIRA, and other technical and soft skills. Soft skills include organization, time management, verbal communication, leadership, positive thinking, listening, critical thinking, and building effective relationships.
Satisfied customers feel understood and treated well and remain loyal to a brand. Dissatisfied customers turn away from them, and without customers, there is no business. It is therefore crucial to put the customer at the center of all products and services that you develop and offer.
This is the definition of customer focus and requires that your company's employees fully understand the situation, perceptions, and expectations of customers. To gain this understanding, your employees must display various skills behaviors, such as empathy, a love of the problem, a shift from a problem perspective to an opportunity perspective, humility to encourage collaboration, a growth mindset, and a serving leadership style.
Web development is the reason for the existence of content and web applications on the Internet. Today, the most valuable companies are in the technology sector. They have transformed the economy and dramatically affected our society as a whole. There is no sign that demand for web development will fall, as we are in fact even more reliant on the Internet every day.
Web developers design and develop web-based software solutions, or web applications, as they are commonly known. In addition to planning web design and architecture, they also take care of the development, maintenance and continuous optimization of existing web applications. The responsibilities of a web developer are divided into front-end and back-end development. Backend development refers to working on the client or server side.
Fullstack developers are able to work on both sides. To build these skills, your employees should have a good understanding of the various programming languages (such as Python, JavaScript, and HTML) and basic knowledge of responsive design and SEO.
Low and no-code applications are the solution to the IT skills gap. They enable employees to develop applications without the need for advanced technical knowledge by using powerful development tools.
“Low code” refers to software development that uses graphical, user interface-based tools to automate the creation of specific types of applications. “No code” refers to software development that requires no coding. As the IT skills gap is constantly growing, these skills are becoming increasingly important for the broad workforce. The lack of IT professionals means that companies need workers who are familiar with the technology and have digital skills.
Digital marketing is a form of marketing that uses digital technologies to reach and target customers. Various online and offline channels are often used, such as search engine marketing (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and mobile marketing.
Nowadays, digital marketing is no longer only used for typical marketing tasks, but also in the areas of human resources and recruitment, such as performance marketing, social media and employer branding. All of these tasks require digital skills such as data analysis, content creation, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), communication, social media management, basic design, and customer relationship management systems (CRM) such as Salesforce.
In the current media climate, knowledge of social media is essential for many professions. Using social media as a marketing, sales, or recruitment tool has proven to be extremely effective in recent years. Many companies hire social media specialists to help them reach their target group and connect with existing and potential customers and employees.
But success on social media isn't easy and requires careful planning, execution, and measurement. Social media specialists must think strategically and be creative and understand how social media platforms work to be successful. In addition, they must be able to identify and analyze social media trends and find clever ways to use them.
It is hard to imagine today's society without the Internet and modern technology. Even though these inventions offer significant benefits, it is foolish to overlook their dangers. In order to be able to move safely in the digital sphere, employees must learn how to protect themselves and their company from cyber attacks.
Cybercrime is no longer a marginal phenomenon, as its consequences are often costly. All employees should be aware of the various security threats, from malware attacks to phishing to IoT attacks. Even though awareness of this issue is good, it is not enough in most cases. Your employees should also learn how to prevent cyber attacks. The data that cybercriminals target is often worth millions, and since data is the new oil, you need to protect your assets.
Digital and other technologies enable new ways of working, and employee teams are more connected and should work better together. During the pandemic, companies and workers everywhere were forced to rely on digital technologies. They needed to use their soft skills, visual communication, and social media skills to collaborate effectively when working remotely. The pandemic has shown us that remote communication and collaboration is a skill that your teams should master.
Teamwork and communication can be a challenge when your team isn't in one place or in the same time zone. If they are neglected, entire work processes break down, it is more difficult to build trust, and the team spirit goes down the drain. But when you master this skill, your teams can work efficiently and productively with others, no matter where they are.
The 21st century is characterized by the rapid emergence and development of new technologies, particularly in the digital world. It is therefore more important than ever for companies and their employees to keep pace with new technologies, software and learning methods.
Innovation management is the key for today's companies to remain competitive and successful in a rapidly changing market environment. As a manager, when you drive innovation within your organization, your teams can discover new business opportunities, save unnecessary costs, be more flexible, and significantly improve your R&D projects. Innovation methods such as Product Discovery, Design Thinking, Design Sprints, and Lean Startup can create, deliver and capture real added value for your company.
Many of the skills listed here have to do with digital skills. That's no surprise as we've entered a new decade of increasing digital transformation. In this rapidly changing environment, skill gaps can widen much faster than ever before.
Would you like to read more about how skills are shaping the future of work?
Download the full Skills Insights Report with skill data from over 500,000 job offers.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has been completely revised and updated to ensure accuracy and completeness.
edyoucated is funded by leading research institutions such as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
