5 tips to build a future-ready workforce

Three years ago, most organizations were unprepared to face the drastic changes brought about by the pandemic. The 2021 Global Resilience Report has predicted that we'll face several major disruptions in the coming years too. That's why it's crucial to retain high-performing, adaptable employees who have the right set of skills to keep your organization afloat during challenging times. They should be able to adopt new tech tools easily and identify opportunities that establish stability across your operations.

Here are five ways you can make your organization future-ready:

1. Plug all skill gaps

To prepare your employees for the future, it's essential to invest in them. Organizations can do so by building a culture of learning and ensuring employees adopt relevant skills. Help employees stay ahead of the curve by identifying skill gaps. As a first step, you can assess what is required to thrive in each role and department. This may change over time depending on the business situation, so be sure to reassess often. Compare the ideal profiles with your existing employees to see which skills they already possess and which they could learn. Performance reviews can also help you get a clearer understanding of any skill gaps.

In addition to this, check in with managers and employees regularly to discuss their training needs. Once you know which skills employees require, offer training programs that bridge those gaps efficiently. Keep your training as flexible, easy, and engaging as possible to ensure your employee stay interested in learning.

2. Strengthen workforce planning

Workforce planning can go a long way toward helping you understand the current and future market trends, your organizational needs, and skill gaps. As a result, you'll be able to streamline your hiring strategies and hire employees whose profiles meet the current and future needs of your organization. In order to ace workforce planning, gather all of your organization's stakeholders to get a clear picture of its five to ten-year goals and current direction. As a next step, use data to understand the true potential of your workforce and its development needs. Stay abreast of your market's future trends by keeping in touch with your customers and listening to their challenges. Review industry reports to understand your market's overall landscape. Finally, bridge the gap between your workforce and your upcoming organizational needs.

3. Let employees experiment with their work

For employees to innovate and explore new opportunities, they need a space that helps them experiment, make mistakes, and overcome challenges. Encourage managers to remain available to their team members as mentors, and ensure they are guiding employees rather than micromanaging them. Let managers and executives lead by example by taking calculated risks rather than sticking to outdated and standard processes. From time to time, ensure that your employees have the right set of tech tools and resources to try out new things at work. Build a collaborative space that helps employees come together to share creative ideas, learn from each other, and exchange feedback.

4. Foster employees resilience

Resilient employees are able to face the challenges and stress brought about by changing times. In fact, resilient employees see tough times and challenges as opportunities to innovate and introduce strategies that help them thrive. Take conscious steps to improve the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of your workforce. Help your employees build social connections at work so that they don't feel like they are alone. Build a supportive work environment where employees are heard without any judgments and feel valued for the work they do.

5. Uphold feedback and appreciation at all times

To be future-ready, your employees will have to improve their performance regularly. For this, it's essential that you provide feedback that helps them identify essential areas of development and understand which of their qualities benefit your organization and what they can improve on. In addition to this, it's important to appreciate good work and let employees know how they've added value to your business. This will ensure employees stay motivated at all times. Remind managers to not wait until performance reviews to appreciate their team members and offer their feedback so there are no missed opportunities. Encourage them to provide specific insights based on facts and performance, not assumptions.

Wrapping up

Making your employees future-ready will help your organization drive growth and avoid losses, even during challenging times. It simply comes from empowering your employees to learn new skills regularly, work independently, and feel confident in their ability to solve problems.