Building tomorrow’s workforce – six no-regrets plays to equip employees for a digital future

1. Anticipate and plan for the future

It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? After all, good businesses have always planned for the future, if only to make sure that their products are available at the right price when the next day’s trading begins. The challenge today is that the accelerating flow of new technologies which replace or disrupt traditional ways of working make it far harder for organisations to anticipate what the future will look like.

In this fluid context, it’s troubling that only 38% of Middle East respondents say they are developing their strategic, financial and people plans in a coordinated way, and only 29% use a wide range of external data sources and viewpoints when considering their workforce strategy.  Meanwhile, 36% cite cost pressures as the key barrier to taking a scenario-based approach to plan for multiple possible futures.

The tough lesson is that precisely because these futures are so hard to visualise, it’s doubly important to plan carefully for different scenarios. Leveraging insights from data and advanced analytics is critical, supported by dynamic planning capabilities at senior management level.

2. Build talent development and upskilling programmes fit for the organisation

Only 26% of the Middle East sample strongly agree that they use workforce analytics to predict and monitor skills gaps, implying that this is not a high priority for most of the region’s employers. It should be, given that the most acute of nine risk areas concerning talent development and upskilling is an inability to identify the skills the organisation will need in the future due to technological change. 

Respondents variously cite lack of senior leadership capability, cost pressures and their organisation’s culture for this shortcoming. Nonetheless, the Middle East findings indicate that employers are starting to get the message that digital upskilling and investment in talent are essential to remain competitive. For example, almost half (42%) believe that re-skilling and continuous learning programmes are very important to help workers remain employable.  

3. Create organisational agility and resilience via the workforce

Replacing human work with technology is the reality that organisations across the globe are facing. Yet in the Middle East, only 24% of the survey strongly agree that their talent practices and processes are designed to nurture employee agility and adaptability, while only 25% strongly agree that they identify the potential organisational risks caused by decisions to replace human work with technology.

As the region’s digital transformation overturns traditional workplace practices and cultures, it’s clear that the region’s business leaders need to play a more significant role in effectively communicating and navigating their employees through this inevitable transition. Organisations that ignore this responsibility risk ending up with an anxious, distracted workforce, too worried about whether they will lose their jobs to new technologies to be fully productive. 

4. Optimise workforce productivity and performance

Only 32% of Middle East respondents strongly agree that they can measure productivity and performance at an individual level, compared with 25% across the survey, indicating that this is a global challenge. At the same time, only 28% of the Middle East sample strongly agree that they give employees a high degree of autonomy in how they organise their work, while 33% strongly agree that they provide physical working environments and technology that enable all people to perform at their best.  

Yet Middle East organisations, like their global peers, already have the means to release their workers’ full individual potential. Business leaders need to harness new technologies to improve systems and data management and processing, which in turn will enable them to minimise competing investments or priorities. It’s encouraging in this respect that 40% of Middle East respondents believe that giving employees a high degree of autonomy in how they organise their work is very important. What matters now is turning these good intentions into practical action.  

5. Prepare for and deploy technology with humans in mind

Many Middle East organisations still have plenty of ground to cover before making this crucial conceptual leap, with only 29% strongly agreeing that their workforce and technology strategies make the best use of human skills. A substantial minority – 25% - cite concerns around the potential consequences of taking action as the biggest obstacle to drawing on their workers’ input to improve or implement new technologies. 

Middle East employers need to see this perceived hurdle for what it is – an opportunity. The best way to continue rolling out new technology solutions is transparently, consulting and supporting your employees at every stage of the journey. In this context, it’s worth remembering that the rising generation of younger Middle East workers are “digital natives”, who may already have significant technology skills and insights that employers can tap into. At a minimum, this generation is not generally afraid of new technologies; 63% of our GCC Hopes and Fears 2021 survey , which reflects the region’s youthful workforce, said that technology presented greater opportunities than risks for them personally. 

6. Build trust in the organisation

Like the rest of the global survey, most Middle East organisations have a long way to travel in this area. Only 36%, versus 30% globally, strongly agree that there is a high level of trust between workers and their direct supervisors. Yet mutual trust is essential for competitive success as transformation sweeps the region – not least because the best talent is portable in digital economies and will naturally gravitate towards employers which inspire confidence in their workforce. 

This is not simply a question of nurturing transparent, supportive relationships between managers and employees. To attract and retain the brightest recruits, organisations will need to reflect the values and aspirations of rapidly changing Middle East societies. Currently, only 29% of Middle East respondents strongly agree that their organisation sets targets to close gaps in workforce diversity and pay disparities – although to be fair, this is slightly higher than the global survey average of 26%. It’s also disappointing that only 31% of the Middle East survey strongly agree that their organisation makes environmental issues a strategic priority and part of its wider business management planning.