The Skills Emergency Is Happening Now

This article first appeared in Forbes.

In The Outline of History, H.G. Wells, futurist, social critic and writer, wrote, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” 

Known mostly for his science fiction works like War of the Worlds, Wells nonetheless contributed significantly to our understanding of human affairs. In The Outline of History, which was published in 1920, he tried to capture what he referred to as “the whole story of man,” adding to the observation above the notion that: “Yet, clumsily or smoothly, the world, it seems, progresses and will progress.”

A century later, these words come to mind as we witness rapid progression in the world of work. It was only a few years ago that the “catastrophe” that doomsayers warned against was the looming robot takeover. Despite strong historical evidence suggesting that technological revolutions increase employment over time, as outlined in Carl Frey’s 2019 book The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation, it was still feared that the rise of AI and automation would result in mass unemployment. Robots and AI would ultimately take over our jobs, with no occupation safe from requisition.

Yet to Frey’s point, the history of technological progress is punctuated by stories in which the devastating consequences of mechanization ultimately gave way to unprecedented economic wealth and prosperity. The fruitful long-term results of the Industrial Revolution, he argues, foreshadowed the immense potential AI represents today.

Fast-forward a few years and it now seems as if we’re facing a totally different problem: The developed world is experiencing an employee shortage the likes of which hasn’t been seen in generations. Stated simply, the problem is not that thinking machines are taking over jobs; the problem is that there are not enough people to operate the machines.

Across industries and countries, there are currently more job openings than people looking for jobs. A thriving job market can seem positive, but underneath the statistics, the reality is far from rosy. The painful truth for individuals and organizations is that today’s strong demand for labor is very particular and favors skilled workers. People who lack modern skills risk being left behind. Unemployment can easily lead to being perpetually unemployable for those unable to upskill at pace with the labor market’s changing demands. Those who no longer look for jobs often don’t show up in the stats, but their pain is very real. At the same time, organizations that can’t find and hire skilled workers are at risk.

So considering the individual, organizational and national scale of this problem, it is clear that by now we are experiencing a real skills gap emergency of enormous proportions. A recent survey by McKinsey & Company found that 87% of companies surveyed reported having skills gaps or anticipating them within the next few years. According to Monster.com’s 2022 Future of Work report, 58% of enterprises listed “Finding candidates with the right skills” as their top challenge.

Just as Wells surmised so many years ago, the way we can avoid catastrophe is through education. The skills gap requires employers’—and their HR departments’—attention.

Today’s employees need opportunities to develop new and relevant skills to drive their career paths while employers need to stay ahead of the competition in an innovation-led marketplace. Enterprises that don’t have the capacity for upskilling workers are at risk of not only being unable to acquire the talent they need but also losing the talent they have. In one report from MIT and Deloitte, only 34% of workers reported feeling supported by their organization’s skill development opportunities; they also know that they have options at other companies where value is placed on upskilling, reskilling and continuous learning.

Employees are keenly aware that they have options; HR leaders should understand that upskilling and providing these continuous learning opportunities fall under their purview. Employers can work to close the skills gaps in their own organizations by being proactive and helping employees drive their own career paths. And amid the Great Resignation, employers are now doing more than ever it seems to retain their talent.

In upcoming installments of this series, we’ll explore the current shift of power from employers to employees and what enterprises need to do to compete, as well as the concept of continuous flow in upskilling and the age of talent intelligence.

 

retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

Responsible AI: Why It Matters and What HR Leaders Need to Know

Today’s HR leaders are tasked with not only hiring the right candidates quickly but doing so in a way that identifies the right skills needed to add to a diverse workforce.

AI-enabled Talent Intelligence is the engine to power such an effort at scale, but only through the use of Responsible AI can such a system ensure fairness within the hiring process. Without Responsible AI, unintended biases can seep into machine learning models, derailing DEI efforts.

Our co-founder and COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf recently spoke on this topic for HR Tech Live: North America, a free interactive online event sponsored by HR Exchange. If you weren’t able to attend, good news; you can check out the recording below.


retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

How AI Can Enhance the Human Experience at Work

Can’t AI be considered a threat to people’s jobs? How can we view it as a positive for HR?

By providing a skills view of an enterprise’s workforce, AI-powered talent intelligence can highlight best-fit positions and new opportunities for employees within the organization, as well as suggested development courses to help them get there. As a result, HR leaders can offer personalized career pathing at scale, investing meaningful effort into each and every employee. 

In this clip from our 3Sixty Insights vidcast, retrain.ai co-founder and COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf discusses the power of personalized professional development to lower attrition and engage employees.


retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

Responsible AI and the Algorithms That Fuel DEI

How can HR leaders ensure their AI is supporting DEI efforts? 

To accelerate DEI goals, the ultimate aim of responsible AI is to solve potential unintended bias. As such, machine learning models must be specifically designed using fairness algorithms that focus on skills without incorporating demographic or other information that could skew unbias results.


retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

Employee Skills Data and the Future of Work: Insights Tell the Story

How can HR leaders successfully build a skills-based talent pipeline in an ever-changing world of work? 

Analyzing and forecasting in-demand skills enables us to see what job opportunities exist now and what learning and development opportunities could help enterprises and their employees prepare for the jobs of the future. 

In this clip from our 3Sixty Insights vidcast, retrain.ai co-founder and COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf discusses the billions of data points that feed such predictive analytics, and what value the resulting insights hold for organizations preparing for the future of work. 

retrain.ai is an AI-powered matching engine already prepped for the future. Structured first and foremost around Responsible AI, our solution connects the right talent to your open roles and career pathways by tapping into their skills, capabilities, and aspirations, making sure you reduce attrition and retain the right talent. To see it in action, request a demo.

HR Exchange2022: Why Does Responsible AI Matters and What HR Leaders Need to Know

UPDATE: Local Law 144 will now go into effect on April 15, 2023. Learn more about the change here.

HR technology is becoming increasingly regulated. A new law taking effect in New York City on January 1,  2023 will require companies using AI-driven employment decision systems to submit to bias audits; companies may be fined for refusal to comply. And NY is just the first–similar regulations are already being considered in California and Illinois. 

 

With the great resignation and war for talent continuing to accelerate, HR leaders can’t afford to lose traction in their hiring and workforce efforts due to back-fitting compliant tech systems. 

 

Understanding the components of responsible AI–explainability, fairness algorithms, unintended bias detection–and what to look for in a compliant solution now can mitigate that risk and continue reinforcing DEI efforts. 

 

That’s why we’re joining HR Tech North America Live. In our session, retrain.ai co-founder Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf will discuss what constitutes Responsible AI, how to identify if your technology solutions are at risk, and how retrain.ai is building a Responsible AI Talent Intelligence System.

 

Click here to register for this free event.

 

If you’d like to see how our sophisticated, Responsible AI-driven Talent Intelligence platform transforms workforce planning, we’d love to show you. Book a Demo to participate in a tailored walk-through based on your organization’s specific needs for hiring, upskilling and retaining quality talent.