The future of work is digital, says SmartUp’s Head of Learning & Talent, Laurence Smith. We share 5 soundbites from his 938now interview.
Is your organisation ready for the future of work? How digitally literate is your company?
According to a 2018 survey by the Singapore Business Federation, 1 in 4 Singaporean workplaces have yet to implement any notable transformation and are lagging behind.
But not to worry- having a future-ready workforce doesn’t mean mastering complicated coding sequences. It’s as simple as following these 5 tips:
1. Workplaces are generally behind in Technology
Individuals are usually more digitally literate than workplaces and institutions.
“We are already digitally literate as individuals,” says Laurence. “If you look at us at home, your parents—even your grandparents—may be on Facebook or Instagram. But in our working lives, the technology we have access to in the office is generally a generation behind. Our companies are often trailing in this aspect.”
“We need to think of digital literacy in four curves: as individuals, workers, businesses, and government. What matters is how you can move each of them closer together, so that each of us has a higher literacy level.”
So how can we prepare for the future of work?
2. Make Learning Fun Again
Picking up digital skills and creating digital awareness is easier when learning is fun. It’s the sure-fire way to engage people.
“We’ve seen a number of local and international companies with very high levels of voluntary learning on evenings and weekends- this is very unusual. We don’t usually get people learning work stuff during those times for fun. But when using SmartUp, they actually do. It’s partly because learning is easy, and partly because it’s fun.”
3. Practise Lifelong Learning
“I think as the speed of technology changes, people are realising that it’s no longer about going to school for 12 years, then university, and that’s it for life.
In fact, the half-life of professional skills is about 5 years, so people need to constantly redevelop themselves,” insists Laurence.
Where do we start?
4. Decide on the answers you want
Data helps find answers you need to drive business growth. But first, ask the right questions.
“If you start with bad data, you ultimately get bad insights. So, companies need quality data. Know what insights you’re trying to get, and from there, what questions to ask. Once you have those, run the analytics against that data set and get insights.
Even though Big Data and AI do lots of good things, people still add value to machines. It all comes down to knowing what type of answers we want and what questions we ask,” he says.
5. Sign on with SmartUp!
Gone are the days of high entry barriers. Creating quality learning content today is intuitive and accessible—and it’s all thanks to apps like SmartUp.
“There’s a whole democratisation of learning going on,” shares Laurence. The app makes it easy to create and share content within an organisation.
“The best thing? It’s even accessible for non-technical people from any company of any size. With SmartUp, companies enjoy peer-to-peer content creation. Think of it like blogging on Medium, LinkedIn, or any word processor. You have control over the publishing of content too.
SmartUp’s microlearning content is also interactive. Instead of boring PDFs or slides, our content is snappy, engaging, and gamified with polls, quizzes, and embedded videos. We provide a library of content around topics like digital skills and the future of work.
On top of that, you continuously get data from your audience. You find out their opinions, strengths, and weaknesses. For example, if you’re in a distributed workforce, you can find out if they like the new products or whether customers prefer the old one.”
. . . . . .
Interview has been edited for brevity and coherence. To listen to the full clip, click here.
Want to read more stories on the Future of Work and latest Tech trends? Sign up to be on SmartUp’s mailing list here. Or visit our site to find out more about what we do!
You can also see what we’re up to on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram!
