WORKFORCE
TOMORROW’S
The right skills for
tomorrow In today’s competitive marketplace, it has never been more important that businesses in Cornwall are equipped with the skills to succeed. The Skills Hub outlines the key considerations for building the workforce of tomorrow.
With the Coronavirus pandemic leaving no corner of the business world untouched, the world over is now being greeted by a new set of challenges. From challenge comes opportunity, however, an opportunity in which the work context can benefit from a tremendous reset. This reset will include the disruption of organisational lethargy, changing perspectives on what is essential for progress, and touch points on areas such as connectivity, sustainability, inclusivity and sound mental health. Where previously we might have planned five to ten years ahead, the past
10 | BUSINESS CORNWALL
18-months have shown us that there is an unpredictability to what may play out over the coming five to ten months. So how do we plan for the future, when the future remains so uncertain? There is a need and desire for business to be innovative and agile, creating opportunities even when such conditions might not seem favourable on face value. In addition, there is also an appetite that exists for redesigning economies and social systems to ensure that they meet the needs of people and the planet.
where we may be faced with a new range of ethical dilemmas. While juggling the combining of man and machine will be a major part of future business strategy, a business that also has its people and the planet at the forefront of its future thinking will prosper best.
How can we link people and planet with prosperity?
As the future of work rapidly evolves and organisations integrate people, technology, alternative workforces and new ways of working, leaders are wrestling with an increasing range of ethical challenges. These challenges are especially pronounced at the intersection between humans and technology, but it is not just technology
In 2020, Deloitte’s Global Human Trends report found that 85% of respondents were cognisant to the role that ethical challenges will play in future workforces. However, only one-quarter of respondents said they had a policy in place to manage these. The same report found that over 50% of respondents placed managing ethics at the top of their priority list when building their workforce of the future, with two-thirds saying that if effective ethics management was yet to be in place it would be actioned within the next three to five years.
