With 76% of businesses predicting that a lack of digital skills will affect their profitability, they are unlikely to get the most out of the digital technology they’ve invested in, and will probably miss out on a major opportunity to boost productivity.
Is this a skills gap that’s slowing down your organisation too?
The importance of digital skills
92% of businesses say that having a basic level of IT skills is critical to their operation, but this is hardly surprising. We now rely on a wide range of software and apps to drive efficiency, collaboration and communication in the workplace.
But if your team can’t use these tools to the full, there will be a significant impact on output and, ultimately, on business success.
Over the past two years we’ve become ever more reliant on digital tools as we adapted to remote working. We needed technology to continue working and collaborating as a team, possibly spread over several locations, and that trend is likely to continue.
The businesses that adapt their ways of working and embrace new technology the quickest have a competitive advantage, maintaining and improving their productivity while cutting costs.
Digital skills are no longer a “nice to have”, they are a business necessity.
Building a productivity culture
Digital technology touches so much of our working lives that it’s important to build the confidence of employees to use and explore the full capabilities of the IT you provide. This encourages them to understand what it can do and look for opportunities to make efficiencies in their daily operations and processes.
The power of digital technology to connect individuals and share more information has a positive impact on collaboration, boosting engagement and driving productivity in ways that would have been impossible a few years ago.
But while most of us have grown up using IT and are familiar with professional software platforms such as Microsoft Office, we rarely use it to its full capability. As we discussed in a previous post New apps are being added all the time, along with greater functionality such as process automation, data sharing and analytics. You may be paying for it but are you benefiting from it?
Barriers to growing digital skills
Despite these obvious benefits, 23% of employers still say that their workforce lacks the basic digital skills they need and 37% say this is also the case of advanced digital skills.
Employers face a number of challenges in building the digital capabilities of their teams:
- A lack of existing knowledge in the business to build skills in other employees
- Lack of training budget
- Lack of time to send people for training
- Difficulty in identifying specific training needs
- Reluctance of employees to take time out for training
- Finding training at a suitable location
To avoid being left behind by competitors, employers need to break down these training barriers, with the help of specialist training advice.
For smaller businesses, growing or bringing inexpert IT training was often too disruptive or expensive. But training has also evolved with digital technology. Barriers such as geography, budget, different learning styles, lack of space or scalability have largely been addressed by using online platforms, virtual reality and more flexible, convenient training modules. Modern training can be flexible, rewarding and inexpensive.
365 Training Consultants helps many clients to get more from their IT equipment, networks and software, including SharePoint, through a flexible approach tailored to individual needs. This includes group training, one-to-one coaching and consulting services.
It’s never too early – or late – to start learning new skills
The pace in the development of new technology will continue to grow and without the necessary investment in training, the digital skills gap will only widen.
Investing in employees and giving them the skills to do the job makes them feel valued, engaged and more productive. Not only does this help to retain talent, it also attracts the best new job applicants.
It’s important to develop a learning culture at work. Allow teams to be curious and explore how their technology can be used to support their objectives. Businesses need to identify skills gaps and prioritise training needs to ensure their budget is being spent in areas that give the greatest returns.
If you want to build digital capability within your organisation and understand more about how to improve your team’s, and your own, productivity, then contact 365 Training today.
