The workforce is ever evolving, especially with five generations of the workforce working together. There is also new tech enhancing the jobs that employees might not be familiar with, like AI. But how does one keep up?

Industry leaders share their thoughts, comments, and concerns about the reskilling and upskilling of today's workforce and how it will affect their 2024.

The definition of skills is unclear

HR has turned its attention to skills in a big way in 2023. Yet often the definition of 'skills' is unclear, but there tends to be a focus on technical/functional skills as organizations grapple with the pace of new and emerging skills. The focus on technical skills has helped HR hire people who can hit the ground running and deliver quickly. Yet the pace of change and the emergence of ever new skills will mean that organizations will fall into a constant race to find people with the latest and greatest technical skill of the day. In 2024, we will see the pendulum swing to a focus on behavioral skills; identifying individuals who have the agility to learn new skills, who can problem solve and communicate their findings to others. In doing so, a focus on recruiting, developing, and mobilizing talent with the soft or behavioral skills to succeed in the future will become the greatest competitive advantage to HR.

Lucy Beaumont, Solution Lead, Manager & Leader, SHL