Job markets today are transforming rapidly. In the past few years, we have experienced a paradigmatic shift in the way we work, with the creation of entirely new industries and roles created, along with many jobs being phased out with that, as well as digital technology becoming an inseparable part of pretty much every industry; for example, according to a 2023 survey, around 72% of Fortune 500 companies said they will be using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate their Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) roles.
The job markets will continue to transform, and we even expect it to do so at an even greater pace in the future. This means that as a high-achiever, you will need to be future-ready to effectively navigate this evolving space. But how are we to become future-ready?
Some career-focused individuals who are looking to quickly enter the nursing field and gain foundational expertise often turn to courses like the Rockhurst University ABSN program, which equips them with the necessary skills to thrive in the evolving healthcare landscape. Of course, the ways to be future-ready career-wise in a shifting world are endless, so let’s look at some of the key ways.
What Does It Mean To Be Future-Ready?
Being future-ready has been a buzzword in recent years, and it does not just mean you are prepared for your prediction of the future; it also means being adaptable and resilient to the changes, challenges, and vagaries that the future might bring. In other words, you are ready for anything that comes charging at you as the days, months, and years advance.
This as such expands a whole range of necessary skills, mindsets, systems, and structures one needs to have than just one aspect, such as embracing technology. Obviously, being future-ready does not just apply to you as an individual. Future-readiness is essential for organisations, businesses, and companies to be future-ready as well.
Digital Literacy and Technology Skills
The developments in technology today inevitably lead to the importance of digital literacy and technology skills in order to build adequate future readiness. Digital literacy refers to the ability and capacity you have to use technology confidently, creatively, and critically to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and appropriately.
This includes general digital skills such as searching the internet, using email and social media, sharing digital content, and protecting personal information online, to more technical digital or industry-specific skills such as data analytics, cyber security, search engine marketing (SEM), and software engineering, digital product management, and so on. Around 92% of jobs today in the U.S. require digital skills, yet one-third of workers have low or no digital skills. Being digitally literate and having the relevant technological skills can, as such, allow you to not only have future-readiness but also be future-competitive.
Upskilling and Reskilling
Upskilling and reskilling have become a common practice for companies and organisations today, with around 26% of U.S. employees stating that they strongly agree their organization encourages them to learn new skills, but only 47% of employees stating they agree they have the skills needed to be exceptionally competent at their jobs.
It is evident that you do not just have to rely on your organization or company to upskill or reskill, but what are the differences between them anyway? The former refers to when you undertake a journey to learn to expand your existing skill set, whether that be to enhance your performance in your current role or to advance with your current career path; the latter involves you learning new skills that are entirely outside of your existing skill set, and these skills may be closely adject to their current functions but are more or less geared towards a different career path entirely.
Upskilling and reskilling are the most viable avenues towards future-proofing yourself in the evolving job market, and one of the most popular channels towards this has been through flexible learning courses; these modes of learning can allow a balance between the demands of your career and family with your studies.
The numbers reveal their importance. Around 60% of workers indicated they learned a new skill because it helped them do their jobs more effectively, and 51% saw it as a key opportunity to learn and grow. Both upskilling and reskilling are highly budget-friendly, time-efficient, skills-based, endlessly scalable, and you-centric methods for you to stay ahead of the curve for future-readiness and the competition that will beset markets for years to come.
Adaptability, Resilience, and Creativity
The world has become more volatile than ever, which affects all levels of society, including work. We have already seen with our own eyes the sudden, unexpected changes that may occur in our work environments. The ability to not only adapt but also be resilient and have a spark of creativity throughout these changes becomes a handy skill to have, which builds upon your competitive advantage as a future-ready member.
Companies love adaptable staff, with a study from McKinsey & Company conducted this year finding that those who were adaptable were 24% more likely to be employed at a company or organization. And the reasons for this a never more obvious, as resilient and adaptable staff can stay productive and efficient in ever-changing environments and markets, and to couple that creativity, they can bring about innovation for companies to cultivate continuous relevancy; it is the trailblazers who will always be in demand at whatever time.
We often envision the future with the proliferation of digital technologies and the dominance of being cold, purely analytical, rational, and logic-based, where decision-making and communication will revolve around this. But no, in fact, hiring trends have been showing another picture where key emotional intelligence skills, such as motivation, self-awareness, empathy, and active listening, have positioned themselves in the top 10 in a list of the 26 core competencies in the World Economic Forum’s most recent report.
A common theme of these is being able to communicate well, and this includes not just with your colleagues orally, but also verbal or non-verbal communication, such as writing emails, managing stakeholders, editing reports, etc. Communication is one of the most foundational skills of the future job market, and blending that with EQ will allow you to go very far in the foreseeable future.
