Developing worker skills at a large scale in order to prosper during and after the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 epidemic has drastically increased the demand for new worker skills in the last year. The fast expansion of digitalization and remote work has placed new expectations on workers, who, in many cases, now require different abilities to support substantial changes in how work is done and the business goals that their firms establish. Help from their employers is also essential to acquire the skills that will make the overall firm and its individual workers future-ready.

The urgency of closing skill shortages is obvious in the latest McKinsey Global Survey on reskilling—and it is more vital than ever to do so across industries. The majority of respondents believe that skill development (rather than hiring, contracting, or redeploying staff) is the best method to bridge such gaps, and they have increased their efforts to reskill or upskill employees since the epidemic began. The findings also hint to a shift in the most critical abilities to cultivate, which are often social and emotional in character, such as empathy, leadership, and flexibility.

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/building-workforce-skills-at-scale-to-thrive-during-and-after-the-covid-19-crisis