It’s the beginning of September and that means getting back into the swing of a fall routine. While kids will be heading back to the classroom, excited to see their friends and start learning new subjects, many adults see the return from summer break as the end of their summertime freedom and work picking back up as more colleagues return from their holidays. The reality of the season change typically brings more stress into the workplace and leaves you wishing you had just one more day on the beach.
While one more day on the beach would definitely be nice, what if we took this opportunity of changing seasons to learn something new Learning new skills doesn’t have to end when we stop going to school. In a world where the future of work is changing rapidly, gaining new skills has become a way for people to make their CVs more attractive or advance in their current company – and also learn some pretty cool things (hello, new video-editing, website-coding, analytics-collecting master!).
We got the scoop from a few industry experts at VivaTech this year to understand what the future of work might look like and discussed topics from upskilling and reskilling to hybrid work and the Great Resignation.
Check out the most popular sessions about The Future of Work to learn some of the key developments and trends and discover why you should master a new skill this back-to-school season too!
Trust us, these replays are worth the watch, but we’ve given you the TLDW in case:
Photo credit: VivaTech
Staying Ahead: Skills for lifelong learning
TLDW: “Get a good education, then work.” This traditional model is under strain. Advances in technology, longer career spans and the increasingly fast transformation of the job market all play a role. Technical skills are in high demand, but need to be updated often and some industries undergoing digitalization are trying to access pools of talent they did not traditionally need in their workforce. Since employers can’t hire all the skills they need, it’s up to them to empower their employees to start upskilling or reskilling so they can have an optimized workforce.
Notable and quotable:
“Companies have realized since the pandemic that skills are becoming harder to find and they need to retrain their workers. But what is even more interesting is that the individual is taking it into their own hands to increase their employability. Learning platforms have changed from B2B to B2C because individuals are taking the initiative to start learning on their own.”
– Marie-Christine Levet, Partner at Educapital
“About 70% of our lifelong learning doesn’t come from formal training. It comes from our colleagues, our mentors. It doesn’t have to be something very formal. Learning is a fun journey. It’s important for people to have a fun experience with learning as well as useful.”
– Francesca Borgonovi, Head of Skills Analysis at OECD
Photo credit: VivaTech
Work(place) revolution: What needs to change
TLDW: The world of work is in flux. The pandemic accelerated a transition to hybrid and often untested models of work that will have far-reaching implications in everything from hiring policies to management practices. At the same time, many economies, particularly when it comes to the tech sector, are under pressure to attract qualified workers. Our panelists noted the importance of trust between employers and employees, ensuring that work gets done, but allowing more flexibility for workers to be human.
Notable and quotable:
“As a hybrid organization, we make sure to put the employees first – empower the employees to decide on what’s best for how they want to work, when they want to work and where they want to work. It’s not about “today we are at the office,” it’s each employee choosing what they want to do. Each manager decides which hybrid structure is best for their team.”
– Caroline Leroy, Chief People and Fulfillment Officer at Payfit
“We have to manage by performance vs. attendance. Before it was making sure people show up, but that’s not an effective way to manage. If you manage based on results, it becomes easier to gauge. I personally don’t care what you do during the week as long as by Friday all your work is done. I take a break every afternoon to walk my dogs, some people pick up their kids. As long as the work gets done, that is all that matters. And this comes down to hiring top talent too, they have more leverage than before. If you want to hire someone who wants to work from home 3-4 days a week, you’re going to need to be flexible if you want that person.”
– Guillaume Vives, COO of Klaxoon
Photo credit: VivaTech
Fireside chat with Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn
TLDW: LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky chats about the lessons learned from leading through the pandemic and unique insights into the Great Reshuffle and its impact on the marketing and advertising industry. For him, the pandemic has made companies and individuals think about their core values. There is a lot of movement in companies and with talent because people are deciding what they want to do with their lives and companies are deciding how they want to operate moving forward. Which is the Great Reshuffle of Employees.
Notable and quotable:
“The younger the generation, the more job shifting we see. Gen Z is off the chart with how frequent they are moving jobs. They see that changing jobs is not only okay, but it’s actually how the world should work. It’s normal to see them changing full-time jobs but also having 2-3 side hustles. So it’s interesting to see where that generation is going, but I think that it’s going to be the new norm moving forward.”
“Whether it’s due to Covid, or the digital transformation, or a fourth industrial revolution, skills are critical and are becoming the new currency of the future of how the world is going to work. That’s why we think LinkedIn Learning is such an important tool, because professionals anywhere can upskill themselves and learn across thousands of courses and topics.”
Photo credit: VivaTech
How to find the best people and keep them
TLDW: The past two years have been like no other for both businesses and employees. The power has shifted from organizations to the people. Employees are starting to ask a lot of questions like: What kind of job do I really want to do Where do I want to be in my career Who do I want to be And they have the upper hand because they are choosing when to leave a job or accept a new job. In order to attain top talent, companies need to understand what employees are looking for, whether it be flexibility, more support from management, or even compensation.
Notable and quotable:
“Companies that want to keep top talent need to upgrade their corporate culture. Businesses need to make shifts and be aware of mental health, well-being, diversity and inclusion, etc. It’s important to step back, look at your employee value proposition and think, what are we offering, what is in it for the employee, not just the employer.”
“Managing skills can be taught easily, managing workload, distributing projects, time lines, but what we are doing is upskilling managers to become leaders, not just managers. They become someone who their team members can come to, to problem solve with, etc.”
– Michelle Nettles, Global Chief People and Culture Officer at ManpowerGroup
Become a master
We don’t know about you, but that convinced us that we need to start gaining some serious skills. If you want to start your learning journey already we have plenty of replays for you to learn about new topics from blockchain to healthtech. See what you missed during VivaTech through our main topic replays available on our digital platform. Or check out our list of startups that are helping the upskilling revolution for corporations and individuals.
Our favorite topic replays: