<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li>Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer, <keyword id="864887" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pepperfry">Pepperfry</keyword> shares with us how the brand is preparing to open up its stores and why communicating with your audience in times of distress is extremely important. </li></ul>Pepperfry, which started as a pure online portal, felt the need to launch a studio only after two years of its existence. Its success story is a testimonial to the booming sector of virtual trading, which helped the brand to thrive even in today’s volatile market. However, since furniture wasn’t listed under essentials, the first two months of lockdown was a challenging period for Pepperfry and its employees. Now that markets are opening up, the brand is gearing to deliver furniture in key cities and non-containment zones. Pepperfry also saw its social media engagement rising up because all employees are working from home and there was a need for office infrastructure -- work desks, chairs, etc. While the brand couldn’t deliver its products, it kept in touch with its consumers by solving their queries online and offered tips for furniture maintenance, DIY interior décor, safe ways to rearrange your furniture and so on. Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepperfry, has seen the brand growing from scratch. He shared with us some marketing lessons he has picked up from today’s challenging environment, what kind of precautions the brand has taken to open up its stores, future of retail industry and changing consumer behaviour. Excerpts: Q. How challenging has the last month been for you as a brand? This period has been challenging for most organisations, but the situation has also given us the opportunity to re-analyse our business, innovate to adapt and explore newer ways to connect with our consumers. Pepperfry is a unique omni-channel marketplace and our offline presence through Studio Pepperfry has been a key consumer touchpoint. However, given the nation-wide lockdown, we suspended operations at all our Studios towards the end of March. With the recent relaxations, we are adopting an extremely cautious approach to reopen the studios gradually after ensuring complete sanitization and putting in place other preventive measures. Another challenge that we faced was the disruption in logistics. Since furniture was not listed under the essentials category, our warehouses were not functional and deliveries were halted. However, markets are now opening up for ecommerce and non-essentials, albeit with restrictions. We have received permission to start delivery services in key cities and have also resumed operations at most of our warehouses. As a brand, we invested our efforts behind enhancing our consumer connect by engaging with them on topical subjects and relevant content. In line with the current situation and consumer behaviour, we aimed to address their existing needs. For instance, given that several people are working from home, there was a need for good home office infrastructure - a proper chair, desk, storage options for work-ware and units to keep their printers, etc. In these last few weeks, our focus has been to help them achieve this set-up, educate them in simple ways to maintain their homes and even tips on using interior design to strengthen mental health, in these stressful times. We, therefore, witnessed an uptick in the engagement level across our platforms and channels. Q. What has your marketing strategy been during the lockdown? Have you changed your media mix, investing more on platforms like Digital since a few other mediums like OOH/Print have been suffering due to the lockdown? Now more than ever, consumers are using digital platforms not only for recreation but also from an awareness and knowledge-building standpoint. Therefore, we opted to emphasize our owned platforms, like our website, email marketing, push notifications and social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. We used this opportunity to drive a shift in our messaging to make it more relevant, interesting and engaging. We continued with our consumer-focused conversations, aimed at addressing their challenges and interests like tips for furniture maintenance, DIY interior décor, safe ways to rearrange your furniture and so on. We have seen an increase in consumer engagement, through these themes. Additionally, in line with our brand personality of being pioneering, intelligent and conscious we looked at content that helped the audience get up to date with the latest in lifestyle choices with a focus on home through a series of expert interactions, we use interesting formats such as quizzes, trivia to keep the curiosity alive and to achieve high engagement levels. Q. A lot of brands have started doing webinars, have you joined the bandwagon? What kind of response have you seen around it? Being a B2C brand that enjoys a strong consumer connect, we have actually focused on hosting fun live masterclasses on our social media platforms with our design experts, as opposed to webinars that are better suited for B2B brands. These masterclasses have been curated around consumer-facing content like interior design, making the right furniture choices, selecting the right mattress, creating home-office set-ups suitable to one’s profession, etc. and have seen a very healthy engagement rate. Q. Have you seen any changes in consumer behaviour? With work from home now emerging as the new normal, we have certainly witnessed a rising interest and disproportionate growth in some categories. Home-office related items – desks, chairs etc., items that address ergonomic needs as well as products like beds and mattresses (as several people end up working on their beds) have seen a lot of traction. There has also been an increase in engagement on our website. We have seen an upsurge of 40-50 per cent in the time spent by consumers on the site and page depth. This indicates that visitors are now far more indulgent – they are not just browsing but are taking the time to do their research well, which can result in conversions post the lockdown. Q. How are you utilising this time to upskill your employees? Have you introduced any mental health awareness and/or health care programs? We have used this time to expand our training and knowledge-building measures, not just vertically within teams but also cross-functionally between departments. Our in-house subject matter experts have been hosting sessions for employees across categories like marketing, logistics, category management, supply chain and others. This cross-functional training has helped everyone within the company gain a much stronger understanding of our product propositions, customer profiles and marketing strategy to give our consumers the best possible experience. Our leadership team has also been hands-on throughout this insight process. Our CEO, Ambareesh Murty, has been brainstorming with our marketing team to understand how we can improve our social media strategy in particular and overall marketing approach in general. Q. How are you preparing yourself for when things come back to normal? Because we think it will not be the same. Being an agile and flexible organization, we have introduced several changes in our way of working in order to adapt to the evolving situation. Working remotely has shown benefits - increase in productivity and reduction in travel time. Members have quickly adopted technology and applications like Slack and Zoom, among others, which have enabled us to conduct effective meetings, share documents and maintain a steady workflow. We have developed and strengthened our ability to operate in a distributed fashion in the last few weeks, making this new approach a great choice. From a consumer perspective, we see a definite shift in behaviour and inclination towards digital consumption. We believe they will come to rely heavily on e-commerce, especially given the apprehensions around safety in entering physical markets. We have always been a digital-first brand and we plan to fortify our online strategies further to cater to this change. Q. What are some of the key learnings you have picked up in this unusual period? We have learnt that we can function with great efficiency, even remotely – our teams have been just as productive as they were while working together in office. Furthermore, while we have always been well-prepared with a knack of planning for the week, the month and the quarter, the teams have now translated this into effective planning for the day. We’ve spent more time in analyzing and understanding consumer behavior on our platforms. We plan to accelerate the usage of this learning and data to approach customers with more targeted offerings. In an evolving consumer and business environment, we aim to leverage sharper and automated targeting to drive both engagement and conversions. Q. How do you think the retail industry will shape up after this period? The change in consumption patterns and behaviours will lead to considerable changes in the industry. The way we view a customer journey is going to evolve from singular funnels of online or offline to a truly omni-channel funnel and added to it will be newer channels such as telephone and video consultation with collaborative tools. For instance, for a complex need like modular furniture, consumers would typically visit the store, try out different designs and items. Today, they may still continue to do so but in a reduced capacity. Consumers would rather opt to use collaborative tools for virtual sessions to view features on their laptops or other devices. These newer channels are likely to become much more relevant and important. This is where the new wave of disruption will arise.

Marketing in times of COVID: Pepperfry

The recent disquiet in the IT Services industry over employee retrenchment has brought into sharp focus the need for constant employee reskilling/upskilling. The Simplilearn Customer Insight Survey illustrated the fact that a negligible percentage IT workers in the age group of 35-55 saw a career increment this last year. Also, the fact that a majority of the layoffs were middle management jobs only goes to show the increasing skill gaps despite companies’ growing budgets being allotted to developing skill sets in this fast evolving industry. This scenario isn’t restricted to the technology industry alone – most services industries (more so than say manufacturing or agriculture) will vouch for the impact that new technologies and changing trends have on their businesses. 
 
Some, like Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>, who leads the Future of Work consortium, argue that the role of middle management is fast disappearing. <a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>She reckons that technology is rapidly replacing middle managers with its ability to monitor performance closely, provide instant feedback, and even create reports and presentations. Add in this mix the emergence of Gen Y in the workforce, who see no value in reporting to someone who simply keeps track of what they do, and we have a situation that promises to unravel further with time. And this is giving global CEOs sleepless nights. 
 
According to The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2015, Human capital<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a> was the foremost challenge listed with provision of training to upskill workforce being intricately linked to improving productivity and building a performance culture. Of the 1095 CEO’s polled across the globe, a majority of them put human capital challenges ahead of other areas like innovation, customer relationships, operational excellence and global political &amp; economic risk. 
 
In this context, how do employees respond? Building a successful career today depends on constantly adding value to the job and staying relevant to the company’s growth objectives. Especially in a sector like information technology, where today’s technologies are redundant tomorrow, it is imperative for employees to constantly upgrade key skills to stay ahead of the disruption curve. Defining a career pathway and growing successfully in one’s desired career line requires an openness and willingness to learn and being in constant touch with changing industry trends or be caught in a situation where automation catches up. 
 
Companies do invest in training and development of their employees. It’s the quality and applicability of that training beyond the immediate project that one is working on that is often questioned by outsiders. The other moot point is whether the training imparted by companies to their staff relevant to make them future ready or merely to help them deliver on the current project they are deployed in. One can safely conclude that it becomes imperative for individuals to look out for their own interests and future proof their careers. 
 
Even if one discounts redundancies in the workforce due to the onset of automation and technology, other challenges like stagnation and boredom are bound to get to people after pursuing the same pursuing the same domain for years on end. One of the easiest and safest ways to achieve constant career progression and avoid mid-career crisis is by upskilling. 
 
Online certification courses offer the perfect solution of universally accepted certification for skill set recognition, the choice of selecting courses according to industry trends and demand and the option of completing the course at one’s convenience overcoming busy schedules. 
 
Some of the key advantages of online trainings are elaborated below: 
 
Freedom of scheduling one’s own class: Online courses provide flexibility towards professionals for scheduling their own classes in a particular time that is suitable for the individual. Students can study and work when they are at their convenience, during any time of the day. Course materials are always accessible online, so there’s no need to visit a library. All of these aspects makes online learning a good option for students who need to balance their work and family commitments and at the same time overcome mid-career blues. 
 
Comfortable and relaxed learning environment: Students can take up the course in their own comfort zone. The hassle of attending a physical class and be presentable amongst other students can be avoided. Lectures and other materials are electronically sent to the student for their own consumption. Students can prepare themselves and appear for exam at their own convenience. 
 
Quick feedbacks and Exam scores: All the gradation happens on an instant basis and the feedbacks, scope of improvements are also provided real time. Most online courses come with a simple-to-use interface complete with e-mail, discussion boards, assignment page and profile pages for other students, video tutorials, and news updates. Receiving feedback from a professor is also extremely easy as most of the online courses are equipped with chat sessions with respective mentors. 
 
Savings in time and money: By eliminating travel expenses, registration costs, consultant fees, and other expenses associated with seminars and on-site meetings one can afford to save a lot of time and money. Scheduling and implementing online learning is much less time-consuming than planning and implementing physical classes. 
 
Provides real time simulation environment: Post completing each module, students are encouraged to take part in a real life scenario and come up with a solution. The final grades depends on the solution provided to the scenario. Individuals are allowed to consult with their mentors before starting the simulation. 
 
Currently, companies providing online professional certification courses also provides access to live projects and simulation tests to the participants so that they get adapted to the current job requirements. 
 
To sum up, online certification courses have come as a boon to many of professionals hard-pressed for time and who want to overcome their mid-career crisis by keeping themselves updated. 
 
(About the author: This article has been contributed by Mr. Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Simplilearn.com) 

	 
	
	
		<a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1018927/hr-skills-futuring-role-middle-manager-dead-leading-academic#sthash.CW5Yzynv.dpuf
	
		<a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> http://lyndagrattonfutureofwork.typepad.com/lynda-gratton-future-of-work/2011/01/did-management-really-end-.html
	
		<a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> http://employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2015-CEO-Challenge-Conference-Board-Report1.pdf 
		 
		(Image: India Times)

How to answer Indian IT sector’s retrenchment problem

In its recent Annual Salary Increase Survey in India, consulting firm <keyword id="6462982" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aon-Hewitt">Aon Hewitt</keyword> has said that employees in the hi tech industry have nothing to worry about as they are likely to get decent salary hikes this year.


	At 10.8%, Aon puts it among the top 5 sectors which are likely to give their employees the maximum pay hikes this year. We spoke to Anirban Gupta, senior consultant at Aon Hewitt, to decode the relevance of this number further and understand how the industry has been moving forward for the past few years. 


	Could you tell us what a 10.8% salary increase projection means for IT employees in India?


	The dollar has appreciated significantly against all major currencies which positively impacts the cost structures IT companies in India are running and creates greater headroom for salary increases.


	Secondly, the face of the IT industry is changing dramatically. The focus is moving away from just implementing and maintaining technology solutions for organizations to being able to solve real client problems. What this means is that the talent requirements are also changing today. The new talent organizations are looking for having a demand supply mismatch and there is a fierce battle for that talent in the market place which is making organizations invests in salary increases.


	Since the number this year seems to have been driven up by product companies more than service companies, how will this disparity play out in salary hikes across the whole industry? 

	Fundamentally the talent that gets employed in the IT product sector versus the IT services sector is different. One from a skill perspective, IT product companies breed specialists in technologies whereas IT services build generalists which can aid internal deployment. Apart from that while Java is Java across sectors, the key differentiators between the talent in IT products and IT services is that IT product organizations need talent who have greater business acumen, superior problem solving skills and the ability to conceptualize new solutions. Whereas IT services for a large portion of the pyramid need employees who are solid “doers”. For the most part IT product and IT services talent isn’t fungible,. There obviously are pockets of technical specialization which are fungible, but for the most part, there exists a Chinese wall.


	Could you give us the attrition figures for the IT industry for this year, and how do you analyze the general attrition trend? 


	Attrition in the last year was 16.7% which was higher than what we saw in 2014. We see three major factors which are impacting it:


	1. There is a greater push of organizations setting up captive setups in India which will hire from existing organizations

	2. The startup environment is extremely robust and they are targeting the product sector organizations for talent

	3. The greater need for skill specific talent is forcing organizations to look at buying talent with ready skill profiles as opposed to training them as they have done in the past given the fact that the tech cycles are getting significantly shorter


	Most of the manufacturing companies have projected a drop, while service companies have shown a bigger increase in salary hikes than previous year. Do you see this gap between services and manufacturing sectors narrowing down going forward, and what would it mean for the hi tech industry?


	The fundamental markets that hi tech caters to versus manufacturing are different. Hi tech in India caters predominantly to the export market which is extremely sensitive on the US dollar. If the longer term secular view is that the rupee will continue to depreciate versus the dollar at a rate faster than the rate of wage growth, we believe that these rates of increase will continue. However, the long term view is that the rupee will strengthen against the dollar, and then the rate of wage bill increase will come down. My personal view is that in the longer term the rupee will strengthen which will create a pressure on the billing rates/cost recovery IT organizations are able to command today which in turn will slow down the rate of increase of the wage bill. Comparison to manufacturing may not be a fair comparison. The wage bill to total cost ratios these industries carry are very different as is the fact that today manufacturing is predominantly a consumption driven business, however, IT is export-oriented.


	Could you give us the last five year hi-tech industry salary projections and highlight key changes during the course of this journey? 


	The salary increase numbers in the hi tech space have been stable for the last 3-4 years with a slightly positive bias reflecting the gradual improvement of client sentiment.

 

	What are the main challenges this sector is facing, and do you see the salary increases on the whole going up in the hi tech sector in future?


	Main challenges are that at the rate at which new technologies are emerging is increasing dramatically. Tech cycles are between 18-24 months right now and could get shorter. For organizations to grow ahead of industry benchmarks, they would need to identify and lead the monetization of a new technology area. What this means is that the ability to cross train and upskill employees becomes an imperative. Also the ability to invest from a salary perspective in emerging technology areas would be critical to an organization’s success.


	Margins and cost continue to be a challenge for the IT services organizations. They continue to focus on pyramid rationalization and cost containment through newer initiatives like automation. We believe that in the future, core commoditized skills will receive much lower increases than they have received in the past. The focus will be on directing larger portions of the salary budgets to emerging technology areas in line with the areas of consumer spending. We believe that the world of socialist skill agnostic investments is coming to an end. The new IT organization will focus on highly focused and differentiated increases.

If you are working in IT, your salary is going to go up!

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZ51BF40R&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=718#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0BXZ51BF40R&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=718&amp;POPUPPN=28&amp;POPUPIID=2C040823ZOPCY">REUTERS/Stringer</a>Into the void.</div></div></div>Europe is going to face an unprecedented shortage of digitally skilled workers by 2020.One of the only ways to plug that gap is to encourage more immigration, according to Adecco's CEO Alain Dehaze who spoke to Business Insider during the <a href="http://www.weforum.org/">World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2016 in Davos, Switzerland.</a>The conference is used as a platform for world leaders, business and industry executives, and representatives from academia, civil society, media, and arts to help shape global agendas when it comes to global economics, security, public health, education, gender parity, and climate change.It's an opportunity for the power brokers of the world to set the agenda.This year, the theme is "Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution," which is looking at how technology is reshaping the world. And Adecco, alongside business school INSEAD and Singapore's Human Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI), released the <a href="http://www.gtci2015-16.com/gtci-2015-16/">Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI)</a>, which is an annual study based on research on "<a href="http://www.gtci2015-16.com/gtci-2015-16/">Talent Attraction and International Mobility."</a>Adecco is well placed to assess the world's workforce considering it is a CHF 10.5 billion (£7.3 billion, $10.5 billion) Fortune 500 human resources company with around 32,000 employees, around 5,100 branches in over 60 countries and territories around the world.So Business Insider caught up with Adecco's CEO Alain Dehaze to talk about how technology is shaping the world's workforce and what issues may arise from the transformation.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">AdeccoAlain Dehaze, CEO of Adecco spoke to Business Insider during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.</div></div></div>Business Insider: What have been the most radical changes in talent demand over the last few years?Alain Dehaze: The world of work is changing rapidly, shaped by interconnected economic, technological, demographic, sociological and regulatory factors. We are seeing that digitalization has a major impact on the demand for talent.There is increasing demand for technological and digital savvy profiles for professions in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths), Computer Science and Digital Media. At the same time, profiles with specific human traits such as creativity, adaptability and the human touch are still highly sought-after, above all in healthcare and similar fields.Beyond technology, volatility is another key driver in the labour market. Today's globalised economy faces continuous and unpredictable change. For organisations, flexibility is a must to cope with fluctuations in demand and remain competitive, and people must be able to develop adaptable attitudes to quickly embrace evolving business conditions, new business opportunities and shifting strategies. BI: Is there enough talent to sate growing demand in the digital/tech sector right now especially since "The Fourth Industrial Revolution," as identified by WEF, is growing so rapidly? AD: Actually, no there isn't. Although there are over 200 million people unemployed in the world, and about 33 million searching for work across the USA and Europe, skills shortages and a talent mismatch are a challenge for countries and companies, leading to missed innovation and growth.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adecco/INSEAD/HCLI</div></div></div>Research shows that by 2020, 900,000 jobs in the EU might end up vacant due to a lack of digital skills.Already today, business in Asia lacks about 200 million engineers, 12 million of them in Japan alone. To tackle unemployment and boost prosperity, Governments need to heavily invest in formal and vocational training and in knowledge hubs.Companies must play their part by investing in technologies, but also in training and digital up-skilling for their employees. And of course, to make themselves 'future-proof', employees must embrace a life-long learning culture to ensure their continued employability. BI: How important is mobility in order to accommodate roles?AD: As digitalisation and the ageing population trends advance, international mobility and the development of employable skills are crucial to balance demographic gaps and surpluses as well as the deficit of skills across the world.It is predicted that by 2030 younger generations will halve and the over-65s will be the fastest growing population group. As we live longer and have fewer children, it's likely that we will work until we are 75 or older.But this won't be enough to provide the right talent and skills for the development of countries and businesses.Research shows that this trend will lead to a serious labour shortfall in countries like Germany (10 million), Brazil (over 40 million) and China (over 24 million), as well as the need for new skills.Recent higher investment in education in Asia and emerging countries can help to nurture more talent to cover the shortfall in other regions. Moreover, it is proven that international mobility leads to the development of talent, creative minds and international networks needed to tackle the challenges of global markets. Countries and companies should always invest in fostering the international mobility of their talent and focus on creating a culture of diversity within their organisations. BI: WEF Global Risks Report says migration is the biggest risk for 2016 - but is this a prime opportunity for some countries that have ageing populations (like Germany) to build a new workforce?AD: The migration debate needs to move from emotions to solutions.The GTCI 2015-16 underlines that metrics such as those in the report can help to bring back the debate to economic and social impact, and quantify the predicable impact of various possible scenarios.Each country has a different situation. We need to be very careful in making judgment on opening borders and adopting immigration policies, as these are areas where political and emotional elements feature prominently.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Marko DjuricaEurope is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II.</div></div></div>But governments need to base their immigration policies starting from the objective evaluation of elements such as demographics, ageing trends and birth rates, skill shortages and business needs.In fact, countries ranking high in the GTCI, such as Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>, the USA and Australia happen to be open economies with a long tradition of steered skilled immigration. A talent perspective can help governments, businesses and public opinion evaluate the issue, but it is important for all countries and organizations to be able to source the best talent from abroad. BI: What does the CEO or business leader in "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" look like, in other words, what skills have they got today compared to those from the 1980s/1990s?AD: Global organisations, dispersed workforces and the different nature of work, thanks to the opportunities created by hyper connectivity, lead to a shift from hierarchical to network organisations.In this scenario, authority, control and formalism leave room for more informal and collaborative styles and a higher level of autonomy to teams. Also, as business players in the 21st century, we know that today a crucial factor to survive and succeed in any industry is to have a 'Purpose'. A purpose relevant for all key stakeholders starting with our clients, employees and the communities where we operate.The leader of today has to live and breathe the company's purpose to represent, engage and inspire his people. BI: Is there a region or country or sector that others can learn from in order to harness talent in the right way?<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Adecco/HCLI/INSEAD</div></div></div>AD: Countries ranking at the top of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index represent the best practices in attracting, developing, and retaining talent. The recurrent traits of these countries include outstanding education systems, with high investment in technologies and knowledge hubs, which drive high level innovation and the development of global knowledge skills. This is the case of Switzerland (rank 1), Singapore (2), the USA (4) and the UK (7), but also the Netherlands (12) and Australia (13).By leading innovation, these countries are also among the best at capitalising on the opportunities given by technological advances.In the best ranking countries, excellent formal education is often complemented by consolidated vocational training systems to ensure the workforce gains the employable skills needed by business.This is the case of Switzerland, Germany (14) and Austria (15), among others.Top ranking countries also stand out for their high degree of openness in terms of trade, investment and people - countries which have long had favourable immigration policies like Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg (3), the USA, Canada (9) and Australia (13). Mobility, in fact, is key for both talent and economic development.Countries which favour openness and the mobility of skilled talent secure the development of more diverse and culturally rich work environments, a higher level of innovation as well as entrepreneurship and wider international networks. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-shark-tank-stories-mark-cuban-scrub-daddy-2015-12">5 of the most successful 'Shark Tank' stories of all time</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="pxanFreTrxlZGsVrCTcXaLsYyQbC08oW" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Adecco chief: Europe needs immigrants to fill its tech skills void

The world is undergoing an exponential and rapid change at virtually every level and there are several megatrends at work that are altering life as we know it. 
 These trends span micro and macroeconomics, politics, science and <keyword id="6355118" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology">technology</keyword> thus creating a big impact on individuals, organizations, society and governments. 
 
Leaving no area untouched, these megatrends are creating upheavals in the learning sphere, which is under compulsion to evolve in order to align itself with the future of work. 
 
Learning and education have become crucial pillars that nations are now banking upon to survive and thrive. Singapore’s work on making people skills as a differentiator and the many strides made by Scandinavian countries on skilling and repurposing are well documented. Learning has become synonymous with skills and talent development and countries that have invested in learning and in building knowledge societies can expect to enjoy a rosier future. There have been many voices on the urgency for nations like India to invest in skilling and development to realize the fruits of their demographic dividend. 
 
In recent years, however, as digital technology pervades the world, the manner in which learning happens is undergoing a tectonic paradigm shift as well. New methodologies, platforms and technological tools are coming up. These make learning more flexible, accessible and affordable. 
 These megatrends require individuals, organizations, society, the community and governments to delve into the <keyword id="4328142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="future-of-learning">future of learning</keyword>, anticipate the shape of things to come and prepare for the future. 
 
In my view, the future of learning will be defined by three important megatrends. 
 
The 100 year life! 
Yes, longevity will be a primary trend. A hundred year life is expected to become reality for a growing population across the globe. According to a recent research, 50 percent of the babies born after 2007 in G-7/OECD countries are expected to live to more than 100 years! 
 
While this grand extension of life is good news, it will also throw up immense challenges for the healthier nations, as they grapple with issues related to their aging populations. Countries that are now “retiring” citizens at the age of 58-60 years, will have to find new ways of keeping them up-and-about, productive and “employed” in some kind of activity or another as they continue into their 70s and 80s. 
 
Individuals who believed that investing in about 20 years of learning, at one stretch through school and university, hoping that this would see them through for the next 40 years, will have to do a rethink to survive until their 100s. They will have to plan for the next 35 years, post their typical retirement age of 65. 
 
In order for all generations to have longer productive careers and contribute to society in the sunset years of their lives, they will require to be constantly reskilled/upskilled. They will have to learn and unlearn, handle multiple transitions and basically stay abreast of the developments taking place in the realm of work. Most importantly, they will have to embrace lifelong, or continuous learning in order to stay relevant until they finally call it a day. 
 
Corporations in fact, will have to go beyond training people on just knowledge and skills but also on the transformational capabilities so that they can make transitions. HR in enterprises will have to gear up to deal with the challenge of managing such an eclectic group of workers. 
 
As far as governments are concerned, they will have to step in with regulations that protect the rights of workers, (especially those with ‘flexible’ work profiles). Policy makers will have to worry about unemployment, especially among older citizens. An individual may move swiftly across modes like being a trainee, intern, employee, business owner or simply on a reskilling break. 
 
 
Transformation through technology 
The second important trend that is likely to impact the future of learning is technology, which is evolving at an extremely rapid pace and causing disruption. Going forward, we can expect to see an invasion of Intelligent, Digital and Virtual technologies that will have a massive transformational impact on education and skilling as we know it. 
 Here we are talking about the latest buzzwords including Applied Artificial Intelligence (<keyword id="6355999" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI">AI</keyword>), Advanced Machine Learning (read that as Neural networks and Natural Language Processing), Intelligent Applications (AI-powered Virtual Personal Assistants and immersive, conversational and continuous interfaces) and intelligent machines such as robots, drones and Autonomous Vehicles. 
 
Robots too will exhibit a lot of potential in learning. Intelligent machines have already overturned conventional notions that machines are only good for black and white thinking and that they cannot handle fuzziness. As for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, these technologies are expected to be central to what is going to happen to learning going forward. 
Just as was the case with office Productivity software in the 90s, the Internet and Social media in the last decade, competence in the next level of more advanced technologies will soon become the norm for different age groups. 
 
Additionally, the generations ahead will need to learn to interact, collaborate (work as symbiotic teams) and integrate with co-workers who are not necessarily human! 
 
The rise of the Exponential Organization 
The third dimension in the future of learning will be the new kind of Enterprise, or what is being referred to as the Exponential Organization. Author Salim Ismail in his book called ‘Exponential Organizations’ describes them as companies that are learning to adapt and thrive in a world of abundance by diving into new structures that leverage exponential technologies and a shifting global business mindset. Typically, these companies are 10 times more impactful in terms of speed, efficiency and productivity owing to their adoption of new organizational techniques and their utilization of network technologies. 
 
An important characteristic of these organizations will be their workforce, which will encompass few highly empowered employees, intelligent bots, and expert staff on demand. 
 
Learning Science to rescue 
One challenge that organizations and their world of work will face, will in fact revolve around the co-existence of bots and humans on their turfs. The fact is that Machine Learning systems gather knowledge rapidly at a mind boggling pace, quite unlike humans. The difference between Machine and Human learning is quite stark. Not too long from now Machine Intelligence will become relatively stronger than Human Intelligence and this gap will only get wider and wider. It is crystal clear that that the learning community will have to bridge this chasm. The community will have to work on strategies centered around Learning Science. The focus will need to be on making humans learn much faster – for example, we need to ask the question, ‘Can we compress in one year, what would typically take decades’? 
 
Investments in Learning Science will have to go up, and organizations will additionally need to focus on Engagement Science, Design Thinking and AI/Machine Learning. They will also have to ensure that learning remains real time and long term. 
 
Learning, therefore, as we go forward, will remain on a gallop. It will become more advanced, tech-led and ubiquitous, becoming available to a diverse workforce within milliseconds, and on devices as handy and easy-to-use as their smart phones. 
 
With all this change taking place, individuals, companies and governments will all have to take greater responsibility for learning and knowledge strategies. 
 
I see three key responses that will emerge to address the challenges posed by these megatrends. 
 
• Firstly, there will emerge a framework and model for Human Life-Long Competency Assurance, similar to the model of medical or healthcare insurance. Governments, Companies and Individuals will invest in “insuring” the continued competence of their citizens, employees and selves respectively. Some governments are already debating adding lifelong competency assurance into the social security coverage of their citizens. 
 
• Secondly, there will emerge the concept of a Human Real-Time Competency Index for every individual which can accurately measure &amp; report the competency of each individual in real time using real time big data (almost like a Fitbit reports today on one’s health index), and understand where they stand in the roles that they are meant to perform. 
 
• Finally, the current traditional offline &amp; online learning models will be replaced entirely by Multi-Sensory Real-Time Training Simulators, where live feeds from the world of work for every role, as well as access to the entire historical repository of past knowledge and past transaction big data, will feed into a set of purpose built training simulators for every role, that run in a closed loop system using big data and machine learning, thereby delivering learning outcomes at many orders of magnitude better than today. 
 
The future of learning is at a critical juncture, with megatrends such as 100 year life span, transformation through technology and rise of exponential organizations shaping the entire ecosystem. It is for mankind to embrace the necessary changes to realize massive and possible gains by riding on these defining developments. 
 
(The article is authored by Rahul Patwardhan, CEO, NIIT Ltd)

Megatrends that will shape the future of learning

'One Billion Americans' author Matt Yglesias on increasing immigration, encouraging larger families, and why he signed the 'infamous Harper's letter'

Scores of techies are rushing into freight brokerage. The new CEO of trucking giant C.H. Robinson reveals why being in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is a secret weapon in the fight for engineering talent, and what he really thinks about the truck driver shortage.

You Searched For "upskill profile" and got 7 results

Marketing in times of COVID: Pepperfry

Karuna Sharma

How to answer Indian IT sector’s retrenchment problem

Guest Author

If you are working in IT, your salary is going to go up!

Anushree Singh

Adecco chief: Europe needs immigrants to fill its tech skills void

Lianna Brinded

Megatrends that will shape the future of learning

Guest Author

'One Billion Americans' author Matt Yglesias on increasing immigration, encouraging larger families, and why he signed the 'infamous Harper's letter'

Anthony L. Fisher

Scores of techies are rushing into freight brokerage. The new CEO of trucking giant C.H. Robinson reveals why being in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is a secret weapon in the fight for engineering talent, and what he really thinks about the truck driver shortage.

Rachel Premack