How to: Equip your people with the right digital skills.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Almost three quarters of Australian CEOs believe the lack of key skills in our market – like digital –

will hamper growth.1 The time to act is now.

Organisations are scrambling to develop the skills needed to access the many ‘promises’ of digital innovation. Promises that amount to $315 billion over the next ten years if we do things right, according to Data61 research.2

But, despite best efforts, research shows employers are still anxious about their ability to compete and employees say current training programs often miss the mark.3 In fact, one in three have left their employer for just this reason.4

How can this be fixed?

While gaps remain, employers and employees unanimously agree on the need to develop digital skills and the need to act now. So what would that look like? What sort of training will help employees feel confident and equipped to support their organisations – and customers – in today’s climate?

Our view: today’s digital training focuses too much on hard skills without developing related soft skills (e.g. how to use social media platforms vs. why use social media platforms). As a result, we have a workforce that knows about digital without deeply understanding its application and role in their lives.

Fortunately, this situation can be fixed. It starts by designing workforce training programs that ask: ‘What skills do our people really need based on the expectations of our customers in the digital age?’

Whether your focus is sales, service, communications, marketing or HR, this resource will help you answer this question.

With the right approach, you can equip your people with the skills they need – and those your customers demand – to stay ahead of your competitors.

Roger ChristieFounder & Managing Director

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EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Focus your digital training efforts on the skills employees really need to be

successful today.

‘Why remember what you can google?’

It’s a favourite saying of Peter Evans-Greenwood, Fellow at Deloitte’s Centre for the Edge.5 And, while intellectual purists might scoff at the idea, it’s only becoming more relevant to a modern workforce required to work smarter, faster and amidst greater complexity.

What ‘complexity’?

• Between 2018 and 2022, 42% of the core skills required to perform a job will change;6

• As such, 54% of all employees will require significant re- and upskilling in that time;6 and

• Today’s 15 year-olds will likely have 17 different employers across 5 different careers.7

The professional landscape no longer supports mastery in one field over 30+ years. ‘Set and forget’ skills development is a thing of the past. Today’s workers are required to upskill, adapt and continue learning throughout their whole professional lives. This is exactly why Google and other digital resources are so valuable.

Given the breadth and dynamic nature of skills development in the digital age, employees must outsource some of the thinking required to do their jobs. Our brains simply aren’t evolving as fast as technology.

The art for employers is working out which skills are ‘core’ for staff and which can be sourced ‘on demand’. And – without trying to be too simplistic – the easiest way to work this out is to ask: ‘Could I google this?’

Hard, ‘on demand’ skills like how to write a blog post, craft a tweet or invite someone to your social network are all valuable. But they needn’t form the bulk of formal training. They can easily be found and learned via online sources that are often more up to date and well researched than any internally-developed program.

Focus formal training on soft skills – the critical thinking, creativity and empathy needed to send the right post at the right time to the right person to get the right result. That’s the stuff you can’t find online.

Why remember what you can google?

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EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

How to approach workforce skills development when the professional world around us

keeps changing.

Equipping employees with ‘digital skills’ does not necessarily mean you’re equipping them for the digital age.

In fact, organisations face considerable risk if they teach staff how to create LinkedIn profiles and post content without also explaining how and when to use LinkedIn in a way their intended audience expects.

Technical, hard skills will continue to change – and change faster – in the digital age. Rather than playing constant catch up, organisations would be better served teaching the soft skills that help their staff constantly adapt.

An example of this different approach can be seen in the Queensland Government’s Digital Capability Partnership Agreement.8

The agreement is designed to help public servants see how the digital environment has changed citizen expectations around service delivery. With this foundation, they can then learn and apply the necessary technical skills required to improve citizen experience.

Similarly, the NSW Government has taken steps to upskill staff and improve the way they support industry partners and businesses who are already digitally mature.

Propel led an award-winning program that trained a group of public servants to both understand and utilise digital resources to improve business outcomes.9 The program helped participants understand market expectations around digital engagement before building specific digital and social media skills. All participants reported feeling more confident and equipped to work in the digital environment.

Think ‘softer’ – not ‘harder’ – in the digital age.

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Between 2018 and 2022, 42% of

the core skills required to

perform a job will change.

~ World Economic Forum

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EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Our nine-point checklist to help you design the best training program for your team.

What does all this theory look like in practice? How can you design a program that ensures your people get the most from any training? After all, you don’t want to have to explain to leaders why any training investments have lapsed within 12 months.

The following nine-point checklist and supporting examples are drawn from our 10+ years’ experience working across small and large organisations in the public and private sector.

Though the digital landscape has changed dramatically in that time, we’ve observed a few underlying principles that have stood the test of time.

Keep these three principles top of mind as you work through the checklist:

Equipping your people with the right digital skills.

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1. Training starts with your customer, not your people. You’re more likely to build relevant, practical skills when you shape them around the needs of those you serve vs. what mightbe helpful in the future.

2. Respect the change journey. Consult your frontline teams early to pinpoint customer pain points and where training will have the greatest impact. Then give your people the space and time to adjust.

3. Training works in partnership with real-world application and feedback. Far from a ‘tick box’ exercise, the real benefits of training come from teams’ ability to apply any learnings instantly and make regular improvements.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Designing holistic training programs that deliver returns for your people,

organisation and customers.

Review and consider these nine questions when planning and designing future training programs:

1. Are your people genuinely interested in your customers?

2. Do the platforms and channels your people use align with customers’ expectations?

3. Do you know who you’re really talking to in each channel?

4. Cannes or the customer: why are you investing in digital training?

5. Do your people view digital as an enabler, execution tool or panacea?

6. Do your people know how and when to use digital technologies?

7. Do your structures, processes and workflows support your training?

8. Does your training have immediate real-world application?

9. Is your training building dependence or autonomy?

Checklist summary.

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EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Employee digital skills training checklist.

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1. Are your people genuinely interestedin your customers?“What interests my boss fascinates me.” ANZ Bank CEO Shayne Elliott shared this curiosity mantra in an interview with Facebook about being a ‘Social CEO’, but the learning extends beyond bosses to anyone you need to understand deeply.10 How interested are your employees in your customers? Is this customer culture driven from the top? And does it guide the decisions your people make every day?

2. Do the platforms and channels your

people use align with customers’

expectations?We’ve all heard the ‘because our customers are active on them’ argument to create new platforms. But how much research is behind this? Do you know if your customers and prospects are using the channels in a way suited to your service? It’s important to find out before investing time and money into platform training.

And do you understand your customers’ expectations in those platforms? No one wants to sit on hold for 30 minutes waiting for your call centre agent, but they might be happy to fire off a tweet, continue with their day and get a notification when you can address their query properly 30-60 minutes later. Use these expectations to inform training and resourcing.

3. Do you know who you’re really talking to in each channel?Are you talking to loyal, knowledgeable customers? Or is your audience actually prospective customers exploring their options for the first time? Do you know the make up of your communities and does this understanding shape… [Cont.]

Industry example.A client of ours changed their structure, resourcing and training based on insights gathered about how and when overseas customers were using their service channels. This improved customer response times and CSAT, and reduced double handling over time.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Employee digital skills training checklist.

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3. Do you know who you’re really talking to in each channel?…the way you train your people to use those channels? It’s no longer good enough to simply use ‘standard channel conventions’ –your people must also understand who they’re talking to and how they want to engage.

4. Cannes or the customer: why are

you investing in digital training?

Before investing in any form of training for staff, pause and consider why you’re doing so.

Should you be seeking internal or industry recognition for breaking new ground? Or are there real, practical barriers your people face today that should be addressed first? New digital tools and technologies can be a tempting distraction away from servicing real customer needs.

5. Do your people view digital as an enabler, execution tool or panacea?This may sound obvious, but the way your organisation perceives ‘digital’ greatly influences their approach to it and use of it. If they believe it is simply a way to automate things or make them faster, they will be frustrated every time training is done and efficiency gains aren’t immediate. If they think it is the answer to resolve deep-rooted, systemic challenges, they will be disappointed every time training is done and the challenges remain.

Take the time to understand how your people treat ‘digital’ and shift their thinking towards digital as enabler for them to deliver better business and customer outcomes - not the be-all and end-all.

Industry example.A client of ours had set a strategy to inform consumers about threats that may impact their safety and hip pocket. But when it came to execution, their online channels were largely made up of those who knew the risks, not those who needed to hear the information. As such, their training and use of the channels excelled in a way that missed their intended goals.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Employee digital skills training checklist.

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6. Do your people know how and when to use digital technologies?No employee will be any more effective simply by having access to the latest technology – as the old saying goes, a fool with a tool is still a fool.

Do your people know why digital skills are important and how applying them properly can mean better outcomes for your organisation and customers? Do you know their digital literacy levels or ‘appetite’ to learn?

8. Does your training have immediate real-world application?Alongside internal systems, it’s important for skills retention and development that any training have immediate application opportunities. It can be hard to align training with employees’ BAU commitments – particularly given the speed with which… [Cont.]

Industry example.A client of ours invested a considerable amount in LinkedIn licences and training to improve sales performance. But while participants had access to the necessary tools, they lacked the knowledge needed to apply them at the right time in the right way.

This impacted their immediate success, use of the tools and eventual return on investment. Subsequently, senior leaders also began to question employee readiness for future digital program investment.

7. Do your structures, processes and

workflows support your training?

Simply put, are you setting your teams up for success? If you invest in training that can’t be easily implemented when people return to their desks, at best you’ve taken a few hours out of their day. At worst, you’ve frustrated them and left them sceptical of future training value.

Consider the implications or ‘ripple effect’ of any training by consulting with teams ahead of time. This will help you see the full picture and determine pain points where training can have the greatest impact.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Employee digital skills training checklist.

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8. Does your training have immediate real-world application?…industry moves today – but there’s little to be gained by only running training when convenient.

Talk with your people to identify projects or challenges where planned training can be applied in practice. We refer to this as ‘just-in-time training’ as it ensures teams develop the skills they need when they need them, not when it suits the annual training schedule.

9. Is your training building dependence

or autonomy?Every organisation needs time to grow capability and it doesn’t change overnight. But technology does.

With this in mind, are your training programs encouraging employees to keep coming to you for guidance when you can’t possibly have all the answers?

Or are you introducing skills, systems and processes that –over time – help them build their own confidence and independence? Can you focus training on skills that equip them to find answers on their own?Industry example.

A client of ours had agreed to a training program to help staff use digital platforms and tools to meet sales, communications and HR outcomes. As the program had been set, they were keen to progress ASAP and ‘maintain momentum’.

However, after reviewing workloads and key events they decided to postpone training for several months, ensuring staff had the capacity and outlet to implement their new skills straight away.

Key points for review.Having read the checklist, where should you focus? Should training help staff build customer interest (Q 1-3)? Could internal culture and ‘digital appetite’ be holding you back (Q 4-6)? Or should your internal processes and systems be optimised to improve performance (Q 7-9)? Take a moment now to review the full list on page six and set your training priorities.

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS

Workforce training for the digital age starts with customers, not employees.

It sounds counterintuitive, but by first defining customer or prospect needs, you’re greatly increasing the chances of any staff training meeting the needs of those you serve. Given the dynamic and challenging nature of doing business in the digital age, your customer is the best north star.

From here, avoid jumping straight to ‘hard’ technical skills. Help your people understand digital is only an enabler for improved business practices, not an ends itself. With the critical thinking and creative skills needed to be flexible, they will work out which hard skills to apply and when. They will be better equipped to keep up or –ideally – keep ahead.

But don’t try to do it all overnight –you don’t need to eat the digital elephant all at once. Yes – it’s worth getting the wheels in motion, but take the time to understand and respect employees’ appetite for digital learning before implementation.

The best way to reinforce learning and skills adoption is to ensure internal structures support training and staff can apply learned skills immediately. After all – digital or otherwise – only skills that are applicable can be applied.

Conclusion.

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Something…

EQUIPPING YOUR PEOPLE WITH THE RIGHT DIGITAL SKILLS 12

Roger Christie | Founder & Managing Director

E: rchristie@propelgroup.com.auM: +61 431 718 018

L: linkedin.com/in/rogerchristieW: propelgroup.com.au

Contact us.If you want to improve the way your teams use

digital and social for customer engagement, we’d love to chat about your training options.

Drop us a line to see how we can help your team get more from social.

About Propel.Are you happy with your current social media ROI? Are you seeing more risk or more reward from social media? Are you building trust with consumers via social media?

There’s many things you can do with social media, but what are the right things to do?

At Propel, we like to keep things simple and effective. That’s why we focus on the ‘3Ps’ of social media: pains, potential and performance.

We’ve helped our clients avoid awkward conversations with the Board, attract new customers, provide a better customer experience and demonstrate real ROI to executives.

Want the same outcomes? Get more from social media. Propel.

1. 2019 CEO Survey – PwC

2. Digital Innovation Report – AlphaBeta Advisors & Data61

3. Workplace 2025: The Post-Digital Frontier – Randstad

4. Future of Skills 2019 Report – LinkedIn

5. Why remember what you can google? – Peter Evans-Greenwood (February 2019)

6. The Future of Jobs Report 2018 – World Economic Forum

7. The New Work Reality – Foundation for Young Australians

8. Why organisations build social media capability, not channels. – Propel

9. Award-winning “social selling” program. – Propel

10. Being a social CEO: Shayne Elliott interview – Influencers on Facebook (2018)

References & Acknowledgements.