Accenture Strategy New Skilling For Growth

NEW SKILLINGFOR GROWTHMaking big bets on the futureof innovation and learningACHIEVE COMPETITIVE AGILITY

Christopher ChuSometimes the cause of disruption also containsthe seeds of its solution. This is the case today ascompanies wrestle with the implications of new,intelligent technologies—artificial intelligence,machine learning, automation, and more—ontheir people and their talent strategy. Forty-threepercent of executives surveyed by Accentureanticipate that in the next three years more than60 percent of their workforce will move intonew roles requiring substantial reskilling due tothe impact of technology. This compares to 17percent who see that significant an impact today.1With the business and technologylandscape changing so rapidly,how can people keep up?2 New Skilling for GrowthManaging Director — Accenture StrategyChris works with Fortune 100 companies to solve theirmost complex talent, leadership, organization and culturalchallenges. Chris is based in San Francisco.Tim GoodManaging Director — Accenture StrategyTim works closely with business executives around theworld to design global talent and HR strategies and developinnovative solutions that deliver tangible business results.Tim is based in Heidelberg.Francisco PuertasManaging Director — Accenture StrategyFrancisco helps organizations around the world transformtheir human capital capabilities by defining and developingdynamic HR strategies and organizational, operational andtalent models. Francisco is based in Madrid.Jay KerrSenior Manager — Accenture StrategyJay specializes in IT and Supply Chain workforce strategywithin the communications, high-tech, products, resources,and financial services industries. Jay is based in Denver.

Right now, the workforce is not able to continuouslyrefresh the knowledge and skill levels needed tocapitalize on new challenges and opportunities.Learning programs at most organizations still offerstatic courses, often in a classroom setting, withan emphasis on activity tracking and compliance—ticking a box that says a particular course has beencompleted. It is, at best, an analog remnant in adigital world.What’s better? Turning the challenge on itshead and using machine learning and artificialintelligence solutions to proactively offer theworkforce an entirely new, future-oriented learningexperience across devices and channels—one thatis customized, dynamic and predictive.Using artificial intelligence to capitalize on theexploding amount of available data can providepersonalized, role-based and competencybased learning and performance support innear-real-time, at scale across the organization—something that Accenture calls “new skilling.”The implications are revolutionary: a workforcethat can adapt readily to anything thrown itsway. You can’t after all, have an agile businesswithout an agile workforce.The implications are revolutionary:a workforce that can adapt readilyto anything thrown its way.3 New Skilling for Growth

From incrementalism to innovationBusiness leaders know that thriving in the digitalage requires them to take on the disruptive forceschanging their industry with speed, confidence andbold new bets. Nothing less than a similarly boldapproach to new skilling will prepare the workforceto support an organization’s need for continuousinnovation and growth.By adopting a zero-based mindset, leading companiescan take a clean-sheet approach to redesigning thelearning organization with clear objectives in mind—for example, reducing time to implementation andimproving speed to competency. Resources can beshifted from initiatives that aren’t contributing to desiredbusiness outcomes to ones that will.This is a far cry from much of traditional enterpriselearning that tends to focus on monitoring, complianceand activity tracking. Enhancements are incrementalin nature and constrained by existing approaches.By contrast, new skilling programs are driven byinnovation—aligned with dynamic business objectivesand designed to improve business performance.Consider US telecom provider AT&T, which found itselffacing a skills gap when it came to technology. Thecompany lacked sufficient talent in areas such as cloudbased computing and data science. To close the gap,AT&T launched “Workforce 2020.” If it succeeds, by 2020AT&T will have reeducated 100,000 employees for newjobs with cutting-edge skills and, in the process, createdthe kind of nimble workforce it needs to compete in the21st century. According to the company, employees thatare currently retraining are two times more likely to behired into one of these newer, mission-critical jobs andfour times more likely to make a career advancement.34 New Skilling for Growth“ Make no littleplans; theyhave no magicto stir men’sblood Makebig plans; aimhigh in hopeand work.“Architect Daniel Burnham2

From cost center to competitive advantageRecent Accenture research has found that high-growthcompanies are over three times more likely than laggardsto invest in creating a talent-rich business—buildingcompetitive advantage through flexible, augmented andadaptive workforces.4 Learning is no longer simply a sunkcost. Now, it’s a path to competitive differentiation.Organizations can use employee data to “know”the current tasks and responsibilities of individualworkers, understand their educational background andcompetency levels, factor in the company’s strategicgoals, and proactively suggest learning opportunities thathelp people prepare for roles—both today and tomorrow.These hyper-personalized learning paths are enabledthrough predictive analytics, AI and the inexpensivecomputing power of the cloud. Companies can use anincreasingly vast amount of data to build a rich, digitalrepresentation of each employee—creating betterlearning that improves relevance and heightens theimpact for each individual.55 New Skilling for GrowthOne caveat: Using employee data for either currentor future roles is complicated. Based on our research,about half of organizations’ workforces have concernsabout data collection. However, 61 percent of workerswould be willing to have technology collect data aboutthem and their work in exchange for more customizedlearning and development opportunities.6Responsible leaders will develop their learningprograms in a way that builds trust in how data iscollected and used, and that focuses on outcomesthat benefit employees as well as the business.

From LPs to Spotify:You [can] always get what you wantConsider people who grew up listening to music on LPsor CDs, but who can now stream music using a servicethat monitors their preferences and then predictsadditional music likely to match those preferences.In much the same way, high-growth companies willreinvent themselves to deliver more personalizedemployee learning experiences based on roles, jobprofiles and competency-based assessments.Increasingly, informal learning opportunities—oftenon mobile devices—will supplant formal, classroomtraining. According to the “70/20/10” rule for thelearner experience (see Figure 1), companies shouldemphasize on-the-go learning, followed by lowerpercentages of social and formal learning.A key here is to leverage delivery platforms andcontent ecosystems to broaden the knowledge andsupport available to workers, and then machinelearning such that your learning systems adapt tothe changing needs of workers.6 New Skilling for GrowthSavvy organizations will use relevant ecosystems—physical and virtual networks—to deliver valuableskills training, generate insights, and enable access topotential new roles and projects that can enable appliedlearning—learning all the time and on-the-go. Thesenetworks ultimately allow companies to rapidly tap intonew sources of knowledge and experience when they’reneeded. For example, LinkedIn’s educational platform,Lynda, supports point-of-need desktop learning.JOLT is an online marketplace that offers companiesaccess to virtual and video-based learning deliveredby recognized industry professionals on a variety oftopics, providing just-in-time “jolts” of skills-building toindividuals and teams when and where needed.7Yet, a traditional enterprise learning function cannot, byitself, understand each worker’s rapidly evolving needsand then provide immediate and relevant new-skillingopportunities. Here, artificial intelligence technologiesoffer guidance by understanding employee profilesand then matching an employee’s situation toavailable learning. Such learning can be provided byan organization, or its ecosystem of partners, or froman instantaneous analysis of relevant content from anorganization’s internal collaboration and knowledgesharing system—that is, learning from peers. In turn,machine learning technologies can then help trainingand collaboration systems evolve to match thechanging needs of workers.Machine learning technologies can helptraining and collaboration systems evolveto match the changing needs of workers.

Figure 1: New skilling integrates business strategy, data, learner experiences and content to deliver hyper-personalized learning linked to business outcomesBUSINESSSTRATEGYLEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORMObjectivesGeneration of dynamic, personalized,and relevant learningGrowthAgilityCostDigitalFuture roles & competenciesMulti-dimensional assessmentsIndividually tailored pathwaysFuture ModelsOperatingmodelsOn the goSocialAnalytics / InsightsOrganization / workforce assessment resultsTime to proficiency & business results through learningSkills matching and workforce planningFormalORGANIZATIONAL & WORKFORCE DATAContractorsOrganization New Skilling for GrowthVirtualon-demandExternallycurated contentfrom Cloud, SaaS& subscriptions20%10%Virtual & classroomsaccreditation /certification / complianceOperating modelsCONTENTLearning from others,coaching and collaborationPerformancePackagedcourses /LMSInternal content,formal learningInspire & ActivateGamification & multi-dayactivity challengesReflectTALENT MANAGEMENT PLATFORM/LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS)770%Learning all the time tiedto intentional on-the-jobexperienceNew roles &competencymodelsInsights /Externalbenchmarks /ResearchLEARNEREXPERIENCEAutomate online coachingand reflection guidesSource: Accenture Strategy, 2019