Business

The business case for reskilling your workforce

There’s a fear that automation will steal workers’ jobs, so what can they do? And what should organisations do to ensure they’re not simply fuelling the unemployment statistics?

02 December 2019

A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposed that well over 65 million employees are at risk of being displaced by artificial intelligence and automation in the next few years. The World Economic Forum (WEF) paints a gloomier picture, predicting some 75 million displaced jobs by 2022. Gartner forecasts that by next year, AI will eliminate 1.8 million jobs. And McKinsey reports that automation will render a wide range of skills obsolete.

With all of this in mind, the pressure is on for employees and organisations to adapt, says Dr Roze Phillips, futurist, medical doctor and the group executive for People and Culture at Absa. “When people don’t stay relevant, employees have skills organisations no longer need and they lack the skills required for business success.”

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