Focus on skills, not experiences, in a changing world

By Samir Bedi

SINGAPORE — As jobs are being redesigned to align with evolving business models, workers can no longer rely on past experiences to perform new tasks. A skills-based approach to work is needed to build a resilient, agile and innovative workforce of the future.

Singapore’s nationwide drive to upskill and reskill the workforce is picking up momentum, with around 500,000 individuals and 14,000 enterprises taking part in SkillFuture programs in 2019, the agency said. While skills are increasingly valued as an asset, Singapore is still some way from embracing a skills-based approach to work.

Many employers currently value work experience over skills. This approach has worked well in the past and in times of economic stability, where job scopes were fixed and business operations were fairly standardised across the industry. Employees who stayed in the same job became more proficient at performing the same tasks, and therefore their years of accumulated experiences were highly valuable and rewarded accordingly.

However, companies today are operating in an environment where disruption, driven by technology advancements among other factors, is the norm. The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed disruption, and compelled enterprises to respond and transform.

Job roles are evolving with existing tasks displaced and new ones emerging and requiring new skill sets. Consider how a shopkeeper will not be able to use his or her in-store sales experience when shopping malls closed during physical lockdowns, and instead had to pick up new e-commerce skills to adapt to the online retail business model.

Experiences may no longer be relevant when the nature of business and work change. Enterprises need to identify and acquire the requisite skills that are aligned to their redesigned business models. To do so effectively, they will need to redefine all areas of talent management — from recruitment and selection to placement and training.

Based on in-depth analysis by EY teams, there are common or transferable skills across sectors. For example, workers in the hospitality and food services are likely to already have the core skills such as food handling, quality assurance and quality control — skills that are needed to work in food manufacturing. So for such job-seekers, they will need to adopt a skills-oriented approach to interviews and hiring conversations by focusing on how their skills can be applied rather than discussing their past job responsibilities on their CVs.

New business models

In the future economy where new business models, new jobs and new skills are constantly emerging, the pace of reskilling and movements across sectors will only become more relevant. Individuals and employers will need to be more open to reframing their approach to work and hiring.

For enterprises, it is time to for them to see themselves as the schools of tomorrow, and the important role they can play in driving a skills-based approach to hiring, training and developing their talent.

For individuals, they need to recognise that instead of fixed career paths or roles, there could be multiple pathways for different skills. Rather than building up years of experience doing the same, employees should be proactive in acquiring in-demand skills. Employers can encourage or incentivise them to do so, simply because people will always be their greatest asset.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is adopting a change-ready mindset. While shifting mindsets is a massive and continual endeavour, choosing the status quo is not viable. In the long-run, a skills-first mindset facilitates greater cross-sector mobility, where workers can nurture their agility and employability. Fresh perspectives from talent outside a sector can help drive innovation and cross-pollination of knowledge in enterprises.

Overall, a skills-based approach is vital to help transform the Singapore workforce to become more innovative, agile and resilient in navigating the uncertainties ahead. The national agenda to focus on skills has begun years ago. The current COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on employment and the workforce has provided a clear and urgent impetus to push this agenda forward — further and faster.

Samir Bedi is EY Asean Workforce Advisory Leader. The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organisation or its member firms.