Combine hard and soft skills for your career
Labour market doom doctors talk of the extremes of automation in the long term - robots replacing drivers, technology gobbling up jobs and widespread redundancies.
But results from a 42-country survey suggest automation and digitalisation will lead to more hiring - not less- in the next two years.
Of the 20,000 employers surveyed, 86 per cent say they plan to maintain or increase headcount. In Singapore, the figure is 83 per cent.
There are some sectors and job functions that will fare better than others in the digital age, notes HR consulting firm ManpowerGroup in its report, Robots Need Not Apply: Human Solutions for the Skills Revolution.
So, what skills should employees focus on to tackle the future?
You need a blend of technical, digital and soft skills.
For instance, copywriting for marketing purposes is a technical ability. Knowing multiple platforms on which to broadcast that message is digital proficiency. And, mastering the art of collaboration with different parties or vendors to get your messages out is a soft skill.
ManpowerGroup's executive vice-president, global strategy and talent, Ms Mara Swan said: "The value of different functions and skills within the company continues to shift, with IT and customer-facing roles growing, and more routine administrative and office roles declining."
The soft skills or human strengths that employers value the most are communication, collaboration and problem-solving.
In Singapore, 69 per cent of employers planning to increase headcount in IT roles say communication is key.
This is because, as a cross-functional department today, IT impacts not just back-end issues but client-facing services.
Problem-solving and collaboration are the second and third most vital people strengths.
The survey also found that in the next two years, IT functions in Singapore expect the greatest increase in headcount as a result of automation. In contrast, administrative and office functions expect the biggest drop in hiring.
Ms Swan said: "Roles that are routine or add less value to customers are under the greatest threat of automation."
WOMEN MORE AT RISK
In the skills revolution, women will be harder hit than men.
That's because a higher proportion of women work in roles that are under threat from automation, including business and financial operations, and office and administration, says ManpowerGroup in its 2017 report, Skills Revolution: From Consumers of Work to Builders of Talent.
The report states: "If the current trajectory continues, women could face 3 million job losses and only half a million gains, with more than five jobs lost for every job gained."
Fortunately, Singapore is fast-tracking the digital skills sets of its workforce.
According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority, $145 million will be pumped into the TechSkills Accelerator programme over the next three years.
This should create another 20,000 training places by 2020.
How ready are you to embrace the digital age?
Find out your digital quotient with ManpowerGroup's new tool: Visit www.digiquotient.io
This article was contributed by ManpowerGroup Singapore, (www.manpowergroup.com.sg), the global career experts within US-listed HR consulting firm, ManpowerGroup.
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