Time and again, it’s been proven just how effective it is to integrate technology into society’s usual affairs, especially in the business world. However, this adjustment is still in its early stages. And since it’s practically impossible for everything to go perfectly at this stage, there are bound to be miscalculations, hence, leading to digital skills gaps.
What Are The Three Digital Skills Gap?
There’s no such thing as the ‘perfect employee.’ Even with a degree to prove it or the experience to back it up, potential employees still have room to improve. And with how technology continues to advance, whatever amount of digital skills for business are bound to be lacking in some areas.
Since new technology emerges, this could open different business opportunities, which you can see in recent years. Online platforms are now being frequented by more potential customers worldwide. Thus, employers are now utilizing these platforms to look for new hires and promote their business more.
Although this should be ideal for those who prefer to work from home, some would lag in terms of technological expertise because of the following:
- Limited digital experience. With how quickly society’s integrating technology, many business owners dove right into digitizing their businesses. However, while the number of digital companies hikes up, employees can’t say the same. And you can see this from the ever-widening gap between workers who have in-depth knowledge of specific digital skills to those who don’t.
- Training barriers. The best solution to battle digital inexperience is to implement a training program. Although this would be helpful for on-site employees, those working online from overseas might see this as a hindrance. Different time zones and internet connection issues will hinder training, ergo wasting everyone’s time and effort.
- Outdated technological infrastructure. Besides training barriers, overseas employees have outdated technology that could prevent them from keeping up with the foreign workforce. Third-world countries suffer from this issue, which could prevent them from matching the demands of international employers.
These digital skills gaps leave a massive blow in work performance and productivity. Therefore, degrading your vision as an employer who wants to start or improve on a business online. Still, identifying these issues is the first step in closing the gap.
How To Engage With Digital Skills Gaps
Now you know what to expect, your chances of minimizing these issues could grow once you apply these strategies:
1. Define Business Motivation
Because of how diverse technology is, you need to know what your business should be prioritizing. Call center agencies focus on polishing their digital devices to go toe-to-toe with customer service, international or domestic. As for online companies, employers would pay more attention to content writing.
As you’ve noticed, these two examples could still be broad. So, to touch on them even further, one skill that many employers are focusing on is search engine optimization (SEO). By utilizing this more, their business might get the boost needed to gather attention.
Once you’ve identified what your business is about, narrow down the digital tools your employees need to capitalize on. From there, you could finally plan out the skills required to embody your business.
2. Evaluate Employees
Employers whose workforce consists of different age groups are likely to experience a digital divide. Because of the significant contrast between generations, older age groups are much more attuned with traditional tasks. Meanwhile, the younger generation might have a better chance of keeping up. But of course, not everyone is in the know about the digital aspect.
Nonetheless, assessing your current and potential employees’ performance is another way to identify their strengths or weaknesses. During recruitment, once you’ve reviewed the applicant’s requirements or interviewed them for the position, you can narrow down your search as you determine whether their qualifications could mesh well with your vision.
3. Conduct Training
Using the collected data from the evaluation, you can now plot the appropriate training sessions for each skill set your business needs. Of course, even though you’re the brains behind this operation, that doesn’t mean you have to shoulder everything.
Hire virtual instructors that could look after your workforce. With their experience, they’ll be able to attend to any problem a team member has. Even your seasoned employees could be qualified as instructors, as long as they know how to educate trainees appropriately.
However, as mentioned earlier, there could be barriers when training is discussed, especially if the instructor is international. So, if you want to invest in your employees’ quality performance, hire an instructor stationed domestically. Having a local instructor will be far more convenient for the employees when they no longer adapt to time zones.
4. Request For Feedback
The only way for you to know whether your executive decision is effective or not is by consulting your workforce. Providing a survey is one of the best ways to do so. Still, it’s up to you what this survey would be about.
As a reference, ask them what digital skills they might be interested in. It would be challenging if they’re eager to learn as much as possible on short notice. Therefore, using the assessment, map out their current skillset and connect them to which one’s close enough to make training feasible.
For those who underwent training, have them answer a survey as well. It should contain questions about the training’s effectiveness or how helpful the trainer’s been the entire time. In the end, your employees aren’t the only ones who improve when you’re also receiving feedback that could help enhance the training experience for future employees.
Takeaway
You can’t deny how technology’s been significant for many aspects of society, especially recently. However, some are still struggling to catch up with its advancements. Meanwhile, businesses, in particular, have different views regarding technology depending on where they are in the world. Still, there’s no use stopping technology with how efficient it is. So, for those business owners having trouble, digital skills gaps are hurdles you need to address and overcome.