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COVID has taken a huge toll on both human lives and livelihoods on a global scale. It has forced people to stay indoors and made norms like social distancing a biting reality. The pandemic has made industries across sectors to shift towards conducting virtual operations (wherever feasible). The shift has been found to be more pronounced in certain sectors such as education, retail, digital marketing, and healthcare, among others. The changed reality of remote working from home has led to the redefining of functional roles and daily operations. It means skill development training based on online models in a post COVID world should be innovative and integral to the emerging realities.
Mushrooming of digital platforms in various sectors
The challenge for businesses spread across sectors is to improve the readiness, scale, and impact of online tools in shifting operations to a seamless and remotely operating model. A study by FICCI, EY, and NASSCOM states that by 2022, around 9 percent of people will be doing jobs that do not exist today. Besides, around 37 percent of people will be working in jobs requiring radically different skill sets. In fact, the precursor of things to come is already visible with the mushrooming of digital platforms across sectors. In retail, for example, customers are increasingly using online means to get products or services delivered to their doorsteps. This example shows how seamlessly logistics and retail have been integrated to deliver the best user experience.
Challenges created by the pandemic
COVID created a unique situation where governments were forced to declare lockdowns across cities to stop the spread of the contagion. This resulted in employees getting stuck in their homes and unable to attend the office physically. This is where cloud-based digital platforms came in handy as they allowed employees across sectors to keep the operations running remotely. This change of working methodology demanded the presence of broadband connections and smart devices to connect to the internet. Since the penetration of the internet is not uniform across the country, people falling in the ‘no internet/scanty internet’ zones found it difficult to perform their official duties, remotely. Additionally, since many jobs have been transformed and taken to the digital space, especially in sectors such as food delivery, fintech, logistics, and BPOs, among others, a segment of the workforce has been left rudderless and left to fend for itself.
Reinvent, reskill, upskill, and multiskill
In a post COVID world, businesses are likely to embrace new operating models including Work from Home. They would go for digital innovations using technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI & ML), 3D printing, and Augmented Reality (AR), among others. The objectives of embracing such technologies and models by companies would be to simplify the daily tasks leading to enhanced productivity and efficiency, reduced waste, and optimization of costs. This would necessitate the reskilling, upskilling, and multiskilling of employees in various technologies. This can be an opportunity for organizations to showcase their competitiveness.
Conclusion
In the post-pandemic world, the skill development framework is likely to embrace new technologies and business models. Organizations should innovate and leverage technologies to improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and add to their bottom lines. And to ensure these outcomes, they must be ever-ready to redefine the operating parameters of their workforce and focus on skill development training.
