THE talent gap among workers is an ongoing challenge that companies face, especially those in the digital sector.
Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the automation of work processes, issues relating to the skills gap remain unresolved, especially in Malaysia, leaving businesses with a new challenge of finding the right talent to manage their operations.
One of the companies addressing this issue is Panasonic Malaysia.
ONLINE PLATFORM
The company uses an online platform to train employees in the customer service department.
It believes that as the demand for professionals with new-age digital skills overrides worldwide supply, the best solution is to turn to skill development platforms that can help employees narrow the digital skills gap.
Panasonic Appliances Marketing Asia-Pacific deputy managing director Takahiro Oyama said the pandemic has altered consumer behaviour and preferences.
"Since digital communications have replaced face-to-face interaction, how customers want to be approached and receive services have also changed. This requires new marketing and business skills to enable our team, especially in the sales and marketing department, to anticipate and respond to the new working style promptly," Takahiro said.
The company is using a skills dashboard tool developed by Coursera to help its sales and marketing employees gain proficiency in key business skills, including digital marketing, e-commerce, leadership and management, search engine optimisation and communication.
ON-DEMAND TOOL
What's interesting is that the training can be done anytime and anywhere.
"The online courses allow our employees to conduct on-demand learning via their smartphones. We chose courses that are aligned with our marketing skill standard — Panasonic Global Competency and Panasonic Global Leadership Competency — so the Coursera training and accounts team worked with us on selecting the right courses for their big learning database," Takahiro said.
Coursera managing director of India & Asia-Pacific, Raghav Gupta, said prioritising skills development was crucial to stay competitive as it helped accelerate the business' digital transformation journey and led to tangible outcomes.
"According to Coursera's 2021 Industry Skills Report, employee skills relate to resilience and a company's ability to adapt to challenges — benefits that correlate to stock performance.
"Conclusively, skills development is an engagement and retention strategy, a performance strategy, and a growth and cost savings play for the business," he said.
MALAYSIA'S POSITION
Charting at #39 in Coursera's Global Skills Report, Malaysia is showing admirable competitiveness in business and data science skills, but there is a need to progress in technology and key data skills to achieve a mature digital economy in the region.
"Microsoft predicts that there will be 149 million new digital jobs by 2025 focused on cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analysis and software development alone.
"Big data will be the most sought-after, followed by artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity and cloud computing. Critical thinking and analysis, analytical thinking and innovation, as well as collaboration, topped the soft skills demand, followed by English proficiency and communication," said Gupta.
Not to forget, cybersecurity is considered one of the central pillars of the digital economy in a recent International Data Corporation report.