DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION IN COVID-19 ERA

The training models at Learning Point and TBA have always dealt with digital solutions, automation, and open source systems. Sessions have covered skill-sets and the 4th industrial revolution. We had anticipated that between 2015 and 2025 a significant shift in workforce mobilization would have occurred. What the Covid-19 era has done is put the pressure on people to innovate halfway through.

The idea of remote work, virtual meetings, exhibition, and learning has caught on in all industries; with companies and institutions leading the charge. Principal Officers have realized the need to build great online platforms for their organizations, businesses, and schools. This has potentially increased web visibility and traffic. Those with existing set-ups have latched on to get work done from home. Previously, working from home had been grossly undervalued.

Of course, computational skills are required to work with any digital platform or interactive interface, and the motivation to upgrade from basic and intermediate to advanced level know-how has been rekindled. It goes without saying that other 21st-century skills such as, cognitive and critical thinking are just as essential, which means that employees and managers, teachers, and learners must assimilate them quickly. Emotional Intelligence has also become a key component in team building relationships.

The highlight of this phase is the migration of content from analog/manual platforms to digital and cloud-based computing; storage and database, to pave the way for optimized and highly, if not fully, automated operation systems.

The world has been building towards a new shift in the labor market for a long time and many reports have talked about the millions of jobs that will be lost to automation by 2025 and beyond. To cut costs, companies and some financial establishments have begun to lay-off non-essential staff and slash employee salaries to significantly strengthen their capacity to operate. And COVID-19 has served to escalate the situation.

Those who have been in the Human Resource (HR) and Recruitment space for years are witnessing a significant shift in client expectations, and are themselves faced with the challenge to build capacity in more fields.

There is a new framework for creating powerful customer engagement experiences and efficient operational modules to transform businesses and organizations; loosely explained as ‘Smart and Optimized System.’ Those who are slow to meet up with today’s connected and intelligent world are already paying the price, and the stakes will only get higher. The world is changing, and it is guaranteed that every sphere of human interaction will be impacted one way or another.