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92% of businesses’ say future plans depend on closing skills gap as digitisation rapidly accelerates, and outsourcing falls out of favour

Econsultancy’s latest research report examines businesses in-house digital skills requirements and opportunities for talent growth

Econsultancy, a leading global provider of digital marketing and ecommerce insights and training, today launches ‘Winning The Race for Digital Skills: The New Best Practices of Effective Learning’ – a report examining the key aspects of how organisations and individuals can better approach learning and developing new skills to adapt to operational complexity.

It reveals the urgent need for businesses and professionals to bridge the digital skills gap to remain competitive in a tumultuous global economy and evolving digital business environment.

Supporting findings from Econsultancy’s 2023 Digital Skills survey, reveal that most (83%) of senior executives in the UK say their organisation’s growth depends on rapidly evolving their employees’ skills and capabilities to meet emerging customer and business needs and 92% report that their plans require skills that are new to the business. Only 27% say that the business currently has the digital skills to accomplish their goals.

Digital transformation and digitalising the customer journey are key drivers behind the growing urgency to evolve employees’ professional ability, with almost two thirds (63%) of brands saying their customers are looking to replace offline experiences with digital experiences.

Stefan Tornquist, SVP Learning and Research, Econsultancy, said: “The digital skills gap is one of the greatest inhibitors of the world’s economies. Ongoing technological change, digital transformation and shortening business lifespans can be a great opportunity or challenge – depending on how primed your business is to build on ever-evolving digital capabilities. As ecommerce, data-driven marketing and customer centricity straddle new channels and disciplines, this will become even more pronounced.

“The rapid business pivots of the pandemic proved that the people in the business are one of the greatest assets to achieving transformational growth. So, effectively marrying professionals’ need for dynamic, ongoing learning with the objectives and outcomes of a company’s development programs can help everyone involved to stay ahead of the curve.”

The report delves into the importance of empowering existing employees through training as a key strategy to bridge the skills gap. Almost eight in ten (79%) senior executives believe education and training are essential to their company’s digital transformation, with training considered to be the fastest (70%) and most cost-effective (61%) way to boost general digital skills, compared to hiring or outsourcing.

Senior executives acknowledge much work needs to be done to bring professional development and training up to par, with less than half (43%) of executives believing their organisation is adept at training to meet new strategic objectives. This sentiment increases when considering learning and development programs for digital marketing, ecommerce and related digital roles, shown by two thirds saying existing such programs lag behind organisational needs.

Professionals are also aware of the need to upskill, quickly. Eighty percent of professionals report that the skills necessary for their job are evolving rapidly, increasing the pace at which they must add and update their digital skills. In 2019, one-third of respondents in an Econsultancy study said that most digital marketing skills required updating at least quarterly. Today, 55% say they need to add new skills and knowledge at least monthly.

Stefan Tornquist continued: “Traditional, static models of professional learning are no longer enough to feed the demand for always-on learning. Rather than ending with the certificate, at Econsultancy we encourage all businesses and decision makers to implement a blend of digital and event-based learning with both structured and in-the-flow experiences to foster a business culture that truly values growth and success of the business, its people and its skills.”

An in-depth analysis of digital upskilling best practice in the report complements Econsultancy’s Multi-Touch Learning(TM) training offering, which spans a comprehensive range of topics including strategy and planning, data and analytics, ecommerce, customer experience, content marketing, digital advertising, SEO and search marketing, social media, email and CRM.

Executives at companies that invest in multimodal learning and development are more than twice as likely than their peers to say their employees have the necessary digital skills to meet business goals. (57% vs. 27%).

Similarly, employees at companies that deliver multimodal learning are more likely to say that they find learning opportunities to be a tangible benefit of their jobs. (68% vs. 48%). This suggests that organisations that offer access to a wider array of training modes and continuous learning than have traditionally been available could find themselves better able to hone digital skills for organisational success.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucie Hayes .