One of the biggest obstacles to business development is the obsolescence of skills.
In fact, no matter what sector a company operates in, it needs certain skills to succeed. Unfortunately, some of these skills can become obsolete. This is known as obsolescence.
A solution needs to be found to avoid this devaluation of workers’ knowledge. Find out in this article what skills obsolescence is and how to combat it.
Skills obsolescence: What is it?
According to Josh Kaufman, skills obsolescence is “the insufficiency of up-to-date knowledge or skills necessary for a worker to continue to perform optimally in his or her current or future professional activity”.
Companies usually use a psychometric recruitment test to assess each employee’s skills.
Indeed, when you apply for a job, the skills you possess are not necessarily those that correspond to the structure’s needs. The psychometric test enables recruiters to determine employees’ aptitudes and adaptability.
Skill obsolescence exists in two main forms: physical and economic. Physical obsolescence refers to the degradation of a person’s physical ability to perform a job.
Economic obsolescence refers to the obsolescence of skills acquired during the performance of a previous function. In other words, past skills become obsolete and therefore useless.
Obsolescence can also be :
- An organizational oversight: the loss of certain skills needed for a particular business;
- Perspectival obsolescence: this stems more from different beliefs and perceptions about work.
Thus, skills become obsolete when there is a lack of knowledge useful to the smooth running of a company.
What role do soft skills play in skills development?
To combat skills obsolescence, it’s vital to know where soft skills fit in.
Clarification of soft skills
By definition, soft skills are the behavioral competencies a person possesses. They refer to extra-professional behaviors.
In other words, soft skills are behavioral and human competencies that employees have acquired outside the workplace. They cannot be inculcated in artificial intelligence and are unique to humans.
In most cases, a person has several softskills that can be useful to a company. It’s worth noting that most employers require employees to have these skills before hiring them.
Some examples of soft skills
Among the most popular soft skills are :
- Creativity: being creative enables us to think out of the box and come up with ideas that could contribute to the company’s development. Creativity is not just about technological innovation, but also about marketing and communication strategy;
- The ability to solve complex problems: problem-solving mainly involves mastering new technology tools. This soft skill is indispensable in the digital age;
- Benevolence: an employee must show benevolence towards his or her colleagues. This skill is essential for leading a team;
- Emotional intelligence: thanks to emotional intelligence, employees can easily adapt to the workplace;
- The ability to manage your time well: to work in an organization, you need to be able to manage your time well.
These softskills are also listed among the most indispensable for learning and developing new skills. Discover the top 10 soft skills most in demand in the world of work.
The benefits of softskills
The main importance of softskills is that they generally enable the worker to feel more fulfilled in carrying out his or her tasks within a company.
Softskills are therefore of paramount importance to both employer and employee, to ensure the company’s development and the worker’s performance. As a result, recruiters rely on these behavioral qualities to select a candidate from among those who have applied for a position and have the same technical skills.
In other words, if several candidates are equally qualified, the job goes to the one whose behavioral skills are the most distinctive. So, understanding the value of soft skills will give you the answer to the question: why focus on soft skills in recruitment?
In short, soft skills are essential for anticipating skills obsolescence. When these skills are available to a company’s employees, they can adapt to any situation, including a resurgence in their skills.
Can skills obsolescence influence technical qualities?
Also known as hard skills, an individual’s technical qualities refer to the skills he or she has acquired during school and in the workplace.
Technical skills are essential for employment and entrepreneurship. They give you a better chance of getting a job in the future.
Hard skills, unlike soft skills, are essential for the employee. They relate to their very ability to work in the company’s field of expertise. Soft skills, on the other hand, are a personal asset specific to each employee.
For example, for a job as a web developer, candidates need to have mastery of certain computer languages as a technical skill. To this, they can add several behavioral skills such as creativity or the ability to solve complex problems.
Given that a technical skill is mandatory for a worker to perform well in certain professions, it can easily be impacted by skills obsolescence. In reality, these skills have a limited lifespan, as science is constantly evolving.
Apart from that, it’s easy for those who don’t work to forget the skills they’ve acquired at school or in the workplace. However, having softskills can make it easy to keep up to date.
Employers often use personality tests to determine the personal skills of applicants. The long-term aim is to get to know them better, so they can be better trained.
What causes skills obsolescence?
There are three main reasons why skills become obsolete.
The first concerns the unavailability of training courses to reinforce workers’ prerequisites. In fact, every company manager must plan refresher sessions to enable employees to acquire the new skills on the market.
The second reason relates to the non-use or partial use of skills acquired in the past. In reality, when an employee’s position within a company does not allow him or her to apply what he or she has learned, skills may become obsolete.
The last reason concerns the obligation to work in a job where the skills required are below those of the employee. This phenomenon is due to deteriorating economic conditions.
As a result, every recruiter needs to ensure that candidates have the ability to perform in a given position. Recruiters can learn how quizzes and personality tests work, so they can better analyze their candidates using this tool.
Which category of people suffers from the devaluation of skills?
Skill obsolescence mainly affects two types of employee: the low-skilled and the over-skilled.
- Low-skilled employees find it hard to adapt to new technologies. Lacking the necessary grounding, the job becomes very demanding for them. Their intellectual level doesn’t allow them to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. The elderly and the unemployed are also affected;
- For overqualified employees, the skills they don’t use are forgotten. On top of this, they may fail to learn new things in order to evolve.
Supporting this category of people suffering from skills obsolescence is an important part of combating the talent shortage in the workplace.
How can we combat this depreciation of skills?
When a company is faced with skills obsolescence, business leaders must :
- Take stock of all available skills;
- Setting up training courses ;
- Promoting behavioral skills.
These actions will help to combat skills obsolescence.
Take stock of all available skills
The first step in avoiding obsolescence is to take stock of the company’s skills. This involves drawing up a map of all personnel, to determine their technical skills at a given moment.
Employers will then have a precise idea of the skills they have and those they lack for their future development. This will enable them to plan training courses, recruit new staff or make technical resources available to workers.
Setting up training courses
Once skills have been assessed, employers can put in place a range of training courses. These should be aimed at reinforcing employees’ knowledge and transferring skills.
This may involve training to teach them how to use digital tools to excel in their field.
Fostering behavioral skills
As soft skills are less affected by skills obsolescence, companies need to focus on them. It’s not a question of ignoring hard skills, but of making behavioral qualities a determining factor.
Having cognitive flexibility will, for example, enable you to learn quickly when a company implements a training program to reinforce a worker’s skills.
In a nutshell
Skill obsolescence has a negative effect on company growth. We therefore need to institute a corporate policy to strengthen employees’ technical skills.
For example, it will be a matter of offering them training based on softskills development. This will enable workers to make the most of their up-to-date skills, which will no longer be subject to skills obsolescence.
