与机器人共舞：如何在自动化时代与科技竞争

随着机器人、人工智能、机器学习在内的科技和其他力量逐渐改变工作性质，雇员们将需要通过掌握新技能来适应不断变化的职责。调研公司Gartner预测，定期学习新技能、参加新培训的雇员将比那些靠经验或阅历的雇员更受公司的重视。但新技能的学习并非易事。

世界经济论坛《2018未来工作》报告预计，到2022年，超过半数（54%）的雇员将需要对技能进行大幅更新或参加再培训。如果要迎头赶上，超过三分之一（35%）将需要约6个月的时间，而近五分之一的员工则需要一年的时间或更多的额外培训。

雇主在这一方面可能发挥不了太大的作用。咨询公司德勤2019年全球雇主调查显示，86%的受调对象将“学习和培养改善”的需求评为“重要”或“非常重要”。但仅有10%的受调对象认为已经为解决这一需求做好了准备或“做好了充分准备”。2018年Gartner的报告发现，随着众多企业受到数字转型的影响，仅有20%的雇员拥有当前和未来工作所需的技能。

对于那些对自己今后就业前景感到担忧的员工来说，他们在努力方向上存在着不少疑问。

常驻弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的Gartner人力资源研究业务负责人布莱恩·克洛普称：“几乎在所有工作中，人们所需的技能每5年就得更新一次，而且我们完全有理由相信，这个时限会进一步缩短。”那些异常看重自己今后就业前景的雇员则必须依靠自己来确保自己在人才市场中的紧俏性。

寻找关注点

Job-Hunt.org发行人、职业专家苏珊乔伊斯说表示，一开始，人们只需通过招聘广告来发现新兴岗位所需的技能。Job-Hunt.org是一家总部位于马萨诸塞州马尔堡的求职网站。她指出，随着某些工具和科技在特定领域的使用率越来越高，使用它们所需的技能也将被列入某些职务的技能清单。她说：“如果当前要求的某些技能在一年前并未出现过，这就是一个信号。”

她还表示，同样，查看自己所在领域科技提供商的新成果也可以帮助你与时俱进。例如，如果你在人力资源部门工作，关注绩效管理平台或求职者跟踪系统的发展情况，可能有助于你了解应更新哪方面的技能。

伦敦保险咨询公司Willis Towers Watson的未来工作报告全球负责人特雷西·马尔科姆表示，很多新技能都位于数字领域。她说，因此除了掌握科技本身之外，人们可能还得学会利用这种科技来进行工作。

世界经济论坛报告称，科技设计和编程的需求越来越大。马尔科姆表示，然而并非所有人都得成为数据科学家或编程高手。人们手头现有的软件或云平台上可能就存在基于人工智能的工具，以帮助人们发现生产力改进或自动化机遇。她说，人们有必要学会使用这些工具并与其互动，然后阅读、理解和应用它们所提供的数据。

她说：“随着我们寻求利用不同的科技来衡量员工的绩效表现，我们实际上就需要采用非常超前的思维模式。”

马尔科姆还表示，学会适应数据并不仅仅是查看界面或数据表格。人们需要异常熟悉与工作相关的数据，这样人们才能够进行假设和情景规划。例如，当人们发现生产力出现下降时，或者自己并没有完成其他指标，人们就需要审视数据源和可能对结果造成负面影响的情景，然后思考可以通过改变哪些事物来改善业绩。

软技能也很重要

除了对科技、数字和数据的敏锐度之外，职场对软技能的需求也将逐步攀升。劳工人种学者卡拉·艾瑞克森指出，有鉴于职场环境的快速变化，以及计算机让工作变得更加直接，更注重事实的现象，与同事沟通、合作和有效共事的能力将变得至关重要。艾瑞克森是爱荷华州格林内尔学院的社会学教授。

艾瑞克森说：“我觉得，人们应该培养的能力包括：做好团队成员的能力，预见能力，以及在突发事件中从容应对复杂局面的能力等。”

除了成为精通技术的“同事”之外，雇员还应有能力灵活地应对充斥着更多承包商和临时员工的职场。

世界经济论坛的报告预测，到2022年，职场对“人际”技能的需求将高涨，例如创意、原创性和首创性、批判性思维、说服和协商能力。情商、复杂问题解决能力以及灵活性也是十分重要。人们在参加研讨班、培训、辅导以及开展其他类型的技能培养时不应忽略上述领域。

做好成长的准备

克洛普和他的团队预测，到2024年，64%的常规性管理任务，例如填写开支报告、监测仪表盘等等，将被自动化取代。成功的雇员将利用新出现的空余时间来专注于高价值活动。毕竟，科技总是要实现其自身巨大价值，并将员工从机械任务中解放出来。克洛普说，但员工必须明智地使用这些时间。

他说：“因此，人们不妨审视一下，自己的哪些工作能够在实际当中提供洞见、理念、新方法、新解决方案，或者审视一下那些自己首次尝试做的事情。人们得问自己：在获取技能、能力、知识方面，哪些事情是力所能及的，而且这些技能、能力、知识有助于自己关注那些能够带来更多洞见的事情，而不仅仅是完成任务。”如果你知道这个问题的答案，你就会找到那些最不可能因为科技而被淘汰的领域。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

As technology, including robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other forces change the nature of work, employees will need new skills to adapt to shifting roles. Research firm Gartner predicts that employees who regularly update their skill sets and invest in new training will be more valued than those with experience or tenure. But it’s not going to be easy.

The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs 2018” report estimates that, by 2022, more than half (54%) of employees will require significant skills updating or retraining. More than one-third (35%) will need about six months to get up to speed, while nearly one in five will require a year or more of additional training.

And employers might not be much help. A 2019 global survey of employers by consulting firm Deloitte found that 86% of respondents rated the need to improve learning and development (L&D) as “important” or “very important.” But just 10% felt ready to “very ready” to address that need. As digital transformation affects so many businesses, a 2018 Gartner report found that just 20% of employees have the skills they need for their jobs now and in the future.

For workers who are concerned about remaining marketable, this raises a number of questions about where they should invest their efforts.

“In almost every job, you need a different set of skills than you did five years ago, and there’s no reason to believe that number’s going to get smaller,” says Brian Kropp, the Arlington, Virginia-based chief of human resources research at Gartner. Employees who are serious about remaining marketable must take it upon themselves to remain in demand in the marketplace.

Finding the focus

Identifying skills with emerging demand can begin with simply keeping abreast of job ads, says career expert Susan P. Joyce, publisher of Job-Hunt.org, a Marlborough, Mass.-based website for job seekers. As certain tools and technologies become more widely adopted in a given field, the skills required to use them are going to be listed as requirements for certain positions, she says. “If something’s required now that wasn’t a year ago, that’s a sign,” she says.

Similarly, watching new developments from technology providers in your sector can also help keep you ahead of the curve, she says. For example, if you work in human resources, keeping an eye on how performance management platforms or applicant tracking systems are evolving may help you spot where you need to upskill.

Many of those skills will be in the digital arena, says Tracey Malcolm, global leader, Future of Work, at Willis Towers Watson, an insurance and advisory company based in London. So, in addition to being comfortable with technology, you’ll likely need to become comfortable working with technology, she says.

The World Economic Forum report says that technology design and programming are increasingly in demand. But, not everyone has to be a data scientist or coder, Malcolm says. You may have A.I.-powered tools operating within your existing software or cloud-based platforms to help you identify productivity improvements or automation opportunities. You need to be adept at using and interacting with those tools, and then reading, understanding and applying the data they provide, she says.

“As we look to have our performance augmented with different forms of technology, that is going to require us to actually think in very forward-looking ways,” she says.

Getting comfortable with data isn’t just about looking at dashboards or spreadsheets. You need to be conversant enough in the data that relates to your job that you can think about hypotheses and scenario planning, Malcolm adds. For example, when you see that productivity has slowed or that you’re not meeting other metrics, you need to be able to think about the sources of the data and circumstances that may have affected the outcome, then think about how various changes could improve results.

Soft skills matter, too

In addition to technology, digital, and data acumen, soft skills are also going to be increasingly in demand. As workplace environments experience fast-paced change and computers add a more straightforward, just-the-facts element to work, the ability to communicate, collaborate, and effectively work with others will be essential, says labor ethnographer Karla Erickson, a professor of sociology at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.

“Being a team member, being able to anticipate, moving smoothly through complexity when the unexpected arises, those are the kinds of tools that I think people should be working on,” Erickson says.

In addition to technology-based “co-workers,” employees are also going to need to be flexible to accommodate workplaces that include more contractors and contingent workers.

The World Economic Forum report predicts great demand by 2022 for “'human’ skills such as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation.” Emotional intelligence, complex-problem-solving, and flexibility are also important. Workshops, training, mentorship, and other forms of skills development shouldn’t overlook these areas.

Get ready to grow

Kropp and his team estimate that, by 2024, 64% of typical managerial tasks—filling out expense reports, monitoring dashboards, etc.—will be automated. Successful employees will use that newfound free time to focus on high-value activities. After all, this is technology fulfilling its great promise and untethering workers from rote tasks. But workers must use that time wisely, Kropp says.

“So, you want to be looking at what you do within your job that actually generates insight, generates ideas, new approaches, new solutions, things that are tried for the first time, and you need to ask yourself the question, what are things I can do within myself, in terms of developing skills, capabilities, knowledge, that helps me focus on those things that are more insights, rather than tasks?” he says. When you can answer that, you will have found the areas least likely to be eliminated because of technology.