THE SKILLS REVOLUTION: DIGITIZATION AND WHY PEOPLE AND TALENT MATTER WE ASKED 18,000 EMPLOYERS Rarely a day goes by without news of digitization, artificial intelligence and virtual reality impacting the workplace. IN 43 COUNTRIES Business leaders, politicians and economists want to quantify ABOUT: technology’s impact on employment — but no one knows • The likely impact of automation on for sure what the outcome will be. Plenty has been written headcount in the next two years predicting the future: more jobs, different jobs, less jobs, even no jobs. But few are telling people that they will need • Which functions will be most affected new skills and they will need them more often to stay Q employable for jobs we may not even have heard of yet. • The strategies they are adopting to ensure they have the skills they need This report presents new findings with fresh insights on the for technological advances near-term. As world of work experts, we find work for 3.4 million people and have nearly 30,000 employees advising 400,000 clients on hiring decisions and skills development every year. We wanted to know how ready employers are for the Skills Revolution. We asked 18,000 employers in 43 countries across six industry sectors how they expect technology will impact their business in the next two years, and how they are ensuring their workforce has the right skills More than 90% of employers expect and is ready to adapt. their organization to be impacted in the next two years by digitization FASTER AND DIFFERENT: SKILLS DISRUPTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE Up to 45% of the tasks people are paid to do each day could 1 be automated with current technology. Of course we have adapted to the evolution of the labor market before — from tellers to customer service representatives, typists to word processors and personal assistants — disrupting, destroying, redistributing and recreating work is nothing new. The difference now is the life cycle of skills is shorter than ever and change is happening at an unprecedented scale. The impact may be hyperinflated today, but as the cost and complexity of implementing technology falls, the pace is set to accelerate. We need to be ready for the Skills Revolution. 1 Where Machines Could Replace Humans – and Where They Can’t (Yet), McKinsey (2016) Digitization and Why Skills and Talent Matter | 3