Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 11 "They have the foundational skills, now we need to contextualize it, so they see how to apply that… It's not that much work because you're not teaching the foundational piece," he says. "People are a lot more resilient than we often realize; they are capable of learning. You don't stop learning when you're 22 and you graduate from university." And when it comes to upskilling, it's incredibly important to make this a tailored plan, says McClellan. "You always have to start in your strategy and your surrounding. So, what is your competitive landscape? What is your regulatory landscape? What is your labour landscape? What does all that look like? What is your strategic vision for your organization? And what are the capabilities from a broad perspective that are going to make you distinctive and succeed in the market? And then work from there on those individual divisions and departments." It's about looking at an organization with a total talent architec ture mindset and making sure that the talent strateg y supports business level of skill and training, she says. "You are essentially paying too much in that role and that particular person is getting frustrated because they're doing activities that are not matched to their skillset; they could be doing much more strategic things… so that mismatch is creating a productivity lag as well." In hiring, employers are not really thinking about skills of the future, says McClellan. "When they're replacing particular people, are they wanting to hire people w ith differen t b ehavio u rs, w ith different digital skills, with more analytical skills as they go forward so that they can evolve the organization?" she says. "I'm not seeing organizations do that ver y proactively at this particular point, although they are starting to move in that direction." Often, job ads list particular technical skills when they also need foundational s k i l l s , s u c h a s t h e a b i l i ty t o communicate or to go above and beyond. For example, a tech company looking for salespeople might be surprised to learn that a car salesperson can do the job, says Gupta. planning, says Levesque. "You always need to look at where the company's going to go, what are the pillars of the company and what does the company need to develop?" he says. "You need to look at the departments, so 'Where can we automate to create value, and how do we upskill the people to still be relevant?'" HR's role in skills development There's a need, from a societal perspective, to do a better job at matching people and capacity within our economies, with the skills that are needed for the future. To solve the problem, there needs to be a number of different stakeholders coming together, meaning businesses, post-secondary education, not-for-profit organizations, government, unions and individuals, says McClellan. "We all need to be looking at the problem of upskilling and the issue of upskilling together, because we all have a role to play in that agenda." And HR has a role to play in helping to facilitate that, she says. "It's a huge opportunity for our HR functions across Canada and the globe to move into that strategic role and be seen as a real strategic partner." HR owns the data on people, so it should be helping to drive the organization forward, says Levesque. "They have incredible power, because they know which departments are doing well… They should be the one driving talent and helping companies make those decisions." CHRR "It's a huge opportunity for HR functions across Canada and the globe to be seen as a real strategic partner." Jean McClellan, PwC

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