Canadian HR Reporter - Ontario

CANADIAN HR REPORTER MAY 2018 NEWS 3 Having portfolio of human skills key to surviving automation: Report Critical thinking, social perceptiveness, persuasion among skills for the future BY JOHN DUJAY WITH an estimated 50 per cent of Canadian jobs expected to be af- fected by automation over the next few years, soft or "human" skills might be the best way for workers to buttress against job loss. at's according to an RBC re- port that examined 20,000 skills rankings across 300 job occupa- tions to come up with a new set of six future skills clusters: solvers, technicians, providers, crafters, facilitators and doers. "What we wanted to do is un- derstand skills: What are the core skills and how much will they be in core demand over the coming years heading into the 2020s?" said Mathias Hartpence, econo- mist and policy lead at the office of the CEO with RBC in Toronto. "We wanted to see if we can re- group occupations into different clusters based on connectivity or similarity of skill sets for differ- ent occupations," he said. "How do you allow people to upskill themselves, to transition some- times laterally or transversely? And this in contrast with more traditional siloed or vertical ca- reer paths." e report is intended to "cata- lyze the conversation, at the na- tional level, in terms of how do we ensure our youth and our workforce is fully prepared for the changes to come?" said Hartpence. The Humans Wanted: How Canadian Youth Can rive in the Age of Disruption report was created as part of the bank's Fu- ture Launch program, a 10-year commitment to help young peo- ple prepare for the future world of work. Hartpence and his team spent about a year on the report by start- ing with the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database, which is a "very elaborate system of ratings for skills," he said, and then map- ping the data back to Canadian occupations or job projections. "We're an aging country in terms of our demographics and then you're seeing these enor- mous technological shifts also taking place — digitization, auto- mation, AI (artificial intelligence), whose impact will be seen prob- ably even much more forcefully down the line," said Hartpence. Workers will need to cultivate a "portfolio of human skills" to survive the coming changes, ac- cording to RBC. Types of soft skills e report focused on a num- ber of skills of the future such as foundational basis skills, high- level critical thinking, co-ordina- tion, social perceptiveness, active listening and complex problem- solving, along with communica- tion skills — reading, compre- hension, active listening, writing and speaking — and social skills, social perceptiveness, co-ordina- tion and persuasion. Acquiring soft skills is a critical component of the future work- force, said Hartpence. "Skills is the DNA of occupa- tions, it's what ties occupations together and allows transitions from potentially one occupation to the other." In financial services, automa- tion and technological change is in full swing and employers have their hands full in managing that change, according to Jennifer Reynolds, president and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Al- liance (TFSA), which released the 2018 report Unlocking the Human Opportunity: Future-Proof Skills to Move Financial Services For- ward, based on a survey of more than 80 executives. "We're going to need different skill sets because it's going to be a combination of using the technol- ogy to better provide services and products, and make sure you're delivering on customer expecta- tions," she said. Industries such as the financial services sector are heavily auto- mated today and are exciting plac- es for young workers to consider a career, according to Reynolds. But besides the obvious focus on technology, future employees will have to bring soft skills to those jobs, such as emotional in- telligence, the ability to communi- cate well to influence people, and problem-solving, she said. And candidates are beginning to add these soft skills to their re- sumés, according to Randy Qua- rin, senior partner at IQ Partners in Toronto. CANDIDATES > pg. 12

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