Amid rapid technological change, reskilling is the key to success

Using Standard Chartered’s powerful internal talent recruiting platform, Talent Marketplace, was an eye-opening experience for Agnieszka Kozuch from Poland. The platform allowed her to go beyond her specialisation and explore internal positions that stretched her skills while she took on new tasks and challenges.

“I feel everyone should start their day on Talent Marketplace to explore the wide range of roles available. I had experienced a similar tool in a previous organisation, but it was not automated, customised, or updated with the latest opportunities; rather, it was based on an Excel sheet,” said Kozuch.

Over in India, Chiranjivi Paudel had found it increasingly hard to hire external talent and relied on the bank’s proprietary platform to recruit internal candidates who could expand their knowledge while honing new skills in a relatively familiar environment.

“Talent Marketplace benefits a large organisation like Standard Chartered by retaining the diverse talents and skills we have in-house and connecting talents to opportunities efficiently. This can help motivated individuals upskill and forge a new and exciting career path without leaving the bank,” Paudel remarked.

These sentiments are echoed by many other users of Talent Marketplace and reflect the bank’s years-long effort to attract and retain employees with on-the-job training and practical experience as global economic uncertainties and new technologies, like AI, challenge existing employment models. The World Economic Forum predicts that one in seven jobs will be disrupted or disappear by 2030 owing to rapid technological change, and global organisations are paying attention in a bid to retain valuable employees.

According to Standard Chartered’s Resetting Globalisation: Catalysts for Change 2023 report, an increasingly skills-based approach is enabling businesses to rethink the traditional construct of ‘jobs’ as well as organisational and geographical boundaries. It is tapping into the potential that lies in upskilling and reskilling at scale, supported by a strong learning culture.

A skills-based approach has the potential to drive greater equity in the workforce. It can also help unlock more diverse talent pools, where the skills gained through experiences (and not just educational background or previous jobs) define future potential and deployment opportunities.

The same report also highlights research from Deloitte, which found that around 70% of CEOs cite the skills shortage as a top external challenge and think that workers are not reskilling fast enough to reap the benefits of new technologies.

It is not only the C-suite making this observation. Employee surveys also show that one of the top priorities for many employees in our Transformation, Technology and Operations function is gaining new skills in a marketplace where technology is rapidly changing.

Platforms like Talent Marketplace are good examples of how global organisations are embracing technological change and putting it at the forefront of employee development, driving the push to become a skills-based organisation. When enrolled in Talent Marketplace, employees can bid for work and practice new skills that can take them in a completely different direction than they may have imagined.

For instance, we see trainees stretching their competencies through the internal search portal, which connects them to short-term gigs. This portal offers individuals a chance to learn and develop new skills or put recently acquired skillsets to the practical test. 

In fact, the platform is quickly gaining traction, with roughly one-third of the over 80,000 colleagues eligible to use it already registered, up from a quarter in 2022. 

“While training and development programmes require a significant investment from organisations, the ability to retain and redeploy individuals with a pre-existing working knowledge of internal protocols and processes often translates into a significant return on the initial investment.” -Gill Rees, Global Head of HR, Transformation, Technology & Operations, Standard Chartered.

Additionally, as part of a push to recalibrate and enhance skill sets, Standard Chartered has also built aXess, our in-house training academy. Located across five key locations, these in-person training facilities provide up-to-date curricula that revolve around classroom and virtual learning. 

Designed by engineers for engineers, the topics for study range from adopting AI to sustainable finance to Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing as well as data analytics. Next year, the bank plans to double to eight the number of days per year employees can set aside to attend these training modules. 

While training and development programmes require a significant investment from organisations, the ability to retain and redeploy individuals with a pre-existing working knowledge of internal protocols and processes often translates into a significant return on the initial investment. 

Korn Ferry estimates that the global skills shortage could lead to as much as US$8.5 trillion in potential revenue losses by 2030 and that by the same year, as many as 85 million jobs could go unfilled because there are not enough skilled people to take them. Equipping employees with the skills they need to meet this rapidly evolving marketplace is vital.

READ MORE: The gig economy: Balancing fairness, sustainability and untapped potential

With Standard Chartered’s global reach straddling high-growth regions like Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and rapid technological change afoot, it is more important than ever to have an engaged, technologically savvy workforce. As a bank committed to driving commerce, prosperity, and economic inclusion in our dynamic core markets, we are equally committed to helping employees realise their full potential and investing in local talent to develop the skills necessary to spur continued economic growth.

About the Author: Gill Rees is the Global Head of HR, Transformation, Technology & Operations, Standard Chartered.