Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director, Vodafone UK
Even in a recession, the key to winning is learning.
In this our eighth Working Nation report we are talking about the skills needed to survive and succeed in today’s economy. The skills of individuals and the workforce collectively are rightly regarded as a key asset, both for a person’s own career progression and for the growth and success of the organisation as a whole. Indeed, in today’s ‘skills economy’ building and maintaining our skills base is seen as crucial to the success of the economy and the nation overall. Skills are therefore always a hot topic of debate and there is a deep and broad body of research into the area.
In light of the current economic situation, the issue of skills becomes more than an interesting academic question. It is a key challenge for organisations striving to balance costs in a downturn with investment for the future. Now that organisations of all sizes in all sectors are either considering or have already had to make difficult decisions regarding their people, terms such as skills deficit and talent drought become more than just management speak. Many of those we surveyed for this report are facing very real, very stark choices regarding the development and defence of capabilities at an individual as well as an organisational level.
With this in mind, and in line with the ethos of Working Nation, we asked ourselves what more can we do to produce something that was of real and immediate value to businesses and our customers. Specifically, we wanted to investigate how reorganisations of workforces are impacting companies’ skills base; what skills make the difference between surviving and succeeding in tough times; and what advice is available in managing costs without destroying skills.
Our research reveals that for all the talk of a skills economy, there is danger that the current recession is causing a retrenchment in thinking and a backward step away from investment in skills. The findings also highlight a number of blind-spots as managers and workers offer differing views of their ability to cover skills removed as a result of redundancy. We also reveal how women in particular are taking on more to cover skills gaps, and the growing tension between the need to take on a wider range of skills at a time when training and development budgets are frozen. My personal view is that investing in skills remains paramount. To succeed rather than simply survive organisations must continue to build their skills base – and this can only be done through the learning and development of the people in the business.
We have three guest contributors; Tony Manwaring, chief executive of not-for-profit think tank, Tomorrow’s Company; Gary Browning, chief executive of global HR consulting group, Penna Consulting; and David Fox, who is doing it all for real as chief executive and chairman of Midlandsbased manufacturer, Power Panels Electrical Systems. All three have helped us to draw insight from these findings and suggest a realistic way forward. I’d like to thank them for sharing their wisdom and their experience. We can all learn from their ideas and should be thinking about implementing them today.
As many people have said over the past months, this recession could be an opportunity for stealing a march on the competition that is too good to miss. The key to taking this opportunity is to continue to invest in learning. As ever, if you have any questions or comments, please write to me at peter.kelly@vodafone.com
Even in a recession, the key to winning is learning.
In this our eighth Working Nation report we are talking about the skills needed to survive and succeed in today’s economy. The skills of individuals and the workforce collectively are rightly regarded as a key asset, both for a person’s own career progression and for the growth and success of the organisation as a whole. Indeed, in today’s ‘skills economy’ building and maintaining our skills base is seen as crucial to the success of the economy and the nation overall. Skills are therefore always a hot topic of debate and there is a deep and broad body of research into the area.
In light of the current economic situation, the issue of skills becomes more than an interesting academic question. It is a key challenge for organisations striving to balance costs in a downturn with investment for the future. Now that organisations of all sizes in all sectors are either considering or have already had to make difficult decisions regarding their people, terms such as skills deficit and talent drought become more than just management speak. Many of those we surveyed for this report are facing very real, very stark choices regarding the development and defence of capabilities at an individual as well as an organisational level.
With this in mind, and in line with the ethos of Working Nation, we asked ourselves what more can we do to produce something that was of real and immediate value to businesses and our customers. Specifically, we wanted to investigate how reorganisations of workforces are impacting companies’ skills base; what skills make the difference between surviving and succeeding in tough times; and what advice is available in managing costs without destroying skills.
Our research reveals that for all the talk of a skills economy, there is danger that the current recession is causing a retrenchment in thinking and a backward step away from investment in skills. The findings also highlight a number of blind-spots as managers and workers offer differing views of their ability to cover skills removed as a result of redundancy. We also reveal how women in particular are taking on more to cover skills gaps, and the growing tension between the need to take on a wider range of skills at a time when training and development budgets are frozen. My personal view is that investing in skills remains paramount. To succeed rather than simply survive organisations must continue to build their skills base – and this can only be done through the learning and development of the people in the business.
We have three guest contributors; Tony Manwaring, chief executive of not-for-profit think tank, Tomorrow’s Company; Gary Browning, chief executive of global HR consulting group, Penna Consulting; and David Fox, who is doing it all for real as chief executive and chairman of Midlandsbased manufacturer, Power Panels Electrical Systems. All three have helped us to draw insight from these findings and suggest a realistic way forward. I’d like to thank them for sharing their wisdom and their experience. We can all learn from their ideas and should be thinking about implementing them today.
As many people have said over the past months, this recession could be an opportunity for stealing a march on the competition that is too good to miss. The key to taking this opportunity is to continue to invest in learning. As ever, if you have any questions or comments, please write to me at peter.kelly@vodafone.com
