Scribd
Upload
13 views

The Essential Competencies For Digital Transformation

The document discusses essential competencies for digital transformation including learnability, agility, and curiosity. It also lists eight supporting competencies like drive to succeed, handling data, and virtual collaboration. Organizations can assess existing staff, address competency gaps, and modify recruitment to ensure candidates have these competencies.

Uploaded by

Ganesh V
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
13 views

The Essential Competencies For Digital Transformation

The document discusses essential competencies for digital transformation including learnability, agility, and curiosity. It also lists eight supporting competencies like drive to succeed, handling data, and virtual collaboration. Organizations can assess existing staff, address competency gaps, and modify recruitment to ensure candidates have these competencies.

Uploaded by

Ganesh V
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

The Essential Competencies for Digital Transformation

To survive in the digital future, organisations need a fluid structure, an agile culture and
employees who are ‘digitally-ready’ to cope with rapidly changing circumstances. Digital
readiness is not about being proficient with technology - it’s not about whether you can use
Excel or mobile devices - and it is not related to age. Every employee now needs the ability
to perform tasks, manage information, share knowledge and work with others in a digital
context.

Research by Aon highlights that three core competencies are now required in the workplace:
Learnability (the desire to develop and improve), Agility (the capability to adapt quickly and
effectively) and Curiosity (being open to change, and inquisitive and enthusiastic about new
approaches and initiatives). If your employees achieve a low score on these core
competencies, they’re unlikely to feel comfortable in a digital workplace. And if they’re
uncomfortable with their new work requirements, they’re unlikely to be effective in their
role. Digital readiness is ultimately about whether they’ll have a preference to work through
the means of technology.

Although these three core competencies are key, eight others are also important. These vary
according to the job in question. Depending on the role or the seniority of the position,
different degrees of competence in these areas will be required. These eight supporting
competencies are:

 Drive to succeed (proactively taking initiative and following through to accomplish    


objectives);
 Handling data (evaluating situations and analysing information to form data-driven
decisions);
 Strategic solutioning (solving problems creatively and balancing the needs of all
stakeholders);
 Business acumen (understanding the business and the needs of customers, and developing
new opportunities);
 Virtual collaboration (inspiring and interacting with others remotely, and working together
towards common goals);
 Digital communication (communicating, influencing and maintaining a rapport with others
via technology);
 Mental endurance (resilience and the ability to cope with pressure and setbacks);
 Coaching mindset (supporting the development of others and motivating them through
feedback and encouragement).

No matter how technology changes or jobs evolve, these competencies will help your
employees to adapt and thrive in a digital world. Some of them are new versions of
established competencies. For example, the ability to collaborate with others has always been
important in organisations. However, there’s a subtle but sizeable difference between the
behaviours and attitudes that are required to achieve this through technology, as opposed to
doing it ‘face-to-face’.

The good news is that your organisation can become ‘digitally-ready’ in two steps. Firstly,
you can use this competency model to assess your existing staff and put in place development
interventions that will address any competency gaps that your employees may have. Initially,
you could start by assessing your leaders and helping them to create development plans for
their own improvement. Senior managers should be the catalysts for, and role models of,
successful digital working. With the right development, you can build and cascade this
capability throughout your organisation.

Secondly, you can modify your employee selection process to ensure that you now recruit
candidates who are strong in these competencies. The essence of good recruitment is to
match the person to job. These competencies represent the success criteria for tomorrow’s job
roles, so it makes sense to integrate them into your competency framework and to recruit
against them accordingly.

One minor problem here is that these competencies and requirements are not easily measured
by conventional assessment processes. However, it is possible to assess them using a
modified personality questionnaire and a cognitive ‘executive attention’ ability test. Doing
this can reveal an individual’s proficiency in each competency, as well as their overall
strengths and their areas for improvement.

Success for any organisation is about attracting, developing, nurturing, engaging and
retaining the right employees. With this new competency model, you can secure your
organisation’s future in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world by
developing your staff appropriately and recruiting new, digitally-savvy employees.

You might also like