Most organizations are currently reliant on cloud computing technology to power the workplace and how employees operate. From granting employees access to remote computers with higher configurations to hosting entire enterprise-wide software on virtual servers alongside sensitive data, cloud computing is basically how work from home is also possible.

It’s an important modern workplace skill that every employee needs to know about. They must know how remote access technology works, the security implications, and how to problem solve any situations that may arise.

Solution

Most organizations usually work with single cloud computing hosting providers, so it’s fairly easy to build training that helps employees understand how this cloud hosting service works, the do’s and don’t’s, and what to do in case of a breakdown or malfunction.

Alright, so this one is a little bit of a niche skill, but it’s an important modern workplace skill if your business or its services exist online in any form. Since most applications are cloud-hosted and operating over the web, the skill of a web developer is even more in demand right now.

We aren’t just talking about building websites that talk about your products or service.

We are talking about complete websites that are applications in themselves. Think about the Facebooks and LinkedIns, or that travel booking website that let’s you book and plan your entire visit from start to end on their platform including air tickets, hotel reservation, and even taxi services at the destination airport.

Let’s not forget how important a website is for SaaS-based companies who rely on generating highly qualified leads to excel.

Solution

Web-development is a vast concept. And this is partly due to the ever-evolving space and nature of web-development. Things are constantly changing, technologies are evolving, cyber security is becoming ever important. The solution is to build training to assist your web-developer in up-dating and upskilling themselves at all levels.

What’s even more important is to build some type of training that outlines how your existing website is built, giving future developers a good insight into how your website currently operates.

In the world of digital everything, reaching your audiences’ preferred digital hangout is paramount. However, this one is once again limited to a set of people within the organization who are responsible for the marketing communications function.

What makes training this function ultra-important is the fact that digital marketing and its practices are constantly evolving.

Adding to this is the fact that companies like Google who rule the digital marketing platform, keep changing their services and updating their algorithm which makes being updated very important. A very important modern workplace skill for both sales and marketing employees.

Additionally, digital marketing is a vast science and art. The science is understanding how technology works like websites and advertisement programming, and art is understanding how content is created and promoted to make a difference.

Solution

Just like web development, digital marketing activities carried out over time needs to be recorded and stored for all future marketers to understand. This helps transitioning employees into the new marketing roles faster. Also, as technologies and processes change, training to stay updated on all progress is important.

Artificial intelligence or AI is the technology of the future. And slowly but surely, it is creeping into all job functions. Contrary to what some people say, AI is not here to take over human jobs. Rather, AI is here to assist employees in improving their jobs and think about all those possibilities that the human mind is unable to compute and consider.

When you look at AI from this point of view, it’s clear that understanding how AI can play a part in improving your job function is important for you to understand and bringing this information over to your employees is very important.

AI can make the job of almost any employee much simpler, as long as the technology for it exists. In most cases, it already does exist which makes it a very important modern workplace skill for employees.

Solution

AI causes fear in the minds of many employees. Especially because of misleading information that paints AI as the all-evil technology that’s coming for your job and waiting to replace you. Helping your employees understand that AI is not this evil force, but rather it is here to assist them is a good place to start.

Follow this up by explaining to employees how this technology will help in performing their job function better and provide them with training that helps them better use the currently implemented AI technology.

Everybody knows that blockchain technology is how bitcoins and cryptocurrency in general works. However, what very few know is that blockchain technology is a great way to ensure data privacy and encrypted data transfer. This makes it the go-to technology choice for banks, hospitals, and government bodies.

Having a team of blockchain developers is very beneficial for the period ahead as this technology is a good answer to helping organizations process massive loads of data that needs verification, encryption, and decryption. If you’re talking about an important modern work skill which is trending, you cannot miss blockchain technology.

Solution

It pays if the teams involved with this technology are well-versed with database management, encryption technology, cryptocurrency generation, and blockchain development. Keep in mind that this technology is revolutionizing the way businesses of the future will operate and so it’s important to invest in this training.

Here’s another topic that is ever so relevant in 2022. This one is a double pronged problem. Not only do your IT team need training to improve their data security skills, but all of your employees need to understand the importance of data breaches and IT security. Not only is it an important modern workplace skill for your IT teams, but it’s important knowledge for every employee with a computer.

A 2021 research revealed that more than 90% of all security breaches at an organization are the result of uninformed employees clicking on malicious links.

As a result, it’s very important for organizations to keep in mind that employees need training. Training to understand how their seemingly harmless actions can lead to huge financial losses, and how to spot and prevent potential security breaches.

Solution

Your IT and security team definitely need training around how to stop and prevent malicious attacks. However, general employees need training around this topic as well. Conducting compliance exams which train employees on how to spot malicious attempts is a good place to start.

You can also host other training which revolve around ‘how to safely’ or ‘not’ using any social media platforms at work. Or how using any other device other than that provided by the organization is strict no-no. Don’t forget to build your IT team’s skills as well, after all they are your first line of defense.

Just like AI, automation testing is quickly becoming the go-to choice for testing applications and software that are in the development phase of their lifecycle.

Software testing is one of the most important stages in the product development phase of any application or software.

Prior to automating test functions, development teams relied heavily on manual testing methods which were time consuming, prone to errors, and tedious, especially when the need to test functionality after every update was a regular process.

Automation testing when compared to manual testing is a completely different ball-game where testers need to possess immense coding skills and the ability to build entire frameworks that can test each functional aspect of an application or a software.

There are many tools to automate the testing process and the best tool for the job keeps changing as newer automation applications are built.

Learning which tool to use for a specific task, how to correctly automate all aspects that can be automated, and ensuring that the machine is working correctly is what an automation training module generally encompasses.

Solution

From software testing to marketing and many functions are currently using automation tools to simplify testing. It’s best to start by first determining what type of automation technology your organization plans on implementing within the near future and then start building training accordingly.

It’s safe to say that most software developers will automate some function of their product testing within the coming years and so automation training will definitely pay-off if taken seriously.

According to a 2021 research, the most number of online courses taken in the year was related to sales training. We frankly think that selling will always be the number 1 most important modern workplace skill! And the amount of money spent across the world to train sales employees just shows how important sales is as a modern workplace skill. For reference, a research stated that 83% of all corporate training was with regards to becoming better salespeople.

As a result, it’s safe to say that selling is still one of the most important modern workplace skill sets to develop in an employee at any organization.

Add to this the fact that most of the selling has now gone global and is performed remotely. This means employees need to learn a slew of tools like conferencing tools and emailing tools in addition to being able to carry out effortless sales presentations online.

All of this puts great pressure on sales employees to improve the game and training is one way to do this.

Solutions

Building sales training courses around how to conduct presentations, negotiating, and closing deals is a good place to start with sales training. Sales is a process that is improved with practice. The best way to ensure your employees get regular practice is by conducting practical training that replicates the actual selling process.

Finally, the last and most important modern workplace skill for many employees is customer redressal. In a world where customers expect nothing but the best, customer redressal training is something that most organizations cannot take lying down.

When almost all the services and products are similar in nature, it often comes down to how good the customer service and redressal function is. Customers use reviews and ratings left by other users before making a purchase decision and this is something that every organization must remember.

Concluding