As organizations become increasingly digitized, the skills and services as we know them today will undergo a great transformation that will have huge implications on the future of work.

Businesses and people should be equipped to leverage new technologies coming to the fore and this is the imperative for Aboitiz Group President & CEO Sabin M. Aboitiz, as head of ‘Services and Trade’ for the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) Regional Economic Integration Working Group, in gathering global thought leaders and experts for the ABAC Public-Private Dialogue entitled Sharpening Your Edge: The Skills and Services of the 21st Century.

The race to provide faster and better services to more customers is definitely a heated one, but I believe the APEC region is ready and capable to secure a strategic position in that race.

– SMA

The virtual event, hosted by Aboitiz Group Chief Reputation & Sustainability Officer Ginggay Hontiveros, presented the panel sessions Services Transformation and the Future of Work and Upskilling and the Future Workforce. As participants in the discussions, Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI) Managing Director David Hardoon and Chief Human Resources Officer UnionBank Michelle Rubio shared perspectives from both Aboitiz Group practices and industry trends. Here are 5 key takeaways to explore:

1. 85% of jobs that will be available in 2030 don't exist yet.

Michelle cited that a vast majority of the jobs of the future don’t yet exist. With a widespread shift to remote working and the emergence of the gig economy, she noted that employees' expectations for more flexibility means organizations are searching for new strategies when it comes to hiring and retaining talent.

2. The technologies have always been here.

According to David, the technologies we use today have been around for quite some time. Instead, what is happening now is essentially the adoption of technologies with social, cloud capabilities, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, ESG and climate action. “With any one of these challenges, what we're seeing is the transformation and boom,” he explained.

3. Upskilling is not enough.

David asserts that while talent and skill-building are absolutely crucial, it should be supplemented with programs supported by an innovation and data-driven mindset within the organization. He adds that a data-driven thinking and innovative mindset is vital towards having the ability to respond to the business, environmental, social, and government requirements in unlocking new opportunities within the industry as well as across the underlying industries.

This was echoed by Michelle who point out the importance of having a culture of learning across levels and domains which constantly challenge processes and behaviors in order to find the best way to undertake work. “Organizations must engage their workers by promoting a mindset of adaptation, participating in continuous improvement or innovation, exercising learning agility by democratizing learning and open access to development,” she advised.

4. Leveraging and operationalizing advanced technologies is critical.

For David, it is absolutely essential that businesses create an enabling environment for experimentation and facilitate a culture that leverages on technology availability to ensure that the human capital and the organization is primed to navigate the transformation of the industry.

Moreover, ADI’s Managing Director stressed that companies must not fall into the trap of remaining in the experimentation stage but to effectively move up towards end-to-end application and deployment of new technologies—be it in the front office, middle office or the back office. “The operationalization of disruptive technologies such as DSAI to explore opportunities, emerging trends, and introduce new, out of the box ideas to challenge the status quo,” he concluded.

5. Promoting a multi-stakeholder approach towards different talent development stages.

Michelle believes that a crucial ingredient towards nurturing talents to become lifelong learners and ensuring a healthy human capital pipeline for business success can be achieved through a holistic multi-stakeholder approach which targets the different stages in the development of talents. These development stages include:

• Pursuing education partnerships to strengthen workforce preparedness to acquire relevant skills for employment
• Creating partnerships that strengthen experience-based learning through internships, OJTs, apprenticeships leading to employment
• The creation of industry networks or communities for knowledge-sharing, thought leadership, and avoiding a single-event mindset to produce continuous development at the professional level.
• Pursuing partnerships that provide access to mentors and new knowledge. She notes that UnionBank has gained access to the best digital talents in the country through successful partnerships.

The full virtual dialogue is available on the ABAC Philippines YouTube channel.