How to realign a skills mismatch?

According to a new report by City and Guilds and Emsi, 56% of organisations have difficulties meeting talent needs, with 28% of respondents pointing to skills mismatch as a reason for this challenge. The rate at which talent needs evolve - particularly in today’s fast-changing world - means it’s easy for employers, jobseekers and employees to fall out of step when it comes to skilling. Read on to find out how BeNext can help to address this skills mismatch and get your teams back on track. 

Quickfire Interview with Monica Lohani, HR Transformation Consultant 

Every fortnight we feature a top, highly-engaged BeNext learner for a quickfire interview on their experience of their program. Here, we speak to Monica Lohani. Monica is an HR leader with over two decades of progressive experience in building HR organizations that enrich human capital assets and strengthen business performance through Employee Experience, Talent Excellence and L&D. In her last assignment with Iris Software, she has driven strategy, operational excellence, people development and high performance culture as Director – Talent Management. She is now an HR Transformation Consultant with multiple organizations focusing on Leadership Development, Culture, Change & Diversity Management. Monica took part in the BeNext Design Thinking & Agile for HR Teams program, which is running again on June 28th. Click here to enrol. 

What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?

This being a tough year, the leaders need to set goals in short term sprints. They must acknowledge that bouncing back is not going to take place overnight. Also they need to be compassionate towards employees facing the hardships of pandemic and must not expect them to commit long term. However, keeping them constantly engaged while producing results is equally important. Thus, breaking down annual goals into short term realistic targets will keep them motivated and will also give opportunities to celebrate success with employees. Such small moments of celebration will go a long way in keeping the team together and positive. This way leaders will be able to manage their own fatigue too along with that of the teams.

How has your experience of the BeNext certification program empowered you? What have you enjoyed most? 

On completing this certification, I am certain that I’m more evolved as a leader and I have some greater insights on Design Thinking and Agile. The teams that I work with will gain enormously from this learning of mine. I liked the overall layout of the program and the immense learning imparted while using the concept of cohort. Amongst all the superb masterclasses, I have enjoyed Van’s session on Creativity the most as the first thing it did was to break the myth that everyone is not or can’t be creative. Next, it gave a good clarity on how to lead while promoting a culture of creativity.

 What is one book, article or podcast on leadership or the world of work you’ve enjoyed recently? 

The book that I enjoyed reading the most recently is Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt. This book provides the system that every smart leader craves for. The framework helps plan one's life in such a way that one will not face regret ever. It helps redefine your work so it works for you while leveraging your time and energy for maximum productivity.

 What is one innovation that you believe will transform the way we work? 

Artificial Intelligence is very promising. It can operate 24x7 without interruption or breaks and has no downtime! Use AI for routine and mundane tasks so that humans invest their energies, resources and time in doing intellectual work. They must use their brain power to carve out fine thought processes and sophisticated analysis. Humans will then focus on decisions and tasks requiring emotions and creativity which cannot be left to machines.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

In the race of life or in your journey to success, there are only two people – you and your yesterday self. Run only to do better than what you did yesterday. The steps that you take towards success may be small or big but never stop moving towards your goal. After a while, when you look back, you will find yourself several times better than what you were before. In between don’t forget to pause, excuse yourself from the race and do what pleases you. You have only one life, never miss an occasion to cherish it!

 Thank you for speaking with Monica! You can follow Monica on LinkedIn here.

What we're listening to...BeNext Radio Show

To download through Spotify click here 

To download through Apple click here 

To download through Google, click here 

Episode 6 of the BeNext Radio Show features an interview with GitLab’s Diversity & Inclusion Partner, Liam McNally. The episode is all about recruitment and hiring, and outlines some of the approaches this fully remote tech company takes in their values-driven, inclusion-focused processes as well as what the future of recruiting and hiring may look like for those still getting to grips with an increasingly hybrid world of work.

This episode also features insights from real BeNext learners and news of our upcoming programs. 

What we're doing…

Over the coming weeks, People Matters BeNext is offering a whole suite of Cohort-based certification programs designed to set your skilling strategy on a new trajectory:

Performance Management for Hybrid Teams - Enroll here 

Agile & Design Thinking for HR Teams - Enroll here 

Gender Balance: Promoting Women - Enroll here 

Webcast with Marc Effron, President of the Talent Strategy Group 

Ahead of the Performance Management for Hybrid Teams program, our Virtual Learning & Development Manager, Cindy Scholts, spoke with Marc Effron, President of the Talent Strategy Group, about what to expect from the course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evVrU7q5BQw

What we're reading…

The Journey of Inclusion for Self, Team, Organization Gender Balance - Promoting Women

In this article we hear from the BeNext Program’s Lighthouse Keeper Speakers across industries and sectors to see recommendations for accelerating women’s career growth within their organization. 

Recruitment & Hiring

A write-up of our conversation with GitLab’s Diversity & Inclusion Partner, Liam McNally on the tech companies remote recruitment & hiring practices. 

People Matters TechHR India 2021: The Great Emergence

Register your interest here for People Matters TechHR 2021 The Great Emergence 4th - 6th August 2021. A perfect opportunity for you to network with 2500+ delegates and discuss how HR continues its quest to become more digital, data-centric, and business-driven than ever before, with execution being at the core with speakers including Josh Bersin, Dr Amitabh Rajan and Sanjeev Sahgal.