FILE PHOTO: A woman uses her mobile phone and computer at a cafe in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
“I didn’t even code prior to this program, and now every time I get to use my coding skills like Python, I do a little happy dance,” Miller said.Digital upskilling is not new: Amazon announced a $700 million initiative to boost the digital skills of its workforce last year. PwC rolled out its own $3 billion program, and a flurry of other corporate giants from Nationwide to Home Depot to IBM are all doing the same.
It stands to reason that equipping employees for the digital world would have positive bottom-line results. According to PwC’s Global Digital IQ survey, 86% of top-performing companies reported that digital training programs boosted employee engagement and performance. The real challenge in digital upskilling lies in execution, especially if you are talking about large companies with thousands of employees. Making an entire workforce digitally savvy, especially when the latest technologies are changing all the time, is a bit like herding cats.A lot of employee learning just does not get done because the task can seem so massive and daunting.