Exploring the Digital Skills Gap in 2024

The digital skills gap is real.

Last year marked a significant shift in how organisations worldwide embraced technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to PwC’s 2023 report,[LM1]  31% of respondents believe AI enhances productivity and efficiency at work, indicating a growing willingness to adapt to the AI opportunities.

However, this enthusiasm comes with concerns about AI-generated content being biased, plagiarised, misaligned with brand values or just plain wrong.

Additionally, fears of job losses due to AI automation remain a real fear amongst end users, who likely see it as a threat rather than an opportunity to be more productive, efficient etc.

Forbes reports that 93%[LM2] of UK organisations face an IT skills gap, a statistic that cannot be ignored.

With many organisations acknowledging that lacking digital skills does impact results, which means that this has become a critical factor for organisational success.

The question is how to support digital upskilling to bridge this gap.

What is Digital Skills Gap about?

It is largely about literacy.

Digital literacy referring to the ability to successfully use and understand digital technologies.

It involves navigating, evaluating, and creating information using digital devices and platforms.

Being digitally literate is not just about using technology; it also requires a fundamental understanding of its benefits and responsible use.

Consequences of Digital Illiteracy

Digital illiteracy can have several negative effects on an organisation:

·       Inefficient use of digital tools can lead to slower processes and reduced productivity

·       Poor online security practices may expose the organisation to cyber threats, such as phishing attacks and data breaches – 80% of data beaches are triggered by end users

·       The persistence of outdated business practices can hinder the adoption of more efficient and modern workflows

·       A lack of digital support may put an organisation at a competitive disadvantage compared to more tech-savvy competitors

Consider for a moment the person using Microsoft Excel who spends large amounts of time scrolling up and down spreadsheets of data due to not knowing about freezing panes to keep the top row visible.

Or the individual who manually spends time moving emails to individual folders because they are unaware of how to create rules.

These two examples could equal hours of lost time per week, month and year.

Benefits of Digital Literacy in the Workplace

Creating a digitally literate workforce can significantly impact the organisation:

·       Protecting Client Data: Cybersecurity breaches cost mid-to-large UK businesses £8,040 annually. Cyber awareness training is essential to defend against cyber-attacks.

·       Increase Productivity: remove manual processes to allow people more time for business critical tasks

·       Satisfaction and Retention: investment in people, making their lives easier at work through technology can help to increase satisfaction as well as the retention of talent

Not Rocket Science (although there is a shortage here too!)

This is about giving people access to the knowledge needed to really understand how to use the tools at their fingertips.

30 seconds being shown how to freeze panes in Excel, or 2 minutes on how to create rules in Outlook could transform individual capability and save 100 times that in wasted minutes and hours of effort.