Losing the fight to bring full digitisation to your office? Your SME could benefit from bridging the digital skills gap.
We are at a key point in history. Never before have we been so enthusiastically involved in the things we can produce with machines. We are moving through the fourth industrial revolution, where the workforce becomes as digitally versatile as possible. Word on the tech streets is that the next wave of digitisation will focus on VR, AI, and AR. With NFTs opening the discourse on real-but-digital products, how long do we have left before that digital skills gap in your SME becomes a gaping, unfillable hole?
The UK Has A Digital Skills Gap
That is a statement of fact. Think about it. When you designed your website, did you do it in house or did you outsource? Do you even have a website? If you don’t, you’re seriously behind. We are moving into a world where we need to worry about social media, onboarding, networking, software systems, and running a website, all while we are performing the daily tasks our small businesses need. It’s a nightmare. Without an IT department, we’re in trouble.
With this in mind, here are some tips for ways to tackle this skill gap without having to spend a fortune.
How to Bridge the Digital Skills Gap in Your Office?
If you want to tackle the problem head on, here are the best solutions for this growing problem.
1 – Hire New Staff
If you can afford to, a new member of staff could be a spectacular investment. Go to advertise cloud computing jobs on the Hays website and draw in a candidate who knows all about your networking and online needs. If you give them enough control over projects in their field, you will find they draw in more business than they potentially cost you in salary. The days of a whole IT department might be far in the future for SMEs, but one person with an excellent set of skills is worth their weight in digital gold.
2 – Study Up
There are a few computing classes available for free on the internet. Track some down and learn the skills yourself. If your time is more valuably spent on product creation or completing other tasks, you may want to skip this solution. Some of us don’t have a head for computing and that’s just fine.
3 – Outsource your Skill Needs
If all else fails, outsourcing is as good a solution as any. We are at the stage where most computing roles are easily performed remotely. This gives your SME the capacity to search for new staff all over the world. Where better to find someone with cloud computing skills than through the cloud?
Bridging this Gap Starts with Our Workforce
What this all comes down to is that we are responsible for bridging this gap. When all else fails, retraining or asking existing employees to retrain, is the best way to introduce these skill sets to our workforce. No matter how small the business, the future is as digital as the present. Let’s keep the ball rolling for future generations.