What skills will set you apart in the age of automation?

Robots may be able to beat us at chess, but they still have trouble when it comes to soft skills — making sense of human behavior.

  • In a rapidly changing work world it's critical to continue evolving your skills — this is especially true as automation's presence in the workforce increases.
  • Robots are good at working off of knowledge that we already know, however, they aren't that great when it comes to developing original ideas.
  • Though robots are good at jobs founded on patterns and data points, they currently don't excel when it comes to soft skills — that is, they have difficulty dealing with human behavior. On our end, soft skills help us make sense of chaotic environments where the dynamic human element is constantly in play.
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BMO invests $78 million annually in employee learning—that’s $1,726 per employee

Future-minded companies are investing in soft skills and digital learning to empower their talent.

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  • BMO Financial Group just won a 2019 ATD BEST Award for Leadership in Corporate Learning.
  • BMO invests $78 million annually in employee learning, which in 2018 averaged out to $1,726 and 23.7 hours per employee.
  • The Fourth Industrial Revolution has begun. Future-minded companies are investing in soft skills or 'human skills' learning solutions for their talent.
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Create your breakout moment: Take risks to get the job you really want

By putting yourself out there and overcoming anxieties, you just might land your dream job.

  • When it comes to advancing your career, taking those first steps can be intimidating. Making a big move often incites anxiety and fear surrounding imperfection.
  • Sally Susman, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer, reminds that the pursuit of perfection can be the enemy of taking that next step. She urges us to express ambition and embrace rejection, which should be considered a temporary setback — not a death sentence.
  • Go for the bold move, whether that means moving to a new city or entering a new field. Taking the risk could lead to your breakout moment in your career.
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Why employees have the upper hand now more than ever before

Today, if a business wants to be successful, it should pay attention to employee fulfillment.

  • Employee satisfaction, as a concept, didn't emerge until the rise of the industrial economy and unionization. If employees were unhappy, management could predict a strike and stoppage of work.
  • Since then, the standard for management has been to consider employee engagement an accurate measure of satisfaction. Instead, research suggests the focus should be employee fulfillment: Do employees have the ability to reflect on and create meaning around their work?
  • Now, in the information economy, employees are often the means of value creation. This provides a unique advantage in which management must consider employee fulfillment in order to remain profitable.
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Study: most people would rather lose a job to a robot than a human

A surprising study reveals how people feel about being replaced by robots in their jobs.

  • Scientists in Germany find that most people would rather a robot replaced them in their job than a human.
  • On the other hand, most people would be upset if a robot took the job of a colleague.
  • People have different emotional reactions to being replaced by robots versus humans.
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