The future of work: start-ups for the digital transition – TRADUCTION

 

The future of working
strategies for the digital transition

The future of work is digital
strategies for a comfortable transition

1. Issues Deloitte – Agoria – VBO

2. Summary

3. Macroeconomic outlook

• skills, activation and productivity functions

Retraining to avoid cranking with open tap

Increased productivity due to better well-being at work

Development, of collective interest to citizens, businesses and policies

• jobs in the future, ongoing jobs

Call for digital experts and data stewards

Growing importance of killed data and human skills

Retraining, a new start with good defeats

Framework document “Be The Change” – Jeroen Franssen

• businesses and workers together on the path to a data-driven future

• ESA indicates sentence and amendment

A strategy for talent and development

The strongest candidates are often close to

Ensuring autonomy

Diversity and complementarity

• take it into his own hands

Learning as
a mirror gift to see the perspective

Deloitte – Koen Vanbrabant frame

• importance of collective efforts

• competence to ‘work together’

Doors are widely open

Talent Community

Central needs assessment

Specific development of the tender

• appropriate investment guidance for policies

Focus on low-skilled people

Investments rather than costs

Enabling proactive re-skilling pathways

Strengthening conditionality

VBO – Ineke De Bisschop, Joris Vandensteene

• Case study of: management data

Framework document

• a fall that may cause losses

• data quality supporters

• where are the stewards dates?

• who can be managed?

• growth Opportunities for a Data Manager

1. Introduction VBO – Agoria – Deloitte

“We cannot afford”

The war on talent is becoming more pronounced: with a job vacancy rate of 4.9 % – the 2th^highest rate in Europe – our companies have been striving for years to attract people. Businesses increasingly play an important role in shaping them.  Necessity, as it becomes increasingly difficult to find people with the required qualifications. But also due to the increasing pace of technological developments. Thanks to digitalisation, the energy transition and technological progress, lifelong learning must remain relevant – from the perspective of both employers and workers.

However, we note that there is still room for improvement. In terms of learning culture, but also in anticipation of the exact skills that will be needed and how we can do so. This will also prevent people from falling behind in these transitions, as their function would no longer be relevant and we can reskill them in a timely and appropriate manner. The situation is particularly urgent: we cannot simply afford not to make the most of all talents.

Together with Agoria and Deloitte, we want to anticipate this “skills transition”: how do we identify which functions will cease and which functions will become more important? How do we move as much as possible from A to B?  We make concrete recommendations for both businesses and individuals and policies and illustrate this through a case study. Education and lifelong learning are a key element of sound labour market and competitiveness policies. Our recommendations aim at a more holistic approach to skills transition.

Monica De Jonghe,
Director General of VBO and Executive Director of the Competence Centre “Work and Social Security”

“Retraining away from open crane”

Jobs disappear, new roles are created and almost all existing jobs are changing significantly in terms of content. We have clarified this through the Agoria Be The Change programme since 2018. These labour market analyses provide us with clear information on the future of work, sometimes contraintuitive, often difficult but always encouraging. Or what do you think that “for every job lost through automation is a triple example of new jobs created in a digitalised world?” “To reach 80 % of work in our country, our economy will have to operate at double speed”? You also find it encouraging that the demand for jobs exceeds the supply of people available to exercise them. This means that today we can offer jobs to all those who want to work.

Public authorities in our country do not put enough emphasis on gloves and what well-designed measures differentiate between work and work slightly larger. These measures mainly focus on activation. A legitimate cause for concern about shortages, but too one-sided. In order to avoid moving by open crane, we should not lose sight of the need to retrain tens of thousands of job-holders whose profiles are no longer in high demand. If we wait for their situation, they become unemployed. By focusing on the re-skilling of these profiles – such as auto-ecanicians becoming automotive technicians – we can keep them productive and sustainable. They retain their social role, revenues and contribute to our GDP.

Agoria is grateful for the fact that both VBO and Deloitte have taken into account the ‘Be The Change’ analyses and linked them to policy recommendations and a service offer. This will enable policymakers, citizens and businesses to become even more involved in the process of change.

Bart Steukers,
Managing Director of Agoria

“Inclusive growth is a priority” (English text already provided, see below)

The “Future of Work” is now at the top of the list of challenges faced by organisations, public authorities and policymakers. Together with the rapid increase in the use of robotics, cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence, does our demographic image force us to remember who does what, how, when and where do we work? Inclusive growth is a priority. We will need to focus on all our attention to help people become a sustainable part of our labour market.

In order to continue to ensure a stable, fair and productive society, many existing systems and bodies will need to be redesigned to better adapt them to the needs of businesses and their citizens. They will also need to continuously reinvent themselves. Like employers, they need to set up inclusive teams with workers, who should offer them flexibility and opportunities for growth. Of course, this must be in line with the expectations of society and the guidelines set out by the legislator.

Policy makers will also need to create a framework that facilitates quality training, new working arrangements and a comfortable business environment. A socially secure framework that ensures as much as possible that no one is left behind in this growth movement.

Yves Van Durme,
Global Transformation Leader, Deloitte Consulting

“Priority for inclusive growth”

The future of work is now one of the biggest challenges facing organisation, governance and policy makers. Demography, together with the accelerated use of robotics, cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence, are changing the way, time, place and who works.  Inclusive growth is a priority and special attention is needed to enable citizens to continue to participate in the workforce.

Recognising a stable, fair and productive society will be tantamount to reintegrating existing systems and institutions and realigning these systems with companies and workers. Citizens will need to continuously reinvent themselves, employees will have to negotiate changing societal and regulatory expectations regarding employee contracts and build and train more inclusive workforces. Policy makers will need to develop new ways of facilitating education, supporting new types of work and a more entrepreneurial economy, while providing social safety nets that can help people be left behind.

Yves Van Durme,
Global Transformation Leader, Deloitte Consulting

2. Summary

• The transition to sustainable digitalisation is ongoing and has a major impact on the labour market. For example, the demand for digital profiles and data will increase strongly in the coming years, while the demand for administrative profiles will decrease significantly and the content of the respective job will be significantly altered through automation.

• Digital and data skills will be an increasingly important part of a wide range of jobs. No job is completely excluded from the impact of digitalisation.  63 % of the profiles will require at least one professional level of application of data literacy by 2030.

• If we can easily complement digital and data jobs in the future, this will bring strong added value and therefore a financial injection for our economy. People with a profile that are expected to be less demanding are at risk of moving to unemployment. This development risks generating a substantial cost for the public sector.

• By proactively upskilling or reskilling workers based on digital and data, Belgium can anticipate and avoid costs.

• More than ever, now is the time to take your career into your hands.

• Organisations should develop upskilling strategies for all workers so that they can continue to use them sustainably.

• Governments best create an environment in which digitalisation and skills transition are best supported. An environment in which training can be used in a targeted and flexible manner. An environment in which training is considered an investment rather than a rigid obligation.

• An urgent role in almost all sectors, and in particular in the financial services sector, is driven by data. These employees understand the flow of data held by an enterprise and monitor their quality. Workers – especially administrative staff – reskilling into data managers will give organisations a competitive advantage. This specific example is an important source of inspiration for other functions and skills in different sectors.

• By turning the 100 % focus on a job into a principle of job diversity in the organisation of work, organise a certain degree of flexibility. This flexibility in the operation of each day leads to an advantage when people need to take on new roles or reskill in a rapidly changing economic context.

• Based on multifunctional teams, organisations can become more innovative and performant.

3. Macroeconomic outlook

3.1 skills, activation and productivity functions

Greater Automatisation and the strong digitalisation of the economy and society are reshaping the future of work.  Digital transformation, automation, robots and machines: they enable faster and more efficient work. This has a positive impact not only on our productivity, but also on the well-being of workers. Repetitive and dangerous tasks are automated and the real content of workplaces can be humanised in this way.

Such automation and digitalisation will bring about changes in content for many existing jobs. It also creates new opportunities, jobs and completely new roles. New skills are needed to enable people to seize the opportunities associated with the wave of automation and digitalisation and to make their role future-proof.  We would like to see in this publication the role that workers, employers and policymakers can play in ensuring a smooth transition.

Retraining to avoid cranking with open tap

Analyses show that if we do not face the extreme consequences of the current unstable situation, we can get around 2030 additional people to work by 350.000. This net increase in employment, which in any case implies a strong demand for activation of the unemployed, is supported by a much broader dynamic, a gross development. The baseline figures show that around 126.000 jobs will disappear and around 477.000 new jobs will be offered by 2030. Thus, the net job growth exercise in 351.000 can involve many more people than 351.000 people. In the worst case scenario, 126.000 people lose their jobs and enter long-term unemployment. This increases the challenge of activating others by 477.000. At a time when our country has the second highest vacancy rate in Europe.

On the one hand, we need to maximise the activation of inactive workers to meet major needs. On the other hand, we must act in a preventive manner and not leave people in danger of extinction. It is essential that they remain on board in a partially modified or new role.

Therefore, in order not to use the open crane, we need to reskill at an early stage those who fulfil a function that we know the relevance decreases rapidly to the profiles that will be requested tomorrow. If we fail to do so and 126.000 people become unemployed, in addition to stepping up the necessary activation efforts, they also increase the costs for society through our almost unconditional and indefinite unemployment benefits today. We cannot afford, in the given context, to allow people of working age who lose their relevance to social security.

Increased productivity due to better well-being at work

Another major challenge for a resilient Belgian labour market is linked to our productivity. This productivity – which can be achieved by a worker – is traditionally high in our country. Second place in the EU-27. But our productivity is no longer increasing and this is different from what has happened in the past, when our productivity has increased systematically. This is also different from neighbouring countries, where productivity is also under pressure but continues to grow steadily. Thus, stagnating productivity in Belgium is de facto a decline in our competitive position vis-à-vis our neighbours. And this happens at a time when markets are captured or redistributed, usually during crises or their waves.

For a good understanding: productivity growth cannot be seen as a synonym of “more difficult work”. Productivity growth will be achieved mainly by increasing comfort at work and reskilling people into high added-value profiles. This increase in comfort at work is of course very closely linked to efficient work in the workplace and independent of time. In addition, technological support plays a key role in professional well-being. These include software and mobile applications. But, for example, support through augmented or virtual reality. Finally, data-driven strategies should also underpin difficult decisions. Feeding data to smart applications – from data dashboards to autonomous systems based on artificial intelligence – will thus lead to better decisions and more efficient processes, thus increasing our productivity.

Development, of collective interest to citizens, businesses and policies

In addition to activating individuals and monitoring strong productivity, a third major challenge for the Belgian labour market is to encourage all individuals and organisations to continue education and, where necessary, proactive retraining. Skills are essential for sustainable careers and are essential to be able to work comfortably and efficiently. The Be The Change analyses show that none of the 100 profiles analysed will be future-oriented immune to digitalisation. Postal ushers and domestic carers will receive working instructions and digital planning. The AutomECanicians will become car technicians who no longer produce engine oil, but update the software for the electric car. A lawyer or radiologist will leave artificial intelligence the first assessment of a case or pathology in court.

Changing the content of jobs, changing new roles, changing and expanding markets, introducing new devices and tools in business processes: in each of these situations, new skills need to be developed.

1. This is important for the natural person if he or she wishes to remain relevant and therefore the citizen has a responsibility to do so.

2. This is also essential for companies to be competitive, to conquer markets, to launch new products, to operate more efficiently and profitably through new technologies.  Therefore, the company also has a responsibility to do so.

3. Finally, this has a major impact on our government. Because when there is an excessive mismatch between the skills needed and current skills, the risk of unemployment increases the risk of unemployment for many people. Unemployment is a cost for the public administration and less favourable to its citizens. Policy therefore also has a natural responsibility in these debates.

3. Macroeconomic outlook

3.2 jobs in the future, ongoing jobs

Many studies mention digitalisation as one of the main drivers for the creation of additional jobs by 2030. Greening and making our economy and society more sustainable is also mentioned. But there is also a strong job creation, which is complementary to the digitalisation and automation of processes. We consider – almost as a counterbalance, but certainly as a logical consequence – the need for profiles that are in close contact with individuals, citizens, patients, customers, students and for which a strong emphasis is placed on human skills.

The sectors with the strongest job creation expected by 2 030 are:

1. Business services

2. Healthcare sector

3. Construction

4. ICT

5. Wholesale and retail

6. Education

Demand for digital expertise and data managers

In the context of digitalisation, the Be The Change study estimates the need for additional digital experts to 45.000 additional profiles by 2030. This is a figure that adds to all replacements to be provided for, for example, by retirement. Of these additional profiles, 10.000 ICT digital experts are requested. This means that more than three quarters of the digital expertise we need will take on a digital role in a company with a different core business.

The new questions related to digital jobs mainly concern the following areas:

• CommissionAI data

• Cybersecurity ethics

• Infrastructure

Figures and practice show that administrative burdens are becoming increasingly automated. Data applications take up administrative tasks, such as auditing accounts, and execute them more quickly and efficiently. For example, in the financial sector, linking banks and insurers, 5.500 of these supportive and administrative jobs are expected to be outdated by 2030. This trend is not only observed in the financial sector, but also has a major impact on business, wholesale and retail, health and technology (-7200, -7000, -6100 and -4200 administrative jobs respectively). Around 56.500 people who simply support, are structured, processed or project-based will become available on the Belgian labour market in all sectors.

An assessment of the additional need for the broadly defined profile of the data directorate brings us to 7.600 additional profiles requested by 2030, spread across different sectors. In addition, in this publication, we focus concretely on the retraining of administrative staff who guide the data through a case study.

Growing importance of killed data and human skills

Increased automation and strong digitalisation will also bring new roles and change existing jobs. Analyses logically show that people in a digitalising world will need to acquire analytical and data-related skills, such as (1) knowledge on data collection and management, (2) knowledge of data visualisation and analysis, and (3) knowledge to make data-driven decisions. These skills are essential, but – again as a kind of counterweight – they will also become increasingly important social, emotional, short-lived human skills. These skills are especially essential for the roles in which people should be able to understand and explain how digital solutions work and how data contributes to better decisions and automation of processes. Think about the roles of business analyst, project manager, trainer, team instructor or customer faction officer.

Retraining, a new start with good defeats

The dynamics of job disappearance and increased demand for jobs as well as growing skills show that workers are actively preparing for these changes to remain relevant in their jobs. Even workers whose current job is at risk of complete disappearance still often have strong trunk cards.

These staff members usually have in-depth knowledge of the sector and the company they work for. This gives them more indents when looking for employers to complement the new roles the company needs. In a tight labour market, you can do this best with familiar people.

This seems to be increasingly perceived by businesses. In the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, around 72 % of business decision-makers called for “people’s ability to adapt, reskill and take on new roles” to cope with future disruptions. 41 % of these directors found that the most important forward-looking action was “increasing workers to a higher level through upskilling, reskilling and mobility”. The flag – and a trend we need to understand in order to reverse it – is that only 17 % of managers indicate that there is a strong willingness on the part of employees to adapt, retrain and take up new roles.

Frame with photograph and TBT
logo Processing in Chapter 3 or immediately thereafter

The section entitled ‘Macroeconomic outlook’ was compiled by the labour market expert of Agoria, Jeroen Franssen, in consultation with the other authors. Jeroen is the face of the Be The Change programme, which examines and anticipates the impact of major changes on our labour market. From a wide range of data on job losses, job gains and job change, he draws firm conclusions and presents innovative visions of “new ways of working, returning learning skills”.
More information available here: www.agoria.be/bethechange.

Figures for illustrative graphs.

Estimated number of jobs lost between 2023 and
2030 126.000 Estimated number of additional jobs created between 2023 and 2030 477.000 Estimated
net job growth 351.000

Profiles where the greatest job loss is expected:
Clerk – 53.000 manual
workers in production – 19.500
handling of logistical goods – 11.200 cashiers
, reception officers and shops – 7.000

Sectors with the highest share of total job losses (126.000)

1. Wholesale – Retail trade 16 %

2. Technology industry 11 %

3. Business services 10 %

4. Transport logistics 9 %

5. Public sector 7 %

Sectors with the highest share of job losses compared to the total number of jobs in that sector.

1. Technology industry will lose 5 % of total employment in the sector by 2030

1. 5 % of total employment in the sector will no longer exist in 2030.

3. Financial sector 4 % of total employment in the sector will no longer exist in 2030

4. Transport logistics will cease to exist 3 % of total employment in the sector by 2030

4. Life sciences 3 % of total employment in the sector will no longer exist in 2030

4. Traditional industry will lose 3 % of total employment in the sector by 2030

4. Citizens’ healthcare companies: together on the road to a digital future

• indicate sentence and change

We are facing many changes and are in the midst of favourable transitions, including in the fields of technology, digitalisation and energy. These developments have a significant impact on society in the broadest sense and thus certainly also on the economic structure and the labour market. Companies are working hard to engage in these transitions, but how do you fully engage with your staff in this story?

To illustrate this, I shall show as the ‘position of the data’. The first crucial step to get your employees to take on the data-driven narrative is to clearly explain why you want to become a data-centric organisation. This data can help your organisation to make better decisions and bring the experiences of clients and staff to the next level in various ways. It is important to feel with your staff.

Be more customer-oriented in terms of data. The data will help you to know your customers better.  Based on the data, you will clearly understand the needs of your clients. This will allow you to adapt the communication and offer of both products and related services.

Data allow activities and processes to be streamlined. The data will help you optimise your activities and processes. By collecting data on, for example, the supply chain, stocks, labour force planning and the state of the machinery fleet, organisations can monitor their processes, respond in a timely manner to demand, react to disruptions or even anticipate them.

Data can lead to better decision-making. We do not oppose the fact that human intuition often works fairly well, but data will increase the speed and consistency of the decision-making process.

A strategy for talent and development

A second step is to ensure that your current and future workers have the right knowledge and skills. You can make sure that employees, such as administrative staff, adapt their skills in different ways. This may require a move away from traditional visions and a more talent-based approach.

For an organisation in a labour market, characterised by tight and rapid changes, to thrive and remain competitive, it needs to make the most of its workers’ potential. This can only happen in a culture of opportunities for continuous development and personal fulfilment.

In a context of change, it seems almost natural to focus on external recruitments, based on a long list of high professional requirements. However, in a labour market where the number of candidates available is low and the skills landscape is changing rapidly, it is often unrealistic to immediately find people who meet all skills requirements. In addition, an average of six to eight months is needed for a new worker to reach cruising speed.

Therefore, in the current tense context of the labour market, an organisation chooses to better look beyond its traditional, idealised talent pond. This is a more sustainable approach to leave the ideal candidate, the haiberg condition, for what is also to attract people with whom you have a mutual commitment to personal development and flexible career paths. Only by hiring people from different backgrounds with good basic knowledge and a high degree of complementarity with other people in your organisation can you rely on a much better filled and oxygen rich talent pond with high potential.

The strongest candidates are often close to

As regards top candidates, organisations often operate literally on untapped potential. The strongest candidates for the new roles are often simply between their own staff members. Too often we refer to people here and from now on, to the role they play at that time and much less than their potential for growth. It has been clearly demonstrated that internal mobility has a positive impact on the motivation, retention and satisfaction of workers.

However, workers who wish to move horizontally through an organisation do not know how to do so in an acceptable way within the company. They often see new opportunities from another job or customer. It is up to businesses to highlight internal opportunities, offer tailor-made programmes for internal mobility and create a safe environment for staff to ask questions about growth.

This can be done, for example, through platforms for opportunities and talent. These platforms visualise and communicate opportunities for workers in terms of professional development, training, mentoring, project participation, networking, promotion, diversity and inclusion. These platforms aim to create an internal market that matches the skills and competences of the organisation.

Ensuring autonomy

An organisation can offer such a wide range of upskilling or reskilling initiatives to support its employees and ultimately the workers themselves must also be interested in acquiring new skills. In order to make lifelong learning a success, it is essential to address workers’ intrinsic motivation. Autonomy is essential in this respect. Enable people to take control and responsibility over their careers within organisational objectives.

Instead of encouraging top-down training, workers can make their own choices according to their interests and capabilities. Management guidance plays an important role in this respect. For example, 60 % of the decision making profiles of the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends (2021) indicated that leadership in coaching is important for motivator to prepare for what is about the future. The team coaches involved often have the best image of their citizens and their potential. They are therefore often best placed to draw attention to the opportunities that may arise from the development of new skills. They can also ensure an optimal parallel of individual growth paths and strategic business choices.

Diversity and complementarity

The best context for encouraging the development of workers is to work with roles. Unlike permanent posts, a staff member can play multiple roles, often spread across several projects. Roles are a less defined set of tasks that are smoothly shaped on the basis of the assistant’s skills and potential in relation to the other members of his/her team.

This avoids that workers feel trapped in a well-defined workplace. The ability to play multiple roles in different projects allows for a more personalised approach to the interests and potential of a staff member. For example, the role of data director, for an organisation starting with a data-driven policy, can easily be associated with a number of other roles, such as marker, CRM specialist or financial officer.

A practical tool to make this happen is, for example, the use of the 3 role principle as guidance in the organisation of tasks. In doing so, a staff member works for most of the time in his/her main role in the main project for which the person also has the ultimate responsibility (e.g.: analytical accounting). A more limited period plays a supporting role (e.g.: support for the development of an employee benefit plan) in another project that is sufficiently diversified since the first project. Finally, each staff member dedicates a number of days per year to innovation and develops a role for the future, in line with the business strategy (e.g.: data manager).

Companies should compress organisational structures where departments and functions are almost exclusively linked to similar profiles. An organisation could choose to set up multifunctional teams to complete a project in a complementary manner and with a certain autonomy and decision-making power. Creating teams where each member brings a different perspective, unique skills and other experiences can increase the potential of an organisation. Not only do these teams meet more creative ideas and challenge each other. They also move each other towards a common ultimate goal and will also learn from each other.

4.Citizens’ healthcare societies: together on the road to a digital future

4.2 take it in his own hands

Economanots are therefore characterised by rather rapid technological developments and increasingly rely on data. And the labour market is also changing. A linear career, a full career in the same position or with the same employer, is increasingly the exception. This may be due to undertakings which consider that the nature of their activities alters the nature of their activities in such a way as to create the need for different profiles. However, it is often the choice of staff who want to broaden their perspective, do not want to stifle or change their personal aspirations during their career.

Learning as a gift

In this context, it is also reasonable to anticipate the changes and opportunities they bring as an individual, employee or jobseeker and therefore allow you to further develop and strengthen your skills.  However, participation rates in training are rather low. Eurostat figures show that 10.2 % of all people employed in our country report who received training in the last month. This figure is lower than the European average (10.8 %), but it is significantly lower when comparing it with the Netherlands (26.6 %) or the Nordic countries Denmark (22.3 %), Finland (30.5 %) or Sweden (34.7 %).

It would be an enrichment of people, society and the economy if they were to become more evident in the life of Belgians if they were to continue to develop their own skills. Learning as an opportunity or gift for further personal and professional development and not as an imperative obligation. As many practical obstacles to permanent training as possible should therefore be removed. It should be accessible to all in financial terms. The offer must be of high quality, presented in different forms of learning and should also allow for a sufficient choice between day training, evening and weekends.

For the mirror to see the perspective

Every citizen, worker or jobseeker should regularly engage at the level of competence. Do I have a strong set of skills today? How will I change my job and what initiative can I take, what way to grow in this context? Where do I take responsibility and for which parts of my personal and functional growth do I say to my employer?

Ask you to raise the issue of competence in the context of personal aspirations or in the context of what your business wants to go. Create a perspective for you or you in combination with your employer. This is the key exercise. Because this perspective of the future leads to a much greater willingness to learn than if you need to learn to correct something that is not optimal today.

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To be processed in or immediately after Chapter 4

Chapter entitled "Citizens and Business: together on the path towards a digital and data-driven future "was compiled by Koen Vanbrabant in consultation with the other authors. Koen stands for xxxyyyzzz in his organisation Deloitte

5.Importance of collective efforts

5.1 competence to ‘work together’

Formareacontinue is a subtle interaction between the direction of a company’s development and the development opportunities and motivation of its citizens. However, in this context, it is necessary to look at a broader perspective than businesses and individuals. Continued education and reskilling also have a clear collective interest.

The labour market is characterised by a high need for highly skilled people. The inactive population we want to put into work is rather qualified. This mismatch can be solved by upward collective mobility in the labour market. If everyone were to reskill and work towards more robust qualifications, the need for highly skilled people is more likely to be met by the workers themselves. By changing these growing profiles, we are creating a new need that is somewhat lower in the labour-market scale. This access is much more realistic for those who are not currently active.

We are therefore all interested in upward labour market mobility. A number of ‘Nordic countries’, not specifically mentioning Denmark, have a much more dynamic labour market, where workers have a natural ambition towards more comfortable jobs, greater impact on work, high value-added contracts. This has made Denmark the most productive country of Europe in terms of labour.

In order to maximise the impact of the efforts of businesses and citizens, efforts are best combined. Collective efforts mean sharing investment and creating added value through expansion. This also means a wide opening of doors to each other, innovative in how we organise work and cross traditional borders.

Doors are widely open

Education institutions and businesses are still too often separated today. There is a need for intense convergence and investment in close cooperation. And the need for continuous interaction to shape demand-driven curricula. Stronger interaction between labour and education practitioners is also recommended. Structures and rules should be easily accessible and welcoming for business people in order to be able to actively share their practical experience with young people.

Moreover, educational institutions can become even more accessible to those who have graduated and are currently working, but who wish to retrain to update their knowledge. Educational institutions are best placed to open doors to professionals and provide them with an attractive range of short-term training components or micro-lessons derived from traditional curricula. As a type of maintenance contract for previously obtained qualifications, any learning offer must also include the demand for accessibility, both financially and organisationally, for example by focusing on digital or evening and weekend training.

Businesses are also best placed to open their doors on a large scale and on a large scale. A closer link between education and businesses should be transformed into broader apprenticeship opportunities to allow students to test knowledge acquired on the ground through long or repeated traineeships or dual learning pathways.

Such an intense form of cooperation does not only apply to enterprises in traditional education. We often forget the large group known as NEETs (not in employment, education or training), but who prefer to be UP, potentially unknown. This is why strengths are also best combined with initiatives of strong target groups, such as MolenGeek, BeCode, Girleek, Youthstart and other very valuable organisations, in order to reach all young people as best as possible and provide opportunities.

Talent Community

Both citizens and businesses need flexibility. An open-source talent community can help meet this need of both sides. Organisations and businesses working on similar objectives in different core activities can communicate their missions or projects within such a community. They may indicate the skills they need and their availability in these projects.

Jobseekers, students, self-employed, employees who want something else or something else, pensioners: they come together in such an open-source talent community and can highlight their skills, project experience, interests and availability on the same platform. The social or economic purpose of a community is the connecting factor that leads people to a particular community.

The continuous and short interaction between supply and demand, resulting in the rapid availability of well-trained staff. It goes without saying that this is a great asset in a context of rapid change. In addition, companies in such a talent community could also invest together in training and collaborative learning. In this context, it is possible to learn together under mentoring from a range of guidance experts, but also to learn peer-to-peer from each other’s rich experiences. This increases the luggage of people in the community and can help participating organisations share training investments.

Central needs assessment

It is also preferable to work more widely to clearly identify current and future skills and profiles needs. Develop a central measurement methodology and work together towards a simple common basis of understanding of the ways forward on skills, allowing for a clear and unambiguous public call for growth. It also allows sectors and companies to start a flourishing start with their detailed competences for the future exercise. If so, it should not leave an empty sheet. Finally, it allows policies to focus on those skills and reskilling pathways that are most relevant at macroeconomic level and to focus available resources on them.

Such a central needs assessment can be identified in the most effective way at national level and improved at regional and sectoral level. Of course, the regional level still has a key role to play in implementation. Indeed, there are levers and resources used. It is therefore up to the regions to determine the specific skills pathways and retraining pathways they will focus on. Where is the most beneficial region based on its typical activities? Or what are the strategic economic and societal choices for the future a region intends to make? What skill sequences do these options have? Therefore, the current regional exercise on the current blocking occupations is best extended to current skills, roles of the future and the most relevant reskilling pathways.

Specific development of the tender

While the focus on the evolution of skills and profiles is truly concrete only in companies, sectors and cross-sector level also need to reflect on their added value. To support the translation exercise of the demand for generic skills for more specific questions in their companies, sectors can best refine the central needs analysis. Through such more detailed sectoral analysis, they can encourage sectoral training providers or commercial training providers to develop the priority training offer.

However, the developments with the greatest impact, i.e. the biggest changes, are often not sector-specific but have a societal dimension. Think about digitalisation or greening and making it more sustainable. In order to reach these movements as much as possible, to learn to work together across disciplines on these developments, the cross-sectoral level also occupies the place in these debates. This level is the best level to bring together and optimise investment in the development of teaching materials, but also to promote learning based on multidisciplinary projects or collaborative learning.

5. Importance of collective efforts

5.2 appropriate investment guidance for policies

Not every company has the same financial margin to finance upskilling and reskilling initiatives for employees. This obliges them to set priorities. Limited resources are often used to train key personnel, who are usually trained longer and have an appropriate set of skills.

This situation is not aware that staff with purely operational tasks – who are generally less educated – do not occur regularly in terms of training. Moreover, the latter group of workers, like undertakings, does not always have its own financial resources to invest in their personal development and training. A strong policy could make a difference in this respect and play an incentive role by providing more funding, tax breaks, grants or other forms of incentives.

Focus on people with limited qualifications

Through subsidies or tax advantages, the government is best focused on initiatives that are further preparing and preparing for the labour market with limited qualified profiles. Indeed, the tax advantages for organisations in Flanders that currently recruit young and less educated people do not usually exceed the investments that a company needs to make in order to upskill.

Scholarships for those with limited qualifications in training can be awarded if they are adapted to current and future labour market needs, shortage occupations and jobs in the future. Training equals half the costs of certain training courses. But for many people, even half of the financial effort still represents a heavy burden. Grants covering training costs in full and even providing an additional incentive are a key lever to address the challenge of future job shortages and occupations.

Investments rather than costs

If an undertaking invests in computers, hardware or software, it may cancel that investment for several years. In this way, the financial effort does not fully influence the outcome of the year in which the investment is made. The cost is spread over several years. This can be justified. These are often quite large amounts, the yield of which is not immediately reached. What is purchased is also actually used for several years.

Investments in machinery are depreciable. However, if a company wants to invest in long-term training pathways for its employees, the entire runway in the year of the investment needs to be changed. Thus, for companies with a strong focus on results at the end of the financial year, it is often difficult to undertake training efforts effectively. Companies investing in future-proof training of their employees should therefore also be supported. This could be achieved by extending existing tools to companies’ training efforts.

Enabling proactive re-skilling pathways

Proactive retraining should prevent people from becoming unemployed.  In this respect, targeted retraining also means a preventive economy of expected unemployment benefits. Part of the funds that will not be spent accordingly can be invested in advance decisively for the training efforts of workers with a profile that will be less demanded over time.

The BeThe Change study estimates the number of missing jobs up to 2030, which will no longer be requested, at 127.000. If we do not reform a job profile in another job and let them become unemployed, this means:

Unemployment cost 127.000 x EUR 38,000 * = EUR 4.826 million per year of
unused productivity 127.000 x EUR 96,649 * = EUR 12.274 million per year

* Average annual cost per unemployed person
* * Average value added per worker in Belgium (2019)

Today’s policies continue to strongly focus on supporting people out of work. In a labour market characterised by structural tightening in recent years, this is no longer the right approach. Investing in activation and avoiding unemployment should prevail and become higher than investment in supporting unemployment.

Strengthening conditionality

Our regulatory framework, labour market and social security policies: they must not be limited to developing and retraining skills in the context of a job or for job search. The gap between work and work should, in this regard, deepen further. All barriers that discourage people from working and make system failures detrimental to work should be removed. Upskilling or reskilling should also be more attractive than not working. Prevention is always better than cure. Therefore, first of all, we must avoid that people fall into unemployment by proactively reskilling them.

However, unemployment benefits can best be seen as a lever to shift people to the labour market. A substantial part of this benefit should be made conditional and more closely linked to training efforts to achieve poor occupations or future jobs. At the same time, this requires closer guidance or closer monitoring of jobseekers, as well as a central analysis of needs, a clear understanding of the areas of greatest needs.

The current unemployment benefit system still provides too little incentive for people to take on their own career and development. The fact that these supplies are currently almost unconditional and also unlimited in time has no positive effect. We therefore support the conditionality of unemployment benefits, based on conditions that should be strengthened. In this context of targeted training and activation, it could be efficient to shift the responsibility for benefits to the regions after a certain period of time.

Fast, simple and impactful learning account

A tool that can help the individual take control measures is the learning account. The idea that different authorities in our country have been working for some time. Such a learning account will certainly be useful for boosting the learning culture, increasing the availability of learning and increasing the accessibility and transparency of different learning incentives. However, even before the creation of the Lifelong Learning Accounts, rationalisation is already taking place and welcomes the fact that different administrations are working on them, but it is less efficient for them to do so in different ways. Intensive dialogue between the different regions will be essential to make the learning account a quick, simple and impactful solution for every citizen.

Frame with photo logo and VBO
To be processed in or immediately after Chapter 5

The chapter entitled ‘Importance of collective efforts’ was compiled by Ineke De Bisschop and Joris VANDERSTEENE in consultation with the other authors. They are responsible for XXYYZZ at the VBO

6. Case study: management data

Frame part

By 2030, around 56.500 officials will no longer carry out their current work. Typical of this profile: support, structured, capable of a project based and working process.
In the same period, around 45.000 additional digital experts are needed in almost all sectors of our economy. Around 7.600 of them will have to deal with raising awareness of data on a project or process basis and will have to perform supporting tasks for structured data collection and data quality checks.
If, in the worst case, 56.500 people are unemployed, this means an annual cost of EUR 2.15 million. If we manage to turn 7.600 of them into ‘data promoters’, we will cut it by EUR 288.8 million and create EUR 734.5 million in GDP.

A fall that may cause losses

Most organisations that accelerate their digital transformation and increase their analytical capacities to make better decisions face one of their main assets, data. High-impact decisions are based on relevant information. This relevant information is highly dependent on data and is therefore best based on high-quality data. Companies often invest to attract technology profiles that analyse data in detail. They also often invest in high-performance technology infrastructures.

A fall is regularly observed when too little attention is paid to issues or people who need it to ensure that the data is accurate, easily accessible and reliable. Data quality is decisive for an organisation that wants to work on an intensive database. Its importance – learning many practical examples – is effectively underestimated. Gartner calculated that poor quality data costs organisations on average around EUR 12.9 million per year. This loss underlines the need for a data governance programme for each company and justifies the focus on the emerging role of the data manager.

A data manager is a data governance role that allows an organisation to acquire control over all types and forms of data in order to manage them properly. The data administrator ensures that the data is of high quality and complies with company and law rules. It is not surprising that currently most data coordination officers can be found in organisations that own and process very sensitive data. Organisations that are often subject to regulatory pressure on data quality. Think about financial organisations, research agencies and companies active in life sciences.

Regulations are further tightened, so it is not surprising that more and more other areas, such as HR, are encouraged to report market population indicators under pressure, such as environmental, health, safety (EHS) or ESG (environment, social, governance) regulations. Increases the urgency for businesses to develop a good data governance programme, which will require data managers.

Data quality supporters

Does each organisation explicitly need new people to set up a data governance programme? No. It is likely that there are already people in your organisation who help reduce the risks associated with data collection and try to retrieve more from your data. However, clarifying the role of data officers helps formalise the way data are defined, produced and used in your organisation.

In essence, data managers provide data through different channels and in the interest of the company. They are supporters of the company that ensures that everyone produces, collects and uses data in line with the organisation’s strategic objectives and values. As a result, those responsible have three main tasks.

1. They are responsible for creating a single source of truth within the organisation. They do so by clearly defining the data. This means linear mapping of the data – from which the data originated and what happened to it – and the creation of metadata, a clear description of the data.

2. They are responsible for the quality of the data. They shall ensure that the data are produced, imported and updated in accordance with the company’s rules. In addition, they shall ensure that the quality of the data is tested. In the event of quality problems, they shall inform the appropriate persons.

3. Finally, they are responsible for the proper use of the data. They shall ensure that the data is shared with the right persons and that those persons use the data in accordance with the applicable regulations, such as, for example, the GDPR. To that end, they shall raise public awareness, contributing to the definition and dissemination of those rules and to risk management as regards the use of data.

Where are I data stars?

Depending on their specific tasks, data stewards are often spread across the entire area of an organisation. We distinguish two types of operational data administrators: commercial data managers and technical data managers.

Business data administrators are experts in a specific field. They are responsible for a subset of data, e.g. HR data. Member States shall define and monitor these data. They are also the first contact point for persons interested in using this specific subset of data. Therefore, these data managers should have an overview of the scope. This is often only possible if you have gained experience in the sector.

Technical data managers are rather IT professionals responsible for data quality and management. Therefore, they need to have more technical skills than commercial data managers. Business and technical data managers can be coordinated by coordinating data that ensures that data are defined and managed uniformly from an organisational point of view. At the strategic level of the company, data managers are often represented by a Data Executive Director or Data Steward CoP, which focuses on training and exchange of experience.

Who can be managed?

The role of data director is a highly accessible role. Anyone who is simply structured and well organised can be trained to act as a data manager in a business.
A training pathway:

• addresses metadata information

• lays down rules on data quality

• find out how to use the tool where metadata are stored

• show how you create data rules for a company and how you communicate them clearly

• present the official processes related to the use of data within the organisation.

An employer or customer may invite a wide range of candidates – both external and internal – to suggest their role as data manager and how to produce, define and use data in accordance with the organisation’s strategic values. All the more so since the role of data director does not have to be full time. This means that it is quite easy for you to train people, whose role will become redundant in the coming years, you will now be able to take part time training. Think about the principle of rollity.

The Court has previously cited figures on job losses for administrative staff in the financial sector until 2030. It is therefore prospective for a financial institution to reform them into data managers. Stakeholders already have considerable qualities that can be used and know the specificities of both the sector, the regulator and the organisation.

Data officers can be trained around the general principles of data management and governance, but in addition to these general principles, it is of course necessary for each data manager to know the specific context of an organisation. This means that it is neither easy nor advisable to certify your data managers outside the organisation. In your own organisation, you can form them on the basis of your case, your own governance and the tools you prefer in your organisation.

An example of a data management programme that can be adapted to your organisation.

Growth Opportunities for a Data Manager

When people are recruited – internal or external – often have a direct interest in their mobility opportunities after becoming data managed. There are different opportunities. It is possible to move horizontally from the function of commercial data manager to the function of Technical Data Manager. This would mean that the employee should receive more technical training, for example on data quality analysis. The analytical translator function is also accessible horizontally. This profile has an in-depth knowledge of the subject as well as data stewards, but it is stronger in terms of analysis. An aspirant analytical translator needs to be trained to know different types of analysis, perform and interpret the most appropriate type. Data officers can take such horizontal pathways step by step, combining their current and future tasks. The role of accompanying data does not necessarily need to be a full-time job.

Of course, there are not only opportunities for horizontal mobility. Depending on the aspirations of the workers, they can also move vertically. An Operational Data Manager may become his/her coordinator, Executive Director of Data or even Data Manager if appropriate refinement is provided.

It was already clear between the rules: a data manager plays essentially one or more roles in a multifunctional team. For example, business data and technology officers can work alongside data managers who combine their role with analytical translator, data analyst, CRM specialist, business manager, etc. This means that they can easily access their data stewards with questions or in case of doubt. This is most effective through a Best Practice Centre (CoP) where data officers meet regularly, present their work and present their specific challenges or problems.

Sources of inspiration

• Be The Change, Guidance and levers for a changing labour market | Agoria, 2020

• Be The Change, Future oriented Competence Policy | Agoria, 2022

• Expanding the future of AI: Era With TM eBook Series | Deloitte US

• Jeff Schwartz et al., Talent Mobility: Extraction of war on the inner front | Deloitte Insights, 2018

• Michael Schrage et al., Opportunity markets: Creation of investment and value creation in | Deloitte Insights, 2020

• Jeff Schwartz et al., The social enterprise in a world disrupted | Deloitte Insights, 2020.

• Development of new working models | Deloitte Insights

• Amir Rahnema et al., The adaptable Organisation Harnessing a networked enterprise of human resilience, 2018.

• John O’Leary et al., Closing the talent gap: Ways in which public administration and businesses can join forces to reintegrate workers | Deloitte Insights, 2018

• where companies reskill to address the skills gap | McKinsey