Salesforce skills data - three quarters of us aren't qualified for a digital-first 'Future of Work'

By Stuart Lauchlan

January 28, 2022

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The digital skills crisis is a long running theme in the tech sector, one that every member of the diginomica team has written about repeatedly over the years. But with the debate around the 'Future of Work' given even greater importance due to the COVID crisis and the so-called Great Resignation, skills availability is in the spotlight again - and not in a good way.

Salesforce just released its Digital Skills Index, polling 23,000 workers across 19 countries, and the findings don’t make for encouraging reading. Over three-quarters of respondents do not feel qualified for a digital-first world of work, but only 28% are currently getting the necessary skills training to address this.The overall global score for digital readiness, assessed in terms of preparedness, skill level, access, and active participation in digital up-skilling, is currently only 33 out of 100.

Generation game

There’s (perhaps inevitably) a generational gap around skills, this isn't as straightforward as it might be assumed to be. While two-thirds of Gen Z respondents boast an everyday comfort with digital platforms, such as social media, this doesn’t translate into ease with the type of systems they need to engage with in the work environment. Less than half of Gen Z respondents (45%) reckon they are ‘very prepared’ with digital workplace skills today despite being the first so-called digitally-native generation.

Millennials actually coming in slightly higher (48%), but the numbers get worse in other generational groups. Only a third of Gen X (33%) see themselves as prepared with the necessary digital skills today  while as few as 28% of Baby Boomer respondents globally can make the same boast.

Overall, collaboration technology is cited as the most important workplace digital skill to master, followed by digital administrative, encryption/cybersecurity, e-commerce and project management. There are some national variants - US and UK respondents also cite data science/analytics as a priority, while their Brazilian counterparts point to digital marketing as the second most important skill set.

Globally, only 40% of all respondents feel ‘very prepared’ with workplace digital skills, an already low percentage that’s likely to get lower as only 34% of the same base reckon they’ll be any better in five years time. Those numbers vary on a country-by-country basis, but the pessimism is consistently on view. For example, 44% of US respondents feel capable now, sliding to 38% in five years time, against less than a third (30%) in the UK, where the five-years-time position gets markedly worse, with only 20% of those polled reckoning they’ll have the right skills.

Future 

Despite this, the percentage of respondents who are ‘very actively’ engaged on learning new digital skills is alarmingly low. Globally, only 28% can make this claim today - and even fewer (26%) expect to be doing so in five years time. Again the numbers vary by nationality - in the US, 29% are currently training with a prediction that that percentage will be 26% in five years time, while the UK’s figures are a shocking 13% and 11% respectively.

The winner at present is India, where 76% of respondents regard themselves to be prepared with workplace skills today and 72% of them are actively involved in further training. Those numbers drop over five years to 58% and 53%, but that still puts India well ahead of the US and Europe.

South American nations are also outpacing most other countries. In Argentina, 43% of respondents believe themselves very prepared today, a percentage that actually rises to 45% in five years time. Argentinians are also very open to boosting their capabilities with 36% in active training today, rising to 43% over five years.  Meanwhile 52% of Mexican respondents deem themselves very prepared today, with 46% very actively training, numbers that will remain stable over the next five years.

But even that pales compared to neighboring Brazil, where 68% of respondents believe they are very prepared today, while 44% are in active training. In five years time, those numbers will be 63% and 41%.

My take

Clearly there’s a big problem here. As Zahra Bahrololoumi, UKI CEO, Salesforce, observes:

Re-skilling is clearly a national priority and we all have a responsibility to help people navigate learning and equip them to seize the opportunities of a digital-first future.

Bahrololoumi's talking from a UK perspective, but this is a global crisis that needs intervention both at government level and via private sector organizations putting in place training initiatives, such as Salesforce’s own Trailhead program.

Whatever shape the 'Future of Work' does end up taking, having a digitally-enabled workforce is going to be a foundational aspect that no nation can do without. In the words of Peter Schwartz, SVP for Strategic Planning and Chief Futures Officer, Salesforce:

There's a gap between the frontier of innovation and the skills necessary to use those innovations. That in itself, is not new. But what is new, is the scope of that innovation, how widespread it is, how it has diffused in every aspect of life. It is hard to do almost anything these days without some form of digital interaction.

That’s a situation that’s only going to become all the more true. The time for action is now.