Future of Work: Enterprise timeline to reskilling initiatives
Noorjit Sidhu, future of work investor at Plug & Play, reached out after seeing my LinkedIn post about joining Catalyte and how reskilling ties to my parents’ immigration story. He wanted to connect over the future of work. We jumped on a fun phone call and Noorjit followed-up with a list of questions for me. Being the (proud) nerd I am, I’m excited to write up my answers and share them with you in a Future of Work Series. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
NS: Do you predict that the majority of enterprises will launch internal tech reskilling initiatives in the next three years?
LT: It’s clear that enterprises accept that there is a talent and skill gap. But it’s unclear how many enterprises will launch reskilling initiatives in the next three years. According to Willis Towers Watson, 90% of enterprises expect digital disruption but only 44% are adequately preparing or have the right talent for it. Unfortunately, most enterprises seem to be stuck in old-school behaviors and prefer to contract or hire new employees, rather than reskill the ones they have. A recent Accenture survey of 1,200 executives, “only 3% of them said their firms would significantly increase their training budgets over the next three years.” And Mckinsey found that “35% of U.S. executives […] believe they will realize their digital goals mainly or only by hiring new talent;” though, “82% of executives at companies with more than $100 million in annual revenues believe retraining and reskilling must be at least half of the answer to addressing their skills gap.” It’s a sure thing that tech reskilling initiatives will be enacted because by 2022, no less than 54% of all employees will require significant re- and upskilling. But when the skilling initiatives kick in is a little less clear.
I predict that enterprises will initially continue to hire externally, then start outsourcing individual and team talent based on projects and specific skill sets, while simultaneously beginning a lite upskilling of their talent (e.g., MOOCs and bootcamps). The most progressive companies will upskill their workers through sustainable platforms that are able to identify high-potential talent, to train them, and get them up and running quickly.
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About Lolita Taub
Lolita Taub is the chief of staff at Catalyte, a TEDx speaker and an AI enthusiast, with a venture capital and enterprise tech background. She is a Venture Partner at NexGen, an LP at Portfolia’s Enterprise Fund and a former VC at Backstage Capital and K Fund. Lolita holds nearly a decade of enterprise B2B software, hardware and services sales experience at IBM, Cisco Systems and in Silicon Valley. She has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the IE Business School. Lolita has been recognized for her work on Forbes, Inc.com, The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.com among other publications.
