Zobel de Ayala to firms: Invest in your workers
Credit to Author: TYRONE JASPER C. PIAD| Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:29:29 +0000
TYCOON Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala on Tuesday encouraged the business sector to invest in teaching employees new, “future-ready” skills and provide a conducive working environment in order to remain competitive.
At the One Step Ahead Series forum hosted by JP Morgan and Asia Society in Makati City, Zobel de Ayala underscored the importance of providing employees with a “future-ready skill set” in the time of “increased automation.”
Under technical skills, the Ayala Corp. chief executive officer said it would be helpful for companies to educate employees on programming, computer science and data science.
“Organizations have to raise skills, as well, through trainings,” he added.
According to Zobel de Ayala, there is also a need to develop the social and complex cognitive skills and soft skills of employees. The former covers leadership, creativity and communication, among others; the latter, empathy, agility resilience and more.
He said companies, besides educational institutions, also had an important role in nurturing these skill sets, adding that his holding company was contributing to this advocacy.
Under Ayala Corp.’s Professional Employment Program, Zobel de Ayala revealed that 90 percent of its graduates secure employment within 90 days.
Companies, he said, should find “new ways of doing work” to spark productivity, suggesting to implement a flexible working arrangement.
This, Zobel de Ayala added, could lead to employees’ “higher engagement” with their work.
Using “people analytics” could also help firms to better understand the needs of their employees, resulting in better human-resource management, according to him.
“We need to adopt a refreshed approach to private enterprise. One that fully responds to critical underserved needs of society while at the same time, enables the creation of value,” the top Ayala official said.
‘Vocation education’
For his part, Mark Keese, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Skills and Employability division, affirmed the need to continue teaching employees.
He said that, apart from traditional education, there was a need to “focus on vocation education,” such as training for new technology to strengthen workers’ skill set.
Such practice is being observed in Singapore, he added.
International Labor Organization (ILO) Technical Officer Jordi Prat Tuca, meanwhile, said the United Nations’ labor agency found out that 56 percent of jobs in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nation (Asean)-5 are “at high risk of automation over the next 20 years.”
Asean-5 is composed of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ILO officer also highlighted the need to equip employees with the necessary skills, as there would be “limited opportunities” amid technology adoption.
And McKinsey and Company Associate Partner Boris Tanyu Van said artificial intelligence (AI) was vital tool to move forward in conducting business operations.
Van noted that AI was “cost-effective,” which could help in reducing operating costs, adding that applying it could translate to a 12-percent increase in revenues.
A digital operating model — which focuses on “transforming” organization, technology and business — could be used as reference by the firms, he said.
The One Step Ahead Series forum, which has “Rethinking the Future of Work to Promote Inclusive Growth in Asia Pacific” as its theme, brought together public, private and civil society leaders to discuss the regional business environment amid today’s technological advancements.
The post Zobel de Ayala to firms: Invest in your workers appeared first on The Manila Times Online.