In today's competitive job market, offering health insurance is more than just a perk—it's a crucial strategy for retaining top talent. By providing comprehensive health coverage, employers demonstrate their commitment to employee well-being, fostering loyalty and satisfaction among their workforce. Moreover, investing in health insurance yields significant financial benefits for businesses, including reduced turnover costs and potential tax advantages. In this blog, we'll delve into the importance of health insurance for employee retention and explore the financial advantages it brings to businesses. Let's uncover how prioritizing health insurance can lead to long-term success for both employees and employers.

Understanding the Role of Health Insurance in Employee Retention

Health insurance plays a pivotal role in employee retention by serving as a cornerstone of a comprehensive benefits package. For employees, access to health insurance coverage goes beyond mere medical care—it provides peace of mind and financial security. Knowing that they have a safety net in case of illness or injury contributes significantly to job satisfaction and loyalty. Employees who perceive that their employer appreciates and backs them through health insurance are inclined to remain with the company over the long haul.

Moreover, health insurance enhances employees' overall well-being, which directly impacts their performance and productivity. When employees have access to preventive care and timely medical treatment, they are healthier, more engaged, and less likely to miss work due to health issues. This, in turn, leads to lower absenteeism rates and higher morale within the workforce.

Additionally, offering health insurance demonstrates a company's commitment to its employees' welfare, fostering a positive company culture and strengthening employer-employee relationships. Employees perceive health insurance as a tangible indication that their employer prioritizes their health and values their contributions to the organization. As a result, they are more inclined to remain loyal to the company and actively contribute to its success.

In summary, health insurance is not just a benefit; it is a critical factor in employee retention. By understanding its significance and investing in comprehensive health insurance plans, employers can cultivate a loyal and motivated workforce while reaping the financial rewards of increased retention and productivity.

Financial Benefits of Offering Health Insurance

One of the primary financial benefits of providing health insurance to employees is the significant cost savings achieved through reduced turnover. Employee turnover can be a substantial expense for businesses, involving costs associated with recruitment, training, and lost productivity. By offering competitive health insurance benefits, employers can attract top talent and retain experienced staff members, thereby minimizing turnover rates and the associated expenses.

Moreover, businesses that provide health insurance may also benefit from tax advantages. In many countries, including the United States, businesses can deduct the cost of providing health insurance premiums for employees as a business expense. Additionally, employers may be eligible for tax credits or deductions for offering health insurance coverage, further reducing their overall tax liability.

Furthermore, investing in employee health insurance can lead to long-term financial gains for businesses. By promoting employee wellness and preventive care, health insurance plans can help mitigate the risk of costly medical emergencies and chronic health conditions. Healthy employees are more likely to remain productive and engaged in their work, resulting in improved performance and reduced absenteeism.

Additionally, offering health insurance coverage can enhance a company's reputation as an employer of choice, attracting top talent and strengthening its position in the competitive market. As a result, businesses that prioritize employee health and well-being through comprehensive health insurance plans are better positioned to achieve long-term financial success and sustainability.

In summary, the financial benefits of offering health insurance extend beyond immediate cost savings to encompass tax advantages, improved productivity, and enhanced employer branding. By investing in employee health and retention, businesses can secure a more stable and prosperous future.

Health Insurance Options for Employee Retention

Employers have various health insurance options to choose from when designing a benefits package for their employees. The most common types of health plans include Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), and High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

HMOs usually have reduced premiums and mandate employees to select a primary care physician who oversees their healthcare needs and directs them to network specialists. PPOs offer greater flexibility, permitting employees to visit any healthcare provider, albeit with potentially higher out-of-pocket expenses for services beyond the network. HDHPs, conversely, come with higher deductibles but lower premiums, along with the opportunity to contribute to an HSA for tax-free savings on medical costs.

When selecting the right health insurance option for employees, employers should consider factors such as cost, coverage breadth, network availability, and employee preferences. Conducting a thorough analysis of the workforce demographics and healthcare needs can help employers tailor their health insurance offerings to best meet the needs of their employees while maximizing retention efforts.

Ultimately, offering a comprehensive and flexible health insurance plan demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being and can significantly contribute to employee satisfaction, retention, and overall organizational success.

Strategies for Implementing Health Insurance for Employee Retention

Integrating health insurance into employee benefits packages requires careful planning and effective communication. Employers can follow several steps to successfully implement health insurance initiatives aimed at enhancing employee retention.

Firstly, employers should conduct a thorough analysis of their workforce demographics and healthcare needs to understand the specific requirements of their employees. This analysis can help tailor health insurance offerings to align with employee preferences and maximize the value of the benefits package.

Next, employers should communicate the benefits of health insurance effectively to employees. This includes providing clear and concise information about coverage options, cost-sharing arrangements, and any additional perks associated with the health insurance plan. Employers can use various communication channels, such as email newsletters, informational sessions, and personalized consultations, to ensure that employees understand the value of health insurance benefits.

Moreover, employers should emphasize the long-term benefits of health insurance for both employees and the organization. By highlighting how health insurance contributes to employee well-being, financial security, and job satisfaction, employers can underscore the importance of health insurance in driving employee retention efforts. Ultimately, implementing health insurance strategies that prioritize employee needs and preferences can significantly enhance retention rates and foster a positive workplace culture.

Conclusion

In conclusion, offering health insurance for employee retention yields significant financial benefits for businesses. By reducing turnover costs, leveraging tax advantages, and enhancing employee satisfaction and loyalty, health insurance emerges as a critical tool for fostering a stable and productive workforce. Prioritizing employee retention through comprehensive healthcare benefits not only strengthens the employer-employee relationship but also contributes to long-term organizational success. As businesses navigate the competitive landscape, investing in health insurance demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being and reinforces a culture of support and care. Ultimately, embracing health insurance as a cornerstone of employee retention strategies can lead to enhanced performance and sustainable growth.

Why do some companies soar while others stagnate? The answer often lies in a resource that's as human as it gets: motivation.

In the pursuit of long-term success, investing in employee motivation isn't just good practice. It's a strategic imperative.

Methods for Motivating Your Employees

An inspired team is the linchpin of innovation and productivity. But fuelling that fire requires more than just a pay cheque. It demands a multifaceted approach, tailored to the unique tapestry of human needs and aspirations within your organisation.

So, before we look at why investing in employee motivation is so vital, let’s first look at some of the best motivation methods.

Forge Connections with Regular Feedback

Consistent and constructive communication builds trust and direction. Regular feedback sessions ensure employees feel seen, heard, and on track for personal growth alongside company goals.

Cultivate Growth Opportunities

Invest in your staff's future by providing opportunities for learning and advancement. A culture of development motivates individuals to grow their careers within your company rather than looking elsewhere.

Empower Through Flexibility

Flexibility in work arrangements acknowledges the diverse lives of employees, fostering loyalty through autonomy and work-life harmony.

Celebrate Achievements

Nothing spells appreciation quite like recognizing efforts with certificates, trophies or awards. So, consider getting custom awards online to capture the significance of individual contributions at award ceremonies.

Offer Financial Incentives with Purpose

While bonuses are standard fare, tying them to clear objectives makes the reward both motivating and meaningful.

Retention: The Bedrock of Longevity

Now, let’s turn our attention to why investing in employee motivation pays off in the long term. The cost of recruitment can cast a long shadow on the balance sheet. But when motivation takes centre stage, employee retention becomes your economic ally.

Motivated employees tend to stay longer, reducing turnover rates substantially. This stability not only saves recruitment costs but also preserves invaluable institutional knowledge within your team. A motivated workforce is likely to become more proficient over time, their growing expertise translating into efficiency and innovation that propel the business forward.

It's simple - by investing in what ignites employees’ drives, you build a community of dedicated professionals who don't just work for you; they grow with you, turning short-term gains into sustained success. 

Cultivating a Resilient Workforce: The Antidote to Burnout

A motivated workforce is synonymous with a resilient one. When employees are engaged and their efforts resonate with the company's vision, they're better equipped to navigate stress and change without succumbing to burnout.

This resilience translates into fewer sick days, sustained productivity during industry downturns or market shifts and more overall robust corporate health.

Consider motivation as preventive medicine for your organisation; it strengthens the immune system of your business, enabling it to withstand and adapt to external pressures.

By investing in employee motivation, you're not just boosting morale today—you're armouring your team with the grit needed for the long haul, ensuring that when challenges arise, they respond not with defeat but with determination and ingenuity.

Innovation: Unlocking the Door to Future Markets

A motivated employee is more than a cog in the machine; they are a potential innovator whose ideas could be key to unlocking new markets.

With stakes in the game and the encouragement to think boldly, team members are more prone to challenge the status quo, suggesting improvements or pioneering products that could lead your company into uncharted territory – lucrative markets awaiting discovery.

Consider that many industry disruptions arise not from solitary genius but from empowered teams working harmoniously towards shared goals. By investing in your employees' motivation, you're essentially planting seeds for future harvests - rich with innovative solutions that satisfy emerging customer needs and keep your business agile in a competitive landscape.

Customer Satisfaction: The Ripple Effect of Enthusiasm

Motivated employees often become the embodiment of a brand, and their enthusiasm has a far-reaching ripple effect. When staff members are engaged and invested in their work, they deliver exceptional service, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Satisfied customers are not only more likely to return but also to spread the word about their positive experiences - effectively becoming a low-cost, high-impact marketing tool for your business.

In this way, employee motivation directly fuels the engine of long-term revenue growth through organic advocacy and repeat business.

So, it stands that by fostering a vibrant workplace culture, you're not just nurturing your team; you're cultivating an expansive garden where every interaction can blossom into long-term commercial success.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the strategic investment in employee motivation is not just beneficial; it's imperative for the sustainable success of any business. The long-term advantages are clear:

• Lower turnover and associated costs.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• A surge in innovation and market expansion.
• Increased resilience among team members.

These factors combine to create a formidable competitive edge, showcasing that the path to enduring growth and profitability is paved with motivated employees.

Everyone likes to feel appreciated for their hard work, especially employees. Despite this, acknowledgement and appreciation seem to be lacking in the workplace. In fact, according to one survey, 37% of employees confess that more personal recognition would encourage them to be more productive.

What can we learn from this? Well for one, that many employees feel underappreciated at work, and two, that when you go out of your way to recognize employees for their efforts, their productivity rises.

But how can you create a culture of appreciation that drives engagement and ultimately improves productivity? That’s precisely what we discussed in today’s blog post.

Why Employee Appreciation Matters

Before we get into the “how,” let’s talk about the “why”: why should every company, including those in the financial sector, find ways to appreciate and recognize its employees? Because when done right, the benefits are numerous and significant.

• Increased employee engagement,
• Improved productivity,
• Enhanced customer satisfaction,
• Higher likelihood of attracting top talent,
• Better retention rates,
• And as a result of all this, increased profits.

In short, employee appreciation and recognition make your team feel better while making your company operate more efficiently.

But which makes the most difference: appreciation vs recognition? So appreciation is about acknowledging the value someone brings to your team on a personal level, while recognition is more formal as it’s about recognizing the hard work an individual or a team has done for your company. 

While these are two different things in theory, in practice, they’re similar and often go hand in hand, and so both matter for employee satisfaction and retention. This is because appreciation makes your employees feel valued as individuals, and helps foster a sense of belonging and loyalty. Recognition, meanwhile, reinforces desired behaviours and motivates employees to continue performing at their best.

Practical Ways to Show Appreciation

With that out of the way, let’s talk about some practical ways to put these concepts into action.

Personalized Thank-You Notes

If you want a simple, completely free, but highly effective way to show appreciation and gratitude to your employees, write a personalized thank-you note to each person deserving of one.

Why is this an effective way to show employee appreciation? One, because in this increasingly digital world, it’s a tangible token of gratitude so it’s bound to mean more than a generic email. Two, because taking time to write a personalized little card adds a heartfelt touch to the occasion and shows that you genuinely value your employee(s)’ efforts.

Employee of the Month Awards

Want to celebrate excellent work and reinforce positive behaviour? Implement an employee of the month program. While pretty simple, this can ensure you keep your best people on the team, plus help create an environment where other people feel inspired to excel at their roles.

Who should get employee of the month awards? This depends on your company and what you want to encourage. For example, you can nominate employees with exceptional work ethic or those with the most innovative ideas. 

Then, you recognize the winners publicly during team meetings or company-wide announcements and highlight their achievements while thanking them for their hard work. Rewards can include things like gift cards, extra time off, or even a reserved parking spot to add excitement to the program.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Long hours and tight deadlines are more common than not in the finance industry, so why not offer flexible work arrangements to your top performers as a way to show you respect their autonomy? This can greatly improve their work-life balance and job satisfaction, which is something you absolutely should want to nurture in your top people.

So, what are some of your options here? If possible, you can allow your employees to work remotely part-time when it suits them. You can also offer them flexible work hours to accommodate their commitments or preferences. 

This way, you show appreciation for your team’s individual needs and responsibilities outside of work, and as a bonus, you may also boost your team’s overall productivity – some research shows that employees with flexible work arrangements experience the highest productivity.

Customized Gifts and Incentives

Finally, giving gifts or bonuses is a surefire way to show appreciation for your employee’s hard work – but you don’t want to give your top performers generic fruit baskets or tiny bonuses. No, what your employees want, and you should therefore give, are personalized or customized gifts that are meaningful and relevant to them. That, or hefty bonuses – they always seem to work.

On a more serious note, personalization is important because it adds, well, a personal touch, and shows that you value your employees’ unique contributions to the team. Alongside gifts, consider offering monetary bonuses or incentives when your top talent achieves specific goals or milestones.

Employees essentially keep the wheels of industry turning and they have the ability to send a very small SME to the top - look at Facebook, for example, once a two-man-band headed up by Mark Zuckerberg, now a multi billion company that has produced some of the best innovations in the world.

In 2017, Facebook was recorded to have 25,105 employees across the globe and that will only increase if their profits maintain their steady progression.

With that said, how much profit do the world’s most successful tech companies make per employee?

Research by PostBeyond shows how the tech companies listed in the Fortune 500 compare for profit made per employee.

Highest profit per employee:

1. Facebook - $634,694
2. Apple - $393,097
3. Microsoft - $171,000
4. Alphabet - $158,057
5. Cisco - $131,81
6. Netflix - $109,588
7. Booking holdings - $102,218
8. Adobe - $94,252
9. Oracle - $67,645
10. HP - $51,551

Despite Facebook’s big lawsuit this year in regard to user privacy, they still have a total profit margin of $15,934 million which is a 5.9% increase from the previous year. Although Apple having a total profit of $48,351 million in 2017, their profit per employee averages out at just $393,097 and is down -0.19% since last year.

Microsoft is one of the longest standing tech companies, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. However, longest standing doesn’t always mean biggest profit - Microsoft has a total profit of $21,204 million (less than half of Apple’s) and it’s profit per employee stands at $171,000. Despite ranking below Facebook and Apple, it’s percentage change from the previous year is 16.05%.

The companies who have had the biggest percentage growth change from their previous year are NetApp (170.81%), Netflix (125.99%) and Amphenol (109.88%) - all of which combined have a total profit per employee of $169,277 million, just under Microsoft’s profit per employee total.

In regard to the companies which have had a negative percentage change from their previous years, Xerox (-264.42%), eBay (-104.46%) and Motorola Solutions (-89.01%) have been hit the hardest. Data on PostBeyond’s interactive piece here also shows that Dell, eBay and Motorola Solutions are also within the bottom Fortune 500 companies by having the lowest profit: Dell losing $-3,728 million, eBay losing $1,016 million and Motorola Solutions losing $-155 million.

What is the worth of each employee in the industry you work in? Do you think your company is floating or falling?

London Market insurers must be quick to react to technology developments – such as automation and increased cyber security risk – if they are to successfully navigate the future claims landscape, according to BLM and the Institute of Directors (IoD).

The assertion is amongst others released in volume two of BLM’s Macroeconomic Trends Series, a suite of research papers created with economists at the IoD. The papers look at macroeconomic forces and how they will shape the insurance claims landscape in the London Market. The second paper looks at technology risks through the lens of product liability, motor, employers’ liability and technology-specific claims.

Tim Smith, partner at BLM who co-led the writing and insights within this paper said: “We have a thriving technology sector in the UK, but given changes ahead we foresee significant knock-on effects on a number of traditional markets. The pace of technology advancement can leave entire industries playing catch-up, which is why it’s so important for the insurance market to understand the impact these will have and adapt accordingly.”

Jim Sherwood, partner at BLM and co-leader of the paper said: “From our work across the London Market with insurers, brokers and managing general agents, we know the importance of understanding how emerging risks will impact the volume and nature of claims. We hope this paper will provide the market with a better understanding of what’s on the horizon and how technology will continue to affect all aspects of insurance.”

The paper also argues that employers’ liability (EL) insurers must react to the growing use of automation and increased self-employment.

Malcolm Keen, associate at BLM said: “Whilst disputes continue as to the definition of an ‘employee’, changes in the nature of employment are affecting the pool of those who can potentially be compensated for an injury or illness by an EL insurer.

“We’ve seen significant rises in self-employment in the UK, with a million more workers since 2008 opting to ‘be their own boss’, and technology is playing a key role in enabling this. On top of that. the increased use of automation will likely to affect the profile of the UK labour market in the short, medium and long-term.

“Coupled together, we expect this may shrink the extent to which the financial burden of injuries or illness caused by work is borne by insurers.”

The Macroeconomic Trends Series will continue to cover other other key claims categories for the London Market in the coming months. This is the second series of papers from BLM and the IoD, with these volumes building on the trends and reflections last identified in 2016.

(Source: BLM)

Employees of UK small businesses are working an average of eight extra hours unpaid every week at work and home - worth £1.6bn* to the UK’s SMEs - according to new research** from Paymentsense, Europe’s leading card payment supplier. Worryingly, 16% of those surveyed work even more hours, with younger workers (aged 18-24) averaging 11 extra unpaid hours every week.

The main reason for SME workers doing so many extra hours is to keep up with the volume of work (58%), followed by pressure from their manager (30%) and, more positively, 28% wanting the business to do well. However, this is leading to nearly half of people (42%) feeling more stressed, and over a third (37%) feeling taken for granted by their employer.

Managers might take note that 36% of SME staff said they rarely, or never, got credit from their bosses for putting in the extra hours. What’s more, almost a third of them (29%) have considered leaving for another job or changing career completely as a result of the frequent unpaid overtime. A further quarter (26%) would consider starting their own business, or going freelance (16%), to escape their current roles.

Clare Dimond, a leading business coach and author of 'Free Choice' said: “With a smaller number of staff, the contribution of every employee in an SME is critical. Employers that value the time, creativity and mental clarity of each individual will see the impact on their bottom line and staff retention rates.

“Directors can role model good mental health behaviour for their teams. Avoiding stressful thinking, spending time exercising or with family and creating a culture of strong relationships, and individual contributions, make for a healthy, inspired career and home life.”

Guy Moreve, Head of Marketing at Paymentsense commented: “We know from working with over 50,000 of the UK’s small businesses that SMEs are constantly challenged to balance the often-unpredictable demands of growth, with looking after hardworking staff - especially in potentially uncertain economic times.

“Keeping employees happy should be a priority, given its impact on productivity levels. The good news is that perks don’t have to cost a fortune. Our own research has shown that an early Friday finish, the chance to work flexible hours, and a free day off here and there: for birthdays, duvet days or to help with moving house are the amongst most sought-after benefits.” 

‘Can you just…?’ Top 8 reasons SME staff work late unexpectedly

1. Last minute request from client or customer (39%)
2. Last minute request from boss (37%)
3. Meetings overrunning at the end of the day (34%)
4. Keeping up with admin (32%)
5. Attending meetings at client or customer locations (24%)
6. Equipment or computers playing up (21%)
7. Manager’s poor time management (20%)
8. Their own poor time management (19%)

* Average UK salary of c.£27K, equal to around £104 per day (average of 260 working days per annum). 15.7m UK SME workers according to FSB figures.

** Research undertaken from July 4-5, 2017 amongst 1,000 UK SME employees.

(Source: Paymentsense)

Qualtrics recently announced that two-thirds of UK workers are currently satisfied in their jobs and 13% say they are ‘extremely satisfied’, according to the Qualtrics Pulse – a new 2017 benchmark of how engaged today’s employees feel within their work environments.

Workers in finance and travel love their jobs:

• Satisfaction levels are highest in the finance sector (74%) and travel & leisure industry (73%), compared to 68% in retail, 67% in manufacturing and 66% in the public sector.
• Meanwhile in the public sector, 32% of workers say they hardly ever, or never, look forward to going to work. In contrast, a quarter of retail workers almost always look forward to going to work.

Recognition outweighs pay, flexible working and frills:

• Key driver analysis shows that engagement with business leaders, better recognition and career progression have the greatest positive impact on job satisfaction. In comparison, added benefits such as flexible working and even remuneration are generally considered less important on a day-to-day basis.

Ages 25-34 are the “golden years” for workplace satisfaction:

• Job satisfaction peaks for UK workers between 25-34 years old, with 69% of people in this age group saying they are satisfied. Beyond age 34, job satisfaction declines.

Job satisfaction wanes after 12 months, but loyalty is built in the long term:

• Workers are most satisfied in their first year of employment, with 56% of people claiming they are either moderately or extremely satisfied during year one. This drops to 46% once people have been in their jobs for a year or more.
• While satisfaction begins to drop off after the first year, once employees have worked at a company for more than four years, their satisfaction levels once again start to increase.

Job satisfaction is highest in the North East of England:

• Around one in five (18%) employees from the North East are “extremely satisfied” in their job, compared to 11% in Scotland and Wales and 10% of workers in London and the Midlands.
• Young people in London are not as happy as their peers in other parts of the country--24% of under 25s said they were ‘slightly dissatisfied’ or worse in their current jobs, compared to just 18% of under 25s in the rest of the UK.
• Workers in Wales were the most vocal about their discontent, with nearly one in 10 saying they are “extremely dissatisfied” with their job.

Churn is highest in media and advertising:

• While the public sector has most dissatisfied workers, it’s most likely to hold onto its staff with 68% expecting to be working at the same organisation in two years’ time.
• Media and advertising companies are likely to have the hardest job in preventing staff churn. Just 54% of employees in this sector say they can see themselves working at their current organisation in two years’ time, compared to 67% in the IT & tech sector and 66% in manufacturing.

The Qualtrics Pulse surveyed 2,300 UK workers using the Qualtrics Employee ExperienceTM management platform, which enables human resource and business leaders to monitor and improve the experience across the employee journey and prioritise the key drivers of engagement to reduce attrition and improve employee performance.

The Qualtrics Pulse, which is carried out on a quarterly basis, measures levels of employee engagement and job satisfaction according to gender, age, location, income and industry sector. The top insights can help businesses understand the experience gap between what their employees expect and what they actually deliver.

Commenting on the launch of Qualtrics Pulse, Sarah Marrs, Employee Experience Specialist, Qualtrics, said: “In recent years we’ve seen organisations place more emphasis on their employee experience as a critical lever to help shape their customer, brand and product experiences.  We’ve also seen the techniques available to measure the employee experience evolve. Our Qualtrics Pulse provides a layer of data that many companies simply don’t have access to-- uncovering the real-life factors that really influence the behaviour, loyalty and performance of an employee.”

(Source: Qualtrics)

Flashback 20 (or so) years to 1996. Kodak, seen at the time as one of the world’s leading technology innovators, was worth $38billion and employed 140,000 people. That’s an average worth of $270,000 per employee.

Skip forward to recent times. YouTube sold for $1.65 billion and employed 65 employees - placing each employee’s value at $25m. Instagram then sold to Facebook for $1b with just 13 employees (each worth a cool $77 million). WhatsApp then blew both out of the water - selling for $19 billion and in the process, if you apply the same formula, making its 55 employees worth a staggering a $345m a head.

Technology has allowed the emergence of a term coined exponential organisations - these are exponentially fast-growing companies that leverage technology. They require less employees but more tech savvy ones. More and more companies are trying to replicate this model - that is: hire less but more tech savvy people - and as this happens, job roles are slowly being replaced by skillsets. Employers require their staff to have an ever-growing number of skills.

A McKinsey report from late 2015 stated that 45 per cent of the activities individuals are currently paid to perform could be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies. It’s not just checkout operators or baggage handlers who are being replaced, either. They discovered that even the highest-paid occupations in the economy, such as financial managers, physicians, senior executives, including CEOs, have a significant amount of activity that can be automated.

A World Economic Forum summary about the future of jobs found that by 2020 - just three years from now - a third of desired skill sets of most occupations are not considered crucial to the same jobs today. A direct side-effect of this rapid change in such a short amount of time is a major digital skills shortage crisis, which the UK’s Science and Technology Committee published a report warning of mid last year.

All of this paints a rather grim picture for the amount of jobs available in the future and the number of people with the required skillsets available to do these jobs. But, the good news, according to London’s first monthly growth marketing course provider, Growth Tribe, is that you can future-proof your career and your own skill-set.

Master the fundamentals and you can master the rest. Below are five things you can do right now to get ready for the future - which is already kind of here!

Self-learn

Learning doesn’t stop after you leave university. Some, like billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, are even arguing that it shouldn’t start there in the first place. The Shadbolt Review of Computer Sciences Degree Accreditation and Graduate Employability from last year also found a clear disconnect between what employers need and what universities teach.

But you needn’t panic. It’s never been as easy to take education into your own hands. On and offline courses are readily available and affordable. You can take learning how to work better with technology into your own hands.

Learn the coding basics. Learn about behavioural psychology and automation tools. Play with data and think about how your company could use technology to improve user experience. Stay curious, seek out relevant training and use the resource in your back pocket to upskill on the go.

Start a company

Perhaps one of the greatest ways to learn about business is by starting your own. Investing in and starting your own business forces you to solve problems, grow, learn and adapt - if you want to succeed, that is.

You’ll be future-proofing yourself without even realising as you work to create your own website, social media strategy, app, marketing and sales channels and plans, etc.

You also don’t need a million pounds to start. Noah Everett, Twitpic and Pingly founder said: “Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” In the UK, online accounting firm FreeAgent found that the majority of UK freelancers and micro-business owners were self-funding their start-up costs rather than relying on external funding. Almost half (44 per cent) of respondents didn’t require any funding to get their business venture started, while 43 per cent had only used personal savings to do so.

Solve problems

There are little day-to-day issues all around us, every day, that could be made easier with the use of technology. Think about contactless payment, for example. We mightn’t have thought it could get much easier than punching a few numbers in at the till, but hey presto, we use contactless pay for a few a months and all of a sudden we’re at a place where having to key your pin in seems like a bit of a pain.

Apps like Be My Eyes don’t rely on overly sophisticated tech, but they do solve a really simple problem. In this case, it helps visually impaired and blind people around the world. Using the camera functionality on a smartphone and the assistance of an able-sighted volunteer anywhere in the world, visually impaired people can quickly check that they’re choosing the tin of tomatoes as opposed to that of beans, for example. It means they don’t have to wait until an able-sighted friend or family member is available and they can quickly get on with their life. It’s a really simple idea but for those benefitting from the app - it’s a game changer.

Develop a growth mindset

If you have the desire and the mindset, you can learn anything. A “growth mindset”, a term famously coined by psychologist Carol Dweck, refers to a person’s self-belief about their own abilities. Those with a growth mindset believe that their most most basic abilities can be developed with dedication and hard-work.

It’s quite empowering when you think about it - you are no longer bound by preconceived perceptions about your own intellectual abilities!

Famous examples of people with a growth mindset include Richard Branson, Malala Yousafazi, Elon Musk, Brian Balfour… think about any inspirational person that you associate with entrepreneurialism or who in some way is pushing boundaries and punching above their weight. Chances are it’s not because they were born with any special gift or ability more impressive than most of us - it’s because they have a finely tuned growth mindset - they’re willing to try, to fail, to learn and to keep growing.

Create

Finally - start doing. David Arnoux says: your greatest credential in this era is your output of stuff. The skills listed on your CV are just words without proof. There are cheap and easy to use tools which allow you to build, create and showcase. Think of it as a live CV and proof of your awesomeness.

It might not quite be an app (or it might) - the choice is up to you. Use what is available to you to build a website, a blog, a prototype, a simple data model... build stuff and showcase it.

“Traditionally, life has been divided into two main parts: a period of learning, followed by a period of working. Very soon this traditional model will become utterly obsolete, and the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives and to reinvent themselves repeatedly,” says Yuval Noah Harari.

(Source: Growth Tribe)