More than four in 10 employers in Southeast Asia expect core skills to be disrupted by 2030
Employers across Southeast Asia have been told that reskilling and upskilling employees may need to be "done quickly and smartly" ahead of an anticipated disruption over the next five years.
A new insight from the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that employers predict a shift in the skills they will need from employees by 2030.
In fact, 43% of employers in Southeast Asia expect today's core skills to be disrupted by that time.
Among the factors driving this disruption is climate mitigation efforts, which are driving the need for skills related to climate-change adaptation.
Digital developments are also predicted to have some of the "biggest impacts on businesses in the region by 2030," according to the WEF.
"As well as rising adoption of AI, big data, and information processing technologies (predicted by 90% of employers), change will happen on a macro level through an expansion in overall digital access (foreseen by 72%)," it said.
These trends are expected to greatly disrupt how workplaces function, with employers anticipating that technology will carry out 37% of tasks in organisations by 2030.
On the other hand, they expect only 31% of tasks to be covered by humans, with the rest to be carried out by human-machine collaboration.
The WEF said employers can only survive these changes if they build resilience and adaptability in their teams and operations.
"Many are focusing these skilling strategies on moving employees from declining roles into growing ones in the next five years," the WEF said. "However, reskilling and upskilling need to be done quickly and smartly, with 62 out of every 100 workers in Southeast Asia expected to require training by 2030."
In addition to upskilling, the WEF also underscored that hiring employees with emerging skills will also be more prominent.
In fact, 85% of businesses in Southeast Asia said they plan to hire new staff with emerging skills, higher than the global average of 70%.
To boost talent availability, the report said employers will need to carry out changes in order to secure skilled talent.
"Supplementing childcare to attract working parents, altering retirement ages, making hiring and firing practices more flexible, and adjusting immigration laws are all on the table to boost talent availability," it said.
