Desired Job Skills After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected the education system it has also widely disrupted companies and their workplace. Since non-essential employees working in offices were a violation of the Covid-19 social distancing policy, companies established mandatory remote working for their employees.
Currently, restrictions on working from home are being eased, and many companies are allowing their employees to return to offices on the strict rule that they follow COVID-19 guidelines. I predicted that given the slight change of office opening, employees would rush to return to work life before the pandemic. To my surprise, according to Luca Cartichini, a Venture Capitalist at Petrosum Ventures and a well-known blogger on Medium, “remote workers almost unanimously want to continue to work remotely (at least for some of the time) for the rest of their careers” (Cartichini, 2020). We are talking around 98% of remote workers wanting to continue this work-style. Why is this the case?
1) Employees have the flexibility to work from anywhere
2) Able to have a flexible work schedule
3) No need to commute from home and office.
Since employee demand for at-home work is high, the future of work for the upcoming years is not only remote but will be technology-driven. This means all employees need to be computer literate if they wish to continue their jobs. Even though the majority of people currently in jobs or looking for jobs know how to turn a computer on and off, how to use text editors, surf the web, and more, this will not be sufficient for what is to come. Chizoma Stella Anyanwu, an active blogger on Medium states that the future is “Big Data, Artificial intelligence, Robotics, Internet of Things, Virtual Reality, block-chain” (Anyanwu, 2020). Basic computer skills will not be enough for anyone looking for jobs in the business world. Understanding these new trends, even if they are not related to your specific job description, is really important because of the mass involvement they will have in businesses. Knowing basic terminologies related to computer science and technology will make a job applicant more desirable than an applicant that does not. Furthermore, candidates applying for jobs that relate to technology will not only need a deep understanding of the new trends, but they will also need to have some practical experience working with them. The future of current workers will be training and education on new trends and businesses will ensure that all employees are up to date with their understanding of new trends.
Citations:
- Anyanwu, C. (2020, June 05). JOB SKILLS NEEDED AS COMPANIES REBUILD AFTER COVID-19 CRISIS. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://medium.com/@chizomastellaanyanwu/job-skills-needed-as-companies-rebuild-after-covid-19-crisis-eee5d00aae1
- Cartechini, L. (2020, April 30). Why Remote Working is Here to Stay. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://medium.com/pretiosum-ventures/why-remote-working-is-here-to-stay-65f015b09d9c
