Third Place Winner of the Writing Competition: "The Future is Data" by Katie McCarren
Kate McCarren is a current senior at Johns Hopkins University, where she is majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Entrepreneurship and Management. She is the President and CEO of Hopkins Student Enterprises and has also traveled to all seven continents. Her piece, “The Future is Data,” discussed the impacts data will have on shaping the skills and roles of the future workforce.
The breakfast preventing millennials from buying houses: avocado toast and a side of fruit accompanied by coffee from a Seattle-based beverage conglomerate. In this typical American breakfast, the avocados grown in Colombia, the blueberries shipped from Mexico, and the coffee blend originating in Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. A scroll through Instagram shows people traveling all over the world, a result of the jet age: easier and cheaper travel has aided over 1.2 billion people in crossing international borders and pursuing their wanderlust. Even the iPhone displaying these images is comprised of parts from 43 countries.
The world is undeniably more connected than ever before, and yet some feel that globalization is slowing amid declines in global output and international trade. However, globalization is not new. It is an ancient practice responsible for trade, religion, and even the spread of the population for as long as the human race has existed.
Globalization is not disappearing, it is simply transitioning. The trade of physical goods is slowing but the exchange of data is increasing more than ever before. Data is a buzzword heard across college campuses, board rooms and government buildings. So what is the big deal? Increasing data processing capabilities is transforming business at all levels and creating fundamental changes in how businesses operate.
Efficient machines and smarter artificial intelligence are already replacing data entry and manual labor positions in nearly all fields. This will continue to drive two demands: employees who can innovate and understand how these machines work and employees who have the strong social and emotional skills that these machines are missing. Revenue will rise and margins will shrink as consumer preferences are more accurately modeled, inventory management is optimized and administrative jobs are increasingly consolidated.
Industries are already beginning to see these effects as the “sharing” economy expands with an influx of freelancers and temporary employees who take their place at work. Demand for data scientists and those with advanced programming skills is growing at an unprecedented rate, and companies are willing to pay hefty sums for this expertise. Data has already impacted manufacturing at all points in the value chain from production to product development to marketing and sales. Traditional retail has been hit hard by increased digitization, and the industry is shifting to more accurately forecast risk and to personalize the marketing of products to consumers. The energy sector is incorporating more efficient technology which will allow access to new reserves and will increase extraction and production. Medicine is transforming as machines automate administrative tasks and advanced robots permit less invasive and more complex surgeries to be performed.
As industries develop, companies need to shift their mindset from stable to agile so they can adjust to rapid advancements. This means emphasizing cross-functional and team-based work as well as updating current position responsibilities. By redistributing tasks of traditional roles, a set of middle skill “new-collar” jobs will be created. By reforming roles, employee time will be streamlined to increase efficiency.
However, as roles and necessary skill sets shift to match corporate demand, there will soon be a shortage of available talent to supply the increasing demand. While large companies can raise salaries and incentivize prospective hires with benefits, small and medium size companies may not be able to compete. Hiring so many new employees also comes with an inherent risk; employees may not fit in with the existing company culture and they may leave shortly after joining the company. Additionally, anyone without these skills may be pushed out of their role and will need to either learn these skills or find a new way to market themselves.
Rather, businesses should focus on retraining their employees. By retaining their current workers, companies can preserve their functional knowledge, experience and company culture. They can further capitalize on a culture of lifelong learning. Surveys show that companies expect the most important skills they will need are IT programming, advanced literacy, critical thinking and problem solving. With developed programs, this proficiency can be taught in a way that aligns with the demands of their current and future roles. This education will allow businesses to retain high-performing employees as well as train and arm new hires with the necessary expertise to succeed.
Large companies can develop their own in-house programs to raise the skill capacity of current employees. Many corporations already have some type of education or training program that they can expand and leverage to include specific competencies. Small and medium sized companies can partner with educational institutes to provide these services. Online educational resources have spread in recent years from online colleges to Khan Academy to free online courses from some of our nation’s oldest, most prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. This will allow companies to cultivate their employees for more highly skilled roles.
In a world where it seems change is becoming the only constant, there are endless opportunities for both employers and employees to grow. Companies can evolve faster and workers can hone their expertise to take advantage of this changing environment. But rest assured, data scientists eat avocado toast, too.
“Businesses should focus on retraining their employees. By retaining their current workers, companies can preserve their functional knowledge, experience and company culture. ”