Top four skills you need to avoid being laid off

As more employers embark upon cost-cutting and lay off staff, an expert reveals the top tips you need to become unsackable.

As more companies embark upon cost-cutting to create efficiencies and increase productivity, employees might be facing the possibility of being laid off.

However, there are ways to improve your chances of keeping your job.

“There’s four critical skills that we would say that you’re going to need in order to make sure that you provide immense value to your organisation and hence don’t become one of those people that might get laid off,” Peter Grist, a learning and development expert, told news.com.au.

Mr Grist said the top skills employees need to become unsackable are:

-Being a continuous learner

-Problem solving

-Digital literacy, and

-Social influence.

Learning and development expert Peter Grist. Picture: Supplied

Mr Grist explained that being a continuous learner involvesupskilling on an ongoing basis, while problem solving encompasses the ability to solve more complex tasks.

He said this skill is particularly important because simple problem solving is going to be increasingly handled by automation and AI.

Digital literacy involves the ability to work with technology and use data to solve problems, while social influence is an employees’ ability to collaborate and influence others in order to create better outcomes for the organisation.

The ability to upskill will help you keep your job. Picture: iStock.

WHAT MAKES THESE SKILLS STAND OUT?

Mr Grist’s company, Grist Consulting, undertook a meta analysis of data from the World Economic Forum, the Australian Government and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to try to work out the skills that are going to make employees stand out in the future.

He said these skills link to major trends happening in the economy.

One of these is the influence of AI, which he said will impact the white collar workforce in a way similar to how mechanical automation affected blue collar workers.

“Any repetitive tasks that the white collar workforce is currently undertaking, AI is really going to take over those sorts of roles.”

Mr Grist said roles such as copywriting or repeating any communications that go out to clients are among those that will be taken over by AI.

“As you automate tasks, people are not doing repetitive tasks.

“They’re now going to be working with each other to try and solve more complex problems so that’s where the social influence comes in.”

A huge shift in digital literacy is happening at the moment. Picture: iStock

With digital literacy, he pointed to demographic shifts happening in Australia as influencing this.

“The skills they’ve got now are not the skills they’ll need in the future.

“Because of the rate of change that we’re actually going through, if you can’t be a continuous learner, then you’re going to get left behind fairly quickly.

“That’s why those four key areas we see are critically important.”

What is left for humans to do is to solve the more complex problems. Picture: iStock

THE BIG MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE THAT COULD GET THEM LAID OFF

Mr Grist said the big mistake that could get workers laid off in the future will be to not keep themselves up-to-date with the skills that the organisation requires.

“A lot of organisations will be responsible for helping people change and re-skill but there needs to be a lot of individual responsibility,” he said.

“Individuals out there need to be looking at their role and going, ‘Is my role really in danger?’

‘If my role is in danger, then what are the skills I need to make sure that I’m the last one that they would consider laying off?’

He added that employees should avoid making the mistake of “not taking personal responsibility for having the skills that your organisation needs in the future”.

Organisations will be responsible for helping people change and re-skill, but it’s good to take on the onus as an employee. Picture: iStock

WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO APPROACH YOUR BOSS ABOUT RESKILLING?

Mr Grist advised staff to initiate the conversation about reskilling at their next performance review.

“Put it on the agenda, but tell them that you don’t want to talk about it right now,” he said.

“Set aside a specific time and give them some time to prepare and think about it before coming into that conversation.”

He said to ask about the skills that the team needs that is doesn’t currently have.

“Going to your leader or others who have influence in your organisation and being the one that proactively asks that question actually starts to set you apart.

“If all those leaders are sitting in a room and they’re going, ‘Look, we’ve got 20 people here and we need to let go 10 of them’, the fact that you’ve come along and asked that question will ensure that you’re seen slightly differently.”

But after asking the question, Mr Grist suggested that employees who then take it upon themselves to develop the skills that are going to be required in the future will be “way ahead of everyone else”.

Chat with your boss about wanting to re-skill. Picture: iStock

BEST ADVICE

Mr Grist said that of the four skills to make yourself unsackable, it’s not essential to be across all of them.

“I’m not saying you have to be good at all four of those but what I would suggest is at least one of those or maybe two.

“If you start looking for opportunities to demonstrate social influence, digital literacy, complex problem solving and be a continuous learner, then you are going to make sure that you become the person who is last to be laid off.”

Originally published as Top four skills you need to avoid being laid off