Experts call on employees to develop skills to cope with post-COVID-19 world

RIYADH: Human resources development experts have urged employees to acquire new skills to meet the needs of the post-COVID-19 period by keeping up with the latest developments in the labor market.
Serco Middle East, the international public service company, recommended that businesses and citizens adapt to changes in work performance, stressing the importance of training and new skills to meet the expectations of the “new customer” and called on employees to build new skills for their talents to thrive. It underscored the importance of using the latest technology innovations to provide excellent citizen experience.
Abdulrahman Alrefaie, CEO of Baseqat Arabia Consulting, believes that the most important lessons to learn from COVID-19 to survive in business is that the more connected one is, the more resilience one will have. “One should be able to work and learn anywhere anytime. Operations excellence, business agility, corporate governance and risk management are very important,” he said.
In his opinion, organization culture is the key to the success of any organization.
The most important competencies for employees in business post-COVID-19 would continue to be the 4Cs (communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration) as well as the ability to adapt to frequent changes, learn quickly remotely and perform at a high level without direct supervision, he said.
Alrefaie expects that demand in the new market after COVID-19 will increase in a number of professions including cyber-security, corporate governance and risk management, operation excellence, business agility and e-commerce.

One should be able to work and learn anywhere anytime. Operations excellence, business agility, corporate governance and risk management are very important.

Abdulrahman Alrefaie, CEO of Baseqat Arabia Consulting

Dr. Fahad Al-Sultan, CEO of FAACT Academy, said: “The concept of selling, purchasing and service provision will change after COVID-19. My sincere message to young men and women is to read and understand the new developments of the COVID-19 phase and arm themselves with the skills they need to cope with AI, business intelligence (BI) and the digitalization age because the skills youth have now are not enough to deal with the upcoming challenges.”
He said that the future would be in the hands of highly skilled youth. The Kingdom needs Saudi youth with international experience and skills that are different from current skills. They should possess the skills needed to provide remote services and deal with AI technology as well as BI skills.
“Youth need to know how to work smartly. The focus is no longer on physical work but on intelligence and mental efforts. My advice to the youth is to enhance their skills and be more creative and innovative to cope with the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
Khalid Al-Hazzaa, a human resources consultant, said that a new culture has emerged because of COVID-19, which posed great challenges to government service agencies and training organizations.
The main challenges could be found in the technology sector, to which training and educational institutions should give a high priority because the sector had been the most affected by COVID-19. A need for advanced virtual communication software had emerged, a software that facilitates communication for businesses and organizations remotely. He called on universities to update their academic programs to cope with the rapid developments of this period.
Government agencies should attract employees who can adapt quickly to new environments and change, and who knew how to use technology.
“Any employee should know how to use communication programs that provide services to customers as well as other technical solutions. He or she should be computer literate because the new culture will be digital and paper free. An employee should know how to make the right decision even if there is no sufficient data to do that. The ability to analyze data and make a decision accordingly is very important,” he said.
He called on managers and supervisors to adopt fair assessment techniques to assess an employee’s accomplishments and provide social and psychological help to employees when under pressure to help them cope more easily.