Growth in the tech sector continues to remain strong despite news of Big Tech layoffs. According to the 2023 Dice Tech Salary Report, the unemployment rate for tech jobs in January dropped to 1.5%. As of April, 2023, that rate is about 2.6%.
And even though some tech companies have disgorged themselves of some of their workers for assorted reasons, layoffs aren’t as prevalent as they may seem. In fact, according to CompTIA’s IT Industry Outlook 2023 report, we’re seeing record tech job growth in manufacturing, as well as other sectors such as healthcare and fintech.
In an industry where constant change is the norm, it’s important for employers to stay focused on how they can keep employees engaged and willing to learn – and sometimes that means reinventing old-school solutions to combat modern day challenges.
Any healthy organization has a useful dialog between the workforce and management. But the last few years have taught us that not all organizations know how to do this effectively. As a result, many organizations worldwide have lost track of what it means to nurture skills in their employees.
CompTIA research suggests the following are true about the workforce:
Upskilling employees is a key part of this experience. Today’s progressive organizations are gathering data about employee skills at an unprecedented rate. They are then helping those employees gain necessary skills to create technical solutions that improve the customer and partner experience.
In late 2022 and early 2023, I collaborated with several companies that are innovative when it comes to how they engage with their workforce. I recently visited Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Japan with my colleague, Makoto Ono, business development manager, CompTIA. During our time there we met with Keiichi Muramatsu, head of security education at NTT, who is responsible for upskilling both IT professionals and end users. He told us about the creative approach he has taken when it comes to employee education.
Visiting NTT Japan’s headquarters with Makoto Ono, business development manager, CompTIA.
The first creative thing that NTT Japan is doing is collecting data about their employee skill sets. Then, they map those skill sets to their overall company initiatives. For example, NTT noticed that only 20% of their customers saw NTT as a strategic partner. An overwhelming 80% saw NTT only as a vendor of internet services. They had a specific goal to triple growth – yes, 300% – in their security consulting business. They had six months to achieve this goal.
NTT’s security hiring managers started brainstorming with their educational services leaders about how to meet this goal. Keiichi and his team quickly realized two things:
To achieve this goal, the education leaders at NTT decided to reinvent an old-school solution.
In Japan it was customary in the 1980s and 1990s for children to start their day by participating in 3-minute drills every morning. These drills would usually take the form of a simple quiz. That quiz focused on a specific skill or topic related to what they had been learning that month. Why was this an important part of the day? Because educators knew that it was important to:
NTT’s leaders realized that these drills would provide some valuable insight in addition to helping them gather data, reinforce learning and create a learning culture within their organization. In response, their learning services team created micro-learning moments – or 3-minute drills. Sometimes, the drills consist of questions about security. For example, the security team would receive a series of 3-minute quizzes about incident response, or modern encryption practices. NTT would then evaluate responses and find practical ways to upskill workers.
Sometimes, that upskilling involves using CompTIA learning products. Other times, the learning focuses on durable skills training, or other relevant professional skills.
NTT found that the educational needs of each department varied a great deal. Sometimes, individuals needed to learn more about next-level virtualization. Others needed to learn more about Linux. Still other departments needed workers to become more digitally fluent by becoming CompTIA IT Fundamentals (ITF+) certified. Others needed to learn more about the cloud, while still others needed to learn about data analytics. The point is that NTT used their 3-minute drills to enable data-driven education and to re-engage their employees.
Using activities like these 3-minute drills, NTT was able to experience triple growth over a 3-year period. They also found that their employees were far more engaged. In fact, employees remained with the company far longer than before, mainly because the employees felt part of a strategic effort. They felt that NTT had invested in them.
Activities like these are prime examples of how a particular organization has re-engaged with their workforce. They are also real instances of digital transformation (DX). It was exciting to see NTT take a fairly unconventional approach to learning.
It’s vital to engage in a useful employer/employee dialog. That’s how we’ll ensure that we minimize resentment on both sides and maximize productivity and engagement. Is the dialog process easy? Hardly. But it’s absolutely worthwhile to any manager or organization that wants to achieve its goals.
Looking to upskill and reskill your employees? Learn More about CompTIA’s Custom Training Solutions.
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