Vision 2030 aims to change peoples mentality to gain better skills, empowerment

By Deputy Chief EditorMay 16, 2018

152 4 minutes read

Author: Rashid HassanWed, 2018-05-16 19:15ID: 1526487684234713200

JEDDAH: Korn Ferry, a US-based initiative that helps leaders and organizations to succeed by releasing peoples full potential through talent strategy tools and consulting services, released a study recently that projected a surplus of mid-skilled workers, and a deficit of high-skilled workers in the Kingdom.
The study, entitled “Future of Work Project,” combines quantitative and qualitative input from markets around the world to help government and corporate leaders better understand, prepare for and align the workforce of the future with the digital economy of the future.
A shortage of skilled talent will continue to impede growth and, if not addressed appropriately, could have a significant impact on major global economies by 2030, including a potential unrealized annual revenue of more than $206 billion in Saudi Arabia, the study revealed.
Addressing a press conference in Riyadh, Jonathan Holmes, managing director, Korn Ferry MENA, said: “This talent crisis has the potential to greatly impact individual company growth as well as ambitious national economic development strategies to diversify and grow local economies.
“Now is the time for leaders in both the public and private sectors to proactively plan and align the workforce of the future to power the growth needs of the economy of the future,” he added.
The study estimates the impending talent crunch by modeling the gap between future labor supply and demand at three critical milestones of 2020, 2025 and 2030.
It scrutinizes data and business intelligence to uncover the extent of the talent shortfall in 20 major developed and developing economies. Besides Saudi Arabia these include Brazil, Mexico, the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, the UAE, the UK, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Speaking to Arab News, George Karam, managing partner at Korn Ferry, said: “The study based on national statistics is global, representing the largest chunk of global economy in terms of financial as well as population in the workforce. We studied supply and demand and through sophisticated economic modeling, we made some predictions about the situation in the labor market, and how it is going to be.”
These are, of course, projections, because we are looking at the year 2030 as the key year. “What we have discovered through the analysis of the numbers is that even now, by 2020, if nothing serious and major gets done, we in Saudi Arabia will suffer a deficit in human capabilities at the top level, level A, of highly skilled workers, people with university education,” he added.
“A crunch on talent puts the country in a situation where there will be a huge loss, by 2030 the shortage of A level workers will cost $206 billion of unrealized output, which means product output that could have been realized if the country would have required skilled people,” he underlined.
He expressed hope, however, that Saudi Vision 2030 would do a lot of good addressing this issue to fill this projected gap, because a number of initiatives and programs have been designed and anchored around improving the capabilities of the human capital in Saudi Arabia and to attract and retain more Saudi nationals who are working outside the Kingdom.
Karam added: “There is a surplus of one million people at the level B of mid-skilled workers with high-school education and some level of professional qualification. If upgraded they can help fill the gap at the level A reducing talent deficit at the high level.”
He noted that Saudi Arabia is already taking proactive measures to strategically address their looming talent gaps as part of long-term economic and social development platforms, as does the creation of the National Digitization Unit (NDU) under the Saudi Vision 2030, which is structured to add an estimated 200,000 jobs to the economy by 2025 directly related to the role that advanced technology, artificial intelligence and industrial automation will play in the future of society.
Commending Saudi Vision 2030, he pointed out that it is not just aimed to help Saudis to get handsome salaries but rather to help them gain more talents, and better skills in different sectors by 2030.
“What is important is to change the mindset of the people toward excellence in their work,” he said. He adde that the future will be built on the effective partnership between people and technology.
The acute demand for workers with the right skills that businesses need, rather than the much-discussed domination of technology in business, could become the defining issue of our age, said Karam.
The study on talent shortage, supply and demand revealed that leaders belief that physical capital will outperform human capital in the future of work translates into a trillion-dollar blind spot, while
economic research as part of the same study proved that people are set to add $1.215 trillion to the global economy, almost 2.33 times greater than physical capital, including technology.
The new report highlights the challenge companies will face in finding talent with the right competencies and experience to fully realize that human capital potential as well as to maximize investments in advanced technologies that are impacting workforce needs.
On a global level, the potential unrealized economic opportunity totals more than $8.5 trillion due to a talent gap of more than 85 million skilled workers.
Markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa account for approximately $1.9 trillion in unrealized revenue potential annually by 2030, with a talent gap of 14.3 million workers.