Human Centered Approach for New Skilling Strategies

A Human-centered
Approach for New
Skilling Strategies
How to support employees in their
journey through transformation?
Disclaimer: The “A Human-centered Approach for New Skilling Strategies”
concept paper is not official point of view of Accenture and only reflect
thoughts and findings of their authors as individual learning professionals.

Table of Content
How Organizations Have to
Adapt to the Future of Work?
How Employees Have to
Adapt to the Future of Work?
So, What?
Employees Wellbeing in
a VUCA World
Employees and the Future
of Work
Primary Research
Methodology
9 Common Beliefs on the
Future of Work
Key Concepts about the
Future of Work
2.3
2.4
2.5
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
Employees in Transition
Employees in Transition
Matrix
Personas Description
Now What?
Supporting Futureproof
Workers
Recommended Actions
References
4.0
4.1
4.2
5.0
5.1
5.2
Introduction
What?
Our Objective
Our Method
Our Point of View
Organizations and Workforce
in a VUCA World
The VUCA World, Today
Constant Change and
Organizations
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.2
Contacts

What?
We live in a world were finding one
solution matching all is close to
impossible. When in 1987 the
acronym “VUCA”, standing for
Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and
Ambiguous, was first used it was
already announcing that preaching
the one right strategy or the only
right response to a complex question
will no longer be a possibility.
The increase in volatility, uncertainty,
complexity and ambiguity, brought
a great challenge to organizations,
but at the same time provided them
with a great opportunity: it allowed
them to individualize their response
to the upcoming challenges.
Introduction of the term Fourth
Industrial Revolution in 2015 by the
World Economic Forum, underlined
even bigger alterations in the way we
live, work and interact coming our
way at a scale and speed never seen
before. However, at the same time it
provided organizations with more
opportunities and tools to tailor their
strategies to their individual context.
Today, the world is emerged in this
global revolution, which is bringing
digital disruption and strongly
affecting the future of work.
Organizations need to adjust quickly
without leaving efficiency aside, an
objective that has become even
more crucial since the COVID-19
pandemic.
Coping with these changes, calls for
organizations to implement
strategies that will allow them to
adapt their current workforce to
these new dynamics in an agile way,
responding to the challenges arriving
it today’s VUCA World. They require
to transform the way employees
work, the type of tasks they perform,
and skills needed to succeed in their
jobs.
These changes take employees out
of their comfort zone and may
trigger emotional disturbance; hence
it is important to discuss the
employees’ psycho-social
perspective regarding the
transformation and summarize
possible coping strategies.

The aim of this research and concept
paper is to reframe the perspective
towards the future of work by
repositioning the employees as the
central subjects of the transformation,
leaving aside the employers’ point of
view, widely addressed by other
studies.
Our Objective
Our starting point are the uncertainties of employees
regarding their future which help us to identify how
organizations can better support employees to help them
become empowered & future-proof workers.
Our Method
In order to achieve the purpose of our
research and find how to best support
employees during the transformation,
we have:
Researched secondary sources, both from Accenture and
external organizations to understand how are organization
coping with changes and addressing new needs.
Facilitated Design Thinking activities to discover the
notions of workers about their future and analyze which
are the most common assets, needs and beliefs that the
future workforce currently have.

Our Point of View
In this POVs, we underline that employees are the biggest assets in
the organization and should be recognized as a key subject and not
as a passive targets of transformation. We believe that in
conversations about new ways of working, it is crucial to involve the
human-centered perspective, so often overlooked.
Employees’ experiences, anxieties and hopes set up our approach
to design insightful tools to scaffold the path to the future and to
understand in-depth which skills are going to be a key asset for them
to cope with the new reality.

Organizations
and Workforce
in a VUCA World

THE VUCA WORLD, TODAY
Today, we are immersed in the time of the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. The changes that have started in the middle of
the last century are now evolving at an exponential rather
than a linear pace, which makes this transformation unique
in and for human history. Not only this disruption affects the
communications, commerce, industries and ways of
learning but also has major consequences on the
workforce and the skills required.
Rapid, frequent and unpredictable changes, and their
interdependent causes, are the baseline for Volatile,
Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) work
environment, that is challenging on organizational, but
more importantly individual level.
It requires employees to approach the changes with certain
skills, attitudes, knowledge while at the same time having
organizational support in providing the individuals with
Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.
Complexity
Multiple key
decision
factors
Ambiguity
Too many
“Unknown
Unknows”
Uncertainty
Pending
change:
Known
unknowns
Volatility
Rapid and
unexpected
challenges

CONSTANT CHANGE AND ORGANIZATIONS
As a result of automation, work augmentation, and changes in the ways of working, the job structure is
impacted. This displaces workers from their current workplaces and pushes them to move either within the
organization or even to search beyond their current employer. In this sense, future talent and skills’ sets will
become a critical factor to understand the demands of the job market.
Most of the research on how these changes are reshaping the Future of Work focuses on the market trends and
its demands, new technologies and skills gap. The organizations’ point of view adopted by many of the
available Point of Views shows the high importance of the topic across the companies and how they are
preparing to cope with these challenges, but it can also undermine the individual role and agency of the
employees in the transformation.
In this research we aim to recover that perspective in order to consider the employee’s point of view and
propose coping strategies to allow organizations to better support them. However, first we need to understand
how organizations are assessing the changes and what goals they are setting to better perform in a VUCA
work environment.
In the next pages we will present the organizations’ perspective on what these changes mean for them and how
to adapt employees to these new work environments.

HOW ORGANIZATIONS HAVE TO ADAPT TO THE
FUTURE OF WORK?
“In order to accommodate the effects of the Forth Industrial Revolutions companies will have to rethink how the
work is organized withing the organizations. They will have to look at not only on how automation and AI
technologies impact the size of their workforce, but even more importantly will undergo a major mid-set shift
and install the culture of lifelong learning”. (Skill shift: Automation and the future of workforce, McKinsey Global
Institute)
“It is crucial for organizations that its workforce is adequately skilled and highly committed to keeping those
skills up-to-date in order to maintain or improve its competitiveness on the market”. (Implications of Labour
Market Dynamics for Lifelong Learning, A. de Grip)
“The future of leadership will see employees given far more freedom and opportunities; new ways of working
giving workers flexibility and empowerment will become essential to both large and small businesses to remain
relevant”. (Future Workforce: Adapting Organizations for the Future of Work, Harvard Business Publishing)
“Leading in the future will demand rethinking core assumptions about
how an enterprise works and redefining the intersection between
people and technology.”
Accenture Technology Vision 2020
Many experts’ point of views have already presented the direction organizations need to follow in order to
tackle the upcoming changes and remain competitive in the new working reality. Despite focusing here on
employees, it is inevitable to discuss organizations’ perspective, as it has tremendous impact on individuals.

HOW EMPLOYEES HAVE TO ADAPT TO THE
FUTURE OF WORK?
“Workers in entry-level or mid-career jobs where a high proportion of time is spent on routine, automatable
activities will experience the biggest change”. (Inclusive Future of Work, Accenture)
“There is a need to nurture a participative attitude from employees, especially in technology-intensive
environments”. (The Future of Jobs and Jobs Training, Pew Research Center)
“Employees involved with the new technology were surveyed to take into account the employees’ expectations
and fears regarding work design characteristics”. (Employees First, Technology Second, Implementation of
Smart Glasses in a Manufacturing Company)
Taking organizations' point of view it is important to realize that employees will be crucial to remain
competitive on the market. Researchers point out what organizations have to foster among their employees to
successfully transition into the new.
“Workforces are becoming human+:
each individual is empowered by their skillsets and knowledge plus a
new, constantly growing set of capabilities made possible through
technology.”
Accenture Technology Vision 2019

How organizational transformation will affect the
emotionalwell-being of employees?
?
?
?
?
?
With transformation of business operations that are inevitable in VUCA world, organizations need to support
their employees to respond to these changes in an agile and undisturbed way. The discovery questions
presented below become the starting point for our considerations on how to ensure that workers stay relevant
and eager to tackle the upcoming change, and to help organizations and employees to work together toward
the new.
How to empower employees to embrace the new ways
of working?
How to take into account employee’s uncertainties
regarding their future?
How to nurture a participative attitude from employees?
What approach could be used in order to support
employees during the transformation?
SO, WHAT?

Employees
Wellbeing
in a VUCA World

EMPLOYEES AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
The Feeling of Fear among Local Government Administration Employees as a Result of the Introduction of E-Administration
Prudential's long position on skills: fostering careers while embracing automation, HBS Managing the Future of Work
T E C H N O L O G Y
Employees expressed
concerns mainly about
the difficulty of
mastering new
computer software and
information technology
tools and, consequently,
additional workloads
and duties.
Therefore, there was a
noticeable problem of
technological anxiety.
S K I L L S
+30% of the employees are not sure
they have the skills to do their
current job.
Looking 10 years forward, 50% of
employees face uncertainty of
having the rights skills for the job.
C
A T T I T U D E S
80% of employees recognize that
the evolution and deployment of
technology is a good thing both for
their companies and for them (to be
better at their jobs).
With the growing awareness of the benefits of technological changes also among employees, we tend to
undervalue the personal consequences related with changing jobs and need for new skilling.
While there might be many positive consequences, the feeling of uncertainty, lack of stability, fear of change
and technological anxiety cannot be ignored.

In order to further investigate the common beliefs on the
future of current workforce and recognize the feelings
related to the transformations and how they impact
employees, both at personal and professional level, we
organized and facilitated several Design Thinking
brainstorming sessions among Latin America and Central
European Accenture employees.
Participants were asked for their perception of how the
workday looks like, what skills are needed to perform
everyday tasks, what is their relationship with technology
and how social aspects of work are looking like for the
present and future state, for several companies with
different organizational culture. Sessions were based on the
Creative Matrix method performed with the use of online
collaboration tools.
• Total Design Thinking sessions: 3
• Participants: 15
• Activity Type: Alternative Worlds
PRIMARY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Figure 1: Creative Matrix from Design Thinking Workshop

1. Technology is vital part of your day-to-day activities, and technological savviness is key to survive
2. Adaptiveness is the key skill to survive (cope with uncertainty, to work remotely, to focus in hyperconnected
activities)
3. Flexibility in terms of time and space is very important (my office is wherever I go)
4. Life-long-learning attitude is crucial to advance your career and stay up-to-date
5. Ability to work independently and at the same time build relationships with colleagues is crucial for
teamwork
6. Network is very important for successful career; meaningful relationships with peers should be empowered
by the environment and companies' culture
7. Building your social media presence helps you get ahead of the competition
8. Gamification is a tool and a way of working
9. Work and life are intertwining, blurring the divisions throughout the day
Research Outcome #1
9 COMMON BELIEFS ON THE FUTURE OF WORK
Inputs from the brainstorming sessions were analyzed and clustered to identify similarities. As a result, the Nine
Common Beliefs on the Future of Work have been formulated:

Research Outcome #2
KEY CONCEPTS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF WORK
Based on the inputs gathered during the Design Thinking
sessions, we proceed to create a world cloud to highlight the
most frequent words or concepts that appeared in the Creative
Matrix. As a result, we were able to identify three main themes,
considering that many of the smaller terms (lower frequency)
can also be linked to these concepts.
• Social
• Flexible
• Collaborative
These themes were organized in a matrix that allowed us to
create archetypes to further explain how employees go through
a transformation. The Social and Flexible themes inspired the
axis of the matrix, understanding these concepts as dimensions
that involve both social and individual aspects of the employees,
while each archetype represents a different model of
interaction, addressing the Collaborative side of employees .
*Technological aspects have been excluded from this analysis as they are
out of scope for this POVs.
Figure 2: Word cloud highlighting results of the DT sessions.

EMPLOYEES IN TRANSITION MATRIX
Inspired by selected dimensions of
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension theory and
on the three themes identified on our
research, we built a matrix that depicts and
generates personas based on the different
ways of coping with these changes as
outcomes. The personas are ideal types to
help identify and analyze the different
behaviors towards a transformation, but
they do not necessary match with a real
person.
The Hofstede's cultural dimension theory
has been widely used as a model for
research and as an asset when there is
a need on understanding social beliefs.
*The archetypes have been simplified to
better illustrate the concept. Personas can be
polished and further developed in later stage
of the research.
COMPETITIVE
COOPERATIVE
INDEPENDENT
COLLABORATIVE
RIGID FLEXIBLE
INDIVIDUAL
SOCIAL
PERSONAL
AGILITY
SOCIAL
INTEGRATION

UNDERSTANDING THE MATRIX
Personal Agility
Aligned with the “Uncertainty avoidance”
dimension in the Hofstede's cultural dimension
theory and the Flexible theme identified in our
research, the agility dimension (horizontal axis)
focus on how employees cope with changes in
the way they work.
The categories rigid and flexible (and all the
ranges in between) aim to identify the level of
adaptability that the employee displays during
a transformation.
Low agility (rigid) characterizes individuals who
are uncertain towards change and prefer as-is
ways of working, current rules and regulations.
High agility (flexible) individuals thrive on
change, tend to cope well with dynamic and fast
environment and quickly adapt to new reality.
Social Integration
The Hofstede's cultural dimension theory
recognizes the “Individualism vs Collectivism” as
one of the dimension to analyze the degree of
integrations into groups. Based on the Social
theme identified in our research and aligned with
that cultural dimension, this integration
dimension (vertical axis) aims to identify
employee’s orientations towards collaboration
during a transformation.
Low integration (Individual) is characteristic for
employees that prefer working independently,
rather than in a group. They prefer not to share
the responsibility and take full ownership of their
tasks.
High Integration (Social) describe workers
preferring teamwork. For them, being part of
a team is a motivational factor and ensures
better performance.
RIGID FLEXIBLE
INDIVIDUAL
SOCIAL

PERSONA: COMPETITIVE
During a transformation, a competitive employee tends to feel insecure about their position in the
company. Changes may be considered a threat to them, which may result in unfavorable behaviors
towards colleagues and leadership.
The competitive side can be an asset if the changes are introduced as new opportunities to grow or
if because of their experience, competitive persona would be positioned as an expert to consult the
process with.
During critical transformations, competitive employees can:
▪ Feel threatened if they feel their place may be jeopardized by other colleagues
or the change itself. Highlight the value they bring to the team and recognize
their unique assets and provide clear information on the transition.
▪ Have trouble adjusting to changes and tend to set apart from their peers when
feeling uncertain.
COMPETITIVE
RIGID
INDIVIDUAL
Flexible
Social

PERSONA: COOPERATIVE
During a transformation, a cooperative employee may feel anxious due to the lack of control they
experience. Changes in the routine make them feel uncomfortable and they tend to openly express
their resistance to the transformation which may spread negativity within the group. When feeling
insecure they may develop a more competitive behavior.
Cooperative employees tend to be career-focused and build professional networks while keeping
their independence. They usually value a good work environment and communicate often with
their peers and leadership. They tend to be result-oriented and may feel threatened if they perceive
that changes affect efficacy in a negative way.
During critical transformations, cooperative employees can:
• Feel threatened when their routine and daily tasks are impacted.
Experiencing a lack of control of the new situation may increase their
emotional disturbance.
• Have trouble if the efficiency is impacted during the transformation. They
may resist change if they feel that adapting to the new and unfamiliar
dynamic might somehow impact efficacy.
COOPERATIVE
SOCIAL
RIGID
Flexible
Social

PERSONA: INDEPENDENT
During a transformation, an independent employee feels confident about their role on the
organization and looks forward to changes. New ways of working and challenges are great
motivators for them. They are open to form new habits within a transition.
They may feel threatened if they experience that change may negatively affect their position or loss
of independence.
During critical transformations, cooperative employees can:
• Feel threatened if they loss independency to work and to make decisions.
• Have trouble if the work environment turns into a highly interdependent space.
They tend to become too competitive towards teammates and rely on
themselves.
INDEPENDENT
FLEXIBLE
INDIVIDUAL
Flexible
Social

PERSONA: COLLABORATIVE
During critical transformations, collaborative employees can:
• Feel threatened in hierarchical organizations with a rigid tasks’
allocation that cuts off their social orientation.
• Have trouble if they feel they need to compete with their peers in
order to grow instead of having opportunities to connect and
interact with others.
COLLABORATIVE
FLEXIBLE
SOCIAL
During a transformation, a collaborative employee embraces changes considering that it an
opportunity to have new experiences and broaden their network. They consider that changes are
usually positive and trust in their colleagues to overcome difficulties. Their confidence in the team
dynamics might diminish their self-assurance and make them feel vulnerable when being accountable
for their individual responsibilities. They tend to hide behind the team which may negatively impact
their performance. Remote working may be challenging for collaborative employees due to the
reduction/lack of social interaction, and they tend to feel discouraged when faced with isolation.
Flexible
Social

SUPPORTING FUTUREPROOF WORKERS
At the beginning of this document, we introduced five discovery questions to guide our research. The first one,
“How organizational transformation will affect the emotional well-being of employees?”, led to the creation of
the Employees in Transition Matrix where we identified how each archetype copes with an uncertain scenario.
Following this matrix, we can now consider the characteristics of each persona, their concerns, expectations and
pain points during a transformation to present different approaches that organizations should consider to
support employees when going through a change journey and adopting new ways of working.
In the following table we are proposing possible courses of action to address the remaining discovery questions
anticipated in this POVs:
• How to empower employees to embrace the new ways of working?
• How to take into account employee’s uncertainties regarding their future?
• What approach could be used in order to support employees during the transformation?
• How to nurture a participative attitude from employees?
These suggestions are starting points that include specific actions to ease the transformation journey for the
employees by considering how each archetype deals with this situation.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS - COMPETITIVE
Discovery Questions Action Competitive
How to empower employees to embrace
the new ways of working?
Empower
• Provide new opportunities to grow.
• Position as experts and consult the process with
them.
How to take into account employee’s
uncertainties regarding their future?
Inform & Engage
• Provide clear information on the Transition. Highlight
specific changes and explain exact impact on their
Role.
• Provide recognition, as being recognized for their
accomplishments might be of a value to goal-
oriented employees.
What approach could be used in order to
support employees during the
transformation?
Train for support
• Suggest some trainings to help them improve/build
new skills that will mitigate pain points, such as:
Cognitive Flexibility, Creativity, Empathy.
How to nurture a participative attitude
from employees?
Nurture a participative
attitude
• Propose gaming strategies/challenges to explore
new opportunities.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS - COOPERATIVE
Discovery Questions Action Cooperative
Empower
• Give space for them to share ideas and participate in
group activities.
Inform & Engage
• Inform how transition will affect them and explain
how the Team will go through that with the support
from Leadership.
• Appraise their ideas and opinions. They want to be
recognized in an individual level for the value they
bring to the organization.
transformation?
Train for support
• Suggest some training to help them improve/build
new skills that will mitigate pain points, such as: Agile
Collaboration, Growth Mindset and Resilience.
from employees?
attitude
• Engage in creative problem-solving workshops.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS - INDEPENDENT
Discovery Questions Action Independent
Empower
• Showcase how the changes create new opportunities
for them.
Inform & Engage
• Highlight the personal benefits of the transition and
their opportunity to grow.
• Engage them in new assignments/tasks with clear
ownership.
transformation?
Train for support
new skills that will mitigate pain points, such as:
Teamwork, Empathy and Active listening.
from employees?
attitude
• Challenge to take ownership of the tasks in the new.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS - COLLABORATIVE
Discovery Questions Action Collaborative
Empower
• Make them active sponsors of the transformation.
• Recognize good performance to reinforce self-
confidence.
Inform & Engage
• Highlight the general benefits of the Transition for
the Team and explain how it will be a collaborative
effort.
• Keep them in the loop: schedule frequent
touchpoints.
• Provide opportunities to spread and couch on
collaborative dynamics with their peers.
transformation?
Train for support
new skills that will mitigate pain points, such as: Self-
Confidence, Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving.
• Prioritize Instructor Lead Trainings, Social Learning
and Workshops.
from employees?
attitude
• Engage in co-creation of the design of the future.

POINTS OF CONTACT
Macarena
Leiton
Agnieszka
Drozdzal
Agata Lech Pierina
Tegaldo
Grzegorz
Plezia
Marek Hyla
grzegorz.plezia
@accenture.com
marek.hyla
@accenture.com
macarena.leiton
@accenture.com
agnieszka.drozdzal
@accenture.com
agata.lech
@accenture.com
pierina.tegaldo
@accenture.com

REFERENCES
1. Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie (2017). The Future of Jobs and Jobs Training, Pew Research Center, retrieved from:
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/
2. Ellen Bailey and Dalia Molokhia (2020). Future Workforce: Adapting Organizations for the Future of Work, Harvard Business Publishing, (podcast) retrieved
from: https://www.harvardbusiness.org/insight/adapting-organizations-for-the-future-of-work/
3. Hasan Bakhshi, Jonathan M. Downing, Michael A. Osborn, and Philippe Schneider (2017). The Future of skills. Employment in 2030, Pearson, Nesta, Oxford
Martin School, retrieved from: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:86577437-1353-4743-8520-
401c1f99ad1b/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Future%2Bof%2Bskills%2BVoR.pdf&type_of_work=Report
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Implementation of Smart Glasses in a Manufacturing Company, Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie 64(1):46-57.
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“tech-clash”?, Accenture, retrieved from: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/technology/technology-trends-2020
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of-the-workforce#
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REFERENCES
10.Chris Chu, Allison Horn, Francesca Fernandez, and Lisa Neuberger-Fernandez (2018). Inclusive Future of Work: A call to Action, Accenture, retrieved from:
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-114/Accenture-Inclusive-Future-Work-Full-Report.pdf#zoom=40
11. Andires de Grip (2010). Implications of Labour Market Dynamics for Lifelong Learning, Education and the requirements of the GCC labor market.
12. HBS Managing the Future of Work (Conversation with Prudential Vice Chairman Robert Falzon) (2019). Prudential's long position on skills: fostering careers
while embracing automation, retrieved from: https://hbs-mfw.libsyn.com/prudentials-long-position-on-skills-fostering-careers-while-embracing-
automation
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