Savvy digital leaders thrive in hybrid world

Yet what are the qualities that set digital leaders apart? For one, they’re willing to hire outside the box. This means augmenting full-time positions in a business with a nimble contract workforce that can be scaled up or down to meet changing business demands.

More pertinently, it’s about building a workforce that has the desire and opportunity to continuously learn. The old days of a career spent honing one repetitive skill or role are gone. Now it’s about reskilling and upskilling as new technologies emerge.

How is this done? Digital leaders need to establish and maintain the culture of a learning organisation so they’re constantly raising the digital skills of their workforces. This could mean providing access to a treasure trove of digital resources that allow employees to learn at their own pace, supported by gamification to incentivise them to take full advantage of these resources (and keep up with their colleagues).

And one of the best ways to ensure people have access to learning resources is to give them the flexibility to work, learn and live practically anywhere. As we’ve seen over the last two years, remote working has become the norm for so many.

Allowing that workplace flexibility is one of the key factors setting digital leaders apart. It’s also helping them attract the best talent as employees search for flexible workplaces which allow them the to find a better work-life balance, whatever that might mean to them.

According to Howatt, organisations will need to assess a candidate’s potential for adapting to a changing environment rather than demand an exact fit during the hiring process.

She says companies hoping to narrow the digital IQ gap should keep an open mind and plan on reskilling or upskilling existing talent as well as new hires.

Tech Council of Australia CEO Kate Pounder says the task ahead for Australian firms when it comes to boosting digital IQ is formidable, and agrees that thinking outside the box when it comes to taking on new staff is crucial.

“Australia will need an extra 260,000 people to enter tech jobs over the next four years,” says Pounder, whose recently formed peak body represents some of Australia’s biggest and hottest tech companies including Atlassian, Afterpay and Canva.

“The best and fastest way for the tech sector to find new talent is to broaden the pool of people we hire, in terms of gender diversity, skills and studies, and age, because it means there are more people available in Australia to work in the sector.

“In particular, reskilling and transitioning workers into the sector will be the main way people enter the sector in the next four years, with 146,000 people forecast to come by this path,” Pounder says.

While many companies have been able to pivot and move relatively seamlessly forward with their digital transformation others are finding it difficult to adapt.

Protiviti’s Senior Digital Director, Rupesh Mahto suggests it’s not too late to act and offers a few pointers for organisations still at the beginning of their transformation journey.

Mahto says organisations need to draw on human-centric design principles and bring new digital expertise into a business and meld those people with an organisation’s future leaders.

Where possible he says business should look to increase automation while ensuring it augments the workforce and increases efficiency. Companies should also embrace data to gain a better understanding of their entire operations.

This means constantly utilising real-time data to streamline business processes and understand where bottlenecks and inefficiencies lie.

Bringing technology, data and human insight together can only help to raise an organisation’s digital IQ and help ensure it prospers in the digital economy.

Learn more about the power of digital transformation, and register for Protiviti’s upcoming webinar with Leslie Howatt and Rupesh Mahto: How Emerging Technology Enables Digital Transformation Trends in 2022.