The New York Times this weekend had a front page article on the future of work.
“Gearing Up for the Cloud: AT&T Tells It’s Workers: Adapt, or Else”
I guess this says it all: For large companies who have to compete in the world of disruption: employees are being told that they must adapt. But how?
“There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop,” said Randall Stephenson, the chief and chairman of AT&T.(1)
NEW MARKETPLACE – NEW COMPETITION.
AT&T’s competitors are not just Verizon, Sprint, and other phone and cell companies. AT&T must now compete with tech giants like Amazon and Google. They are now offering cell phone products and bandwidth. Google offers high speed internet in many cities.
AT&T CEO believes the need for competitiveness and even survival is the driver to retrain its 280,000 employees. How? One important skill is to improve their coding skills. Why? According to the NY Times, employees must now “make quick business decisions based on a fire hose of data coming into the company.”
The solution is lifelong learning.
And oh by the way, this is a condition of company competitiveness and employee employability.
Tough talk for tough times!
Employees must now enhance their skills. But, there’s a catch. “They have to take these classes on their own time and sometimes pay for them with their own money.”
AT&T CEO says:
“There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop. … People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning will obsolete themselves with the technology.”
“Over time, their grades are logged, and depending on how they do on the schoolwork, different new courses are suggested. Eventually, performance reviews will include data on what people studied, how well they did and whether, like Ms. Bell, they are willing to keep learning.”
Here’s the tough message: Learn or Out’ may be the message that many more companies are going to give employees and managers.
I don’t know if I’m read for this.
- NY Times February 14, 2016
Bio:
Greg Hutchins PE and CERM (503.233.101 & GregH@QualityPlusEngineering.com) is the founder of:
CERMAcademy.com
800Compete.com
QualityPlusEngineering.com
WorkingIt.com
He is the evangelist behind Future of Quality: Risk®. He is currently working on the Future of Work and machine learning projects.
He is a frequent speaker and expert on Supply Chain Risk Management and cyber security. His current books available on all platform are shown below:
