Social media marketing has been ranked among the top 10 rising skills of LinkedIn members in the Asia Pacific region over the last five years, according to LinkedIn’s Future of Skills 2019 Report. Taking on positions such as digital marketing and social media specialists, members with the skill use it for promoting products and services through social media platforms to achieve business goals.

Meanwhile, the report said that the top 10 rising skills in Asia Pacific are dominated by technology-related skills. Specifically in Singapore, the top three rising skills in the workforce are blockchain, workflow automation and human-centred design. These rising skills can be used as a signpost for organisations to determine how the industry is innovating and transforming, and help their employees cope with the pace of change through upskilling.

“As digitalisation continues to transform the workforce at a rapid speed, certain skills are becoming less in-demand simply because different skill sets are required to navigate such transformation. It is therefore important for organisations to have a deep understanding of their current talent pool, and how to evolve it for their long-term business goals,” said Feon Ang, vice president for talent and learning solutions, Asia Pacific at LinkedIn.

Readiness for the future

As part of the report, LinkedIn also surveyed 4,136 employees and 844 learning and development (L&D) professionals across Singapore, Australia, India and Japan to identify employees’ readiness to tackle the future workforce and how L&D professionals are responding to skills transformation.

Findings pointed towards the increasing importance of soft skills, with both employees (62%) and L&D professionals (54%) in Singapore seeing soft skills as key in determining career progression. This is particularly so in a technology dominated world where “unique human talent” such as creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving are valued, said the report.

Despite the awareness of the need to upskill, employees believe that their companies are lagging behind when it comes to L&D, with two in five professionals feeling very confident that their organisations are able to help employees prepare for the future of work. As such, it does not come as a surprise that almost two in three respondents feel daunted by the pace of change in their industries.

According to employee respondents in Singapore, time (57%) is the most significant barrier that hinders one from undertaking L&D activities at work, although cost, accessibility, access to resources and general level of interest in the content also play a role. This is compounded with the mismatch in what is being offered by employers, and what employees want. In fact, only 17% of employees in Singapore are very satisfied with their company’s L&D offerings and more than two in five employees in Singapore have left a company that did not deliver L&D opportunities.

In view of the difficulties in finding time and accessing opportunities, Ang advised companies to empower and motivate employees to learn. “While we encourage organisations to tap on real-time data and insights to help inform them about trends in the talent marketplace, we also believe that embracing a culture of learning is just as important for organisations to remain resilient amidst a rapidly changing workforce,” she added.

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