Develop workers’ innovative skills to stay competitive
MANILA: Malaysian employers are urged to continuously develop their employees’ innovative skills to remain competitive and profitable for the future, especially in facing the Industrial Revolution 4.0.
Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd chief human capital officer Farid Basir said employers collectively shoulder the responsibility of preparing their employees to take on the 9-to-5 working world challenges.
He was speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Confederation of Employers (ACE) regional conference here.
Representing Malaysia as a council member of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), Farid shared various research studies that indicated innovation as the most important job skill required to endure the 21st century and the future.
“In simple terms, employees at all levels need to develop their innovative skills. These include competencies like creativity, communications, critical and strategic thinking, and problem-solving, in order to find and develop creative solutions to the complex world we live in,” he said at the conference themed “Asean Employers: Empowering People, Prioritising Skills”.
“Two reasons why these skills are becoming increasingly important are due to the changing nature of work and the rapid pace of such changes,” said Farid, adding that as transformative change sweeps through the working world, investing in skills’ development and training systems are also becoming more significant than ever.
Farid said Bank Rakyat had started adopting design thinking — a distinguished methodology that many global companies apply when approaching unmet needs of their customers, converting them into innovative opportunities.
“Bank Rakyat has started responding to disruptive innovations via design thinking. Disruptive innovations like fintech — computer programmes and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services — e-commerce and big data, to name a few, leave organisations with little choice but to innovate.
“Design thinking systematically helps us view problems and challenges as business opportunities. When customers are unhappy (the unmet needs), it is actually a positive feedback,” he highlighted.
ACE was established in 1978 in Singapore and is represented by employers’ organisations in Asean to optimise liaison, cooperation and representation in labour and social legislation, industrial relations and practices among themselves and in relation to the international community.
Its five founding members are the Employers’ Association of Indonesia, Employers Confederation of The Philippines, Employers Confederation of Thailand, MEF and the Singapore National Employers Federation.