Randstad: Only 1 in 3 French workers feel the need to learn digital skills

Re.sources, a think tank on group work by Randstad, unveils the results of its first re.search study on the challenges of increasing digital skills for employees. This survey, conducted in 34 countries, shows France's place in the face of the main challenge for tomorrow's jobs. 

The balance is subdued for the Hexagon; indeed the French appear less "techno-enthusiastic" than the average. Only 64% of them consider the impact of digital on their business as positive, compared with an average of 75% in the rest of the world. More worrying still, they seem to misjudge the impact of digital on employment and the need to acquire new skills. While 85% of jobs in 2030 do not exist yet [1], only 34% of French people feel the urgency of training. Even more striking, 87% of them said that this necessary training is the sole responsibility of their employer. These figures reveal a particularly marked passivity in France and a wait-and-see attitude that contrasts sharply with the recent reform of vocational training, which focuses heavily on individual responsibility.

[1] "Emerging technologies' impact on society & work in 2030", Dell Technologies & Institute for the Future (IFTF), 2017

"Digital is already having a major impact on the evolution of professional skills. Trades, even the most traditional ones, are rapidly digitalizing. Surely, companies as employees must measure the magnitude of this revolution unfolding before our eyes. The reform of vocational training aims to enable everyone to become a player in their learning. But it is still necessary that the French take the cultural shift that is necessary. Our study Randstad re.search shows that our compatriots remain in this respect still far from the account: nearly 90% of them think that the responsibility for their rise in competence on the digital comes back to their employer, whereas they must put them, too, in running order.

François Béharel, President of the Randstad Group in France.

While the fears and fantasies of a replacement of humans by robots are often relayed, the Randstad reSearch study raises an optimistic verdict: the impact of digital on jobs is positively perceived. by three quarters of respondents (74%) worldwide. While two-thirds of French people (64%) share this finding, they appear to be significantly less "techno-optimistic" than the average. This gap is even more glaring when we compare the Hexagon to countries that have made digital one of the pillars of their economic transformation, such as China (93%), but also to others whose The economy is less marked by digital, such as Mexico (90%), Brazil (87%) and Turkey (86%).

Digital: For France, pessimistic and passive technology

More surprisingly, Portugal (83%), Greece (82%), Italy (80%) and Spain (78%), which suffered the full crisis of 2008 and endemic unemployment, perceive the digital more clearly than average. Technological optimism thus seems to have its roots in two opposite situations: on the one hand, in societies where technologies allow obvious economic progress, for the benefit of the entire population, as is the case, for example, in Asia Southeast; on the other, in societies where technology is part of a necessary strategy, almost survival, in economies that have won because they have not been able to adapt to economic developments, as was the case in the south. from Europe.

• 74% of the sample perceives the impact of technology on their job as an opportunity

This hypothesis is confirmed by another statistic derived from the Randstad research study. While globally, nearly one in two (47%) feel the need to train to evolve their skills in the face of the impact of digital, only a third of French (34%) is aware of this. stake. For comparison, in China, as in Italy, this rate rises to 80%. The study portrays a passive France facing the ongoing digital revolution. However, as the integration of technologies into the world of work is becoming faster and the obsolescence of digital skills acquired during initial training cycles is accelerating, continuing education appears as a major lever for adaptation skills.

• 47% feel the need to train to develop their digital skills

The French: A pathological report to the boss?

So, who is responsible for the training? Three-quarters of the surveyed panel (76%) believe that it is primarily the responsibility of the employer. The company that needs to transform numerically must logically assume the rise in competence of its employees. But France stands out here, because this feeling is shared by nearly 9 people out of 10 (87%). The Hexagon is therefore the second most demanding country towards the bosses, just behind the very centralized and centralized China (90%). When we read this statistic in parallel with the other figures in the study, we note a form of wait-and-see attitude on the part of French employees. This passivity questions the future of the reform of vocational training:

• 76% believe it is the responsibility of their employer to train them in digital

The study also reveals that, while the French expect a lot from their company to acquire new digital skills, these hopes are often disappointed. Globally, just under one in two employees (44%) believe that their employer is investing in training actions on the most pressing technological issues of the coming years. In France, this rate drops to 37%. French employees therefore seem to harbor disproportionate expectations vis-à-vis their employers. In this context, making one's own rise in skills on the goodwill of companies appears risky. All do not measure the impact of digital on their business model and the need to adapt.

• 44% think that their employer is investing in training in the technological challenges of tomorrow

In summary, what should be concluded from the results of the Randstad research study? That French workers are less optimistic and perceive less than the international average the impacts of digital on employment and the need to train. They expect a lot from the company in terms of training and believe that it does not do enough to date. Behind this wait-and-see attitude, is it necessary to look down on the Hexagon's still privileged position? Despite the successive crises, France is still 7^th in the world and experienced no sudden drop economy, which could create a shock. But there is an urgent need: while digital infiltrates all strata of the economy, 14 million French are affected by "illectronism [1]".

[1] This term refers to digital illiteracy - the difficulty of using the tools and services associated with the Internet

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