The UK is in a war for talent. While the unemployment rate shifts month to month, overall this figure has remained relatively low for an extended time – further illustrating the skills shortage across the UK. Contributor Matt Weston, Managing Director, Robert Half UK.

While there isn’t a single solution to this, the Spring Statement last week highlighted that jobs, skills investment and productivity are high on the agenda. With the fourth industrial revolution affecting most aspects of our life today, businesses need to consider how the future workplace needs to adapt so that we can continue to attract, retain and develop top talent into the UK economy.

As businesses continue to transform operations digitally, the benefits are starting to become evident. Improved efficiency and productivity, better decision-making and the opportunity for employees to spend time on more value-add work leading all lead to happier workforces and more fulfilling careers.

In recent research, UK chief financial officers said that digitalisation will increase productivity levels of individuals (59 percent), enable employees to focus less on data entry and more on the execution of tasks (53 percent), and provide opportunities to learn new capabilities (51 percent).

Through this new digital and more automated model, we can adopt less labour and time-intensive processes and instead, spend more time on value-added work. It is this shift where companies need to look ahead and ask questions about how they can up-skill their current workforce and consider the progression this offers.

For the time being, professionals who are proactively seeking opportunities to develop themselves through continual learning will be the ones to see their prospects improve – especially as these specialist skills remains in high-demand.