It has been three years since the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly reshaped the way we live and work. With companies accelerating their pace of digital transformation, do you feel equipped to embrace digitalisation?

This is exactly what we sought to examine in our recent study "Employee Attitudes Towards Digitalisation in a Post-pandemic World", done in partnership with Rakuten Insight Global. 308 employees across three demographics—Gen Z, Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers—and various industries were surveyed. Moreover, out of these 308 respondents, 86% were full-time workers and 14% were part-time workers.

Our press release was picked up globally by over a hundred global media news members including The Associated Press, Yahoo! Finance and CNA938. Over 133 million viewers (aggregate readership) learnt more about the impact of Covid-19 on Singapore workers and their readiness for digital transformation!

Key Insights on Singapore Workers' Preparedness for Digitalisation

1. Less than half of the respondents have heard of digitalisation: While you have some perception of what digitalisation is, you may not be familiar with its formal definition and purpose. Digitalisation, as defined by the Ministry Family Digitalisation Guide, is “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities”.

2. There are divergent perceptions between full-time and part-time workers: Whilst a majority of full-time workers feel equipped to embrace digitalisation, most part-time workers feel ill-equipped to take on digital transformation. Similarly, most-full-time workers feel supported by their company in terms of upskilling, whereas most part-time workers do not.

3. Time is often a limiting factor: To upskill, most respondents would like their companies to grant them time off.

4. Employees are well-acquainted with SkillsFuture: The most popular upskilling platform both full-time and part-time workers are familiar with is SkillsFuture. Other top platforms ranked in terms of familiarity are Workforce SG, Udemy, Microsoft Learn and Grab.

What Can You Learn From This?

Only 6% of respondents felt that they were primarily responsible to prepare themselves for a digital future—this finding demonstrates a prevailing attitude of passivity and lack of initiative. However, you can’t always rely on other parties like the government or your company to get started. The onus lies on you.

Every Singapore citizen has been provided at least S$500 in SkillsFuture Credit by the government. Even if your company sends you for external courses, you still have to take full ownership of your upskilling journey.

Begin by renewing your commitment to learning. You can surely find small pockets of free time, particularly during your lunch breaks and daily commutes. Even taking 15 minutes a day to upskill will add up to almost 100 hours over a year.

Furthermore, digital transformation is a broad umbrella category. We recommend that you narrow it down to one clearly specified objective. Determine what skill is most essential for your career progress right now. For instance, is it learning data analytics software like Microsoft Power BI? Or picking up Python? Pick your battles wisely!

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