Digital skills every workplace needs in 2019
Most businesses recognise the importance of digital skills in the workplace. Yet an alarming study found that 4.3 million people in the UK have zero expertise in this area. This includes even basic tasks, such as answering emails or uploading a document to the Cloud.
Digital know-how is important in business. It drives sales, boosts productivity, and can give you the competitive edge. If you’re wondering what digital skills your employees should have, here’s a handy list.
The key digital skills your workforce needs
- Social media. Social media platforms are maturing. Now, it’s not just about interacting with followers; it’s also about knowing how to leverage social media for sales opportunities. Rather than focusing on generating shares and likes, employees need to know how to engage potential customers, and how to build relationships.
- Analytical tools. Analytical tools provide invaluable insight into how well your business is performing. The data generated can also reveal how people are finding your company, when they’re most likely to visit your website, which pages they tend to read most, and much more. This information can be used to tailor future marketing campaigns, so it’s vital that your team understand how to access and interpret it.
- Email. It goes without saying that your employees should be able to open and respond to an email. However, if their knowledge extends to email marketing, so much the better. Email campaigns are a great way to utilise your list of customer contacts; ensuring that your company stays fresh in their mind. Ideally, employees should have some idea of how to use email marketing tools like MailChimp.
- Website management. Not every employee needs to be an expert at web development and coding. However, some basic knowledge of how to work with a CMS site like WordPress, Joomla or Magento (the commonly used platforms for many businesses) is advantageous. They’ll then be able to add blog posts for you, tweak content, or remove pages if required.
- Search engine visibility. Many UK companies rely on being visible on Google, in order to drive people through to their website. It’s a good idea for members of staff to understand the basic process of getting a website to page one of Google; either via paid ads, or through search engine optimisation (SEO). With some knowledge of how it all works, they may be able to assist with gaining visibility; for example, creating suitable content for your site.
- Video content. Video content is proving to be of serious value in 2019. Not only is it rated highly by the search engines (which again, helps with SEO), but it also helps to keep customers engaged with your website or social media pages. It may be worthwhile training staff in the basic skills associated with video content creation, as this can offer major benefits for your business.
- Collaborative tools. Collaborative sites like Asana are useful for improving productivity and ensuring everyone is on the same page with a project. They enable users to share information and files, converse with one another, and easily access deadlines and important notices. It’s recommended that you introduce a collaborative tool into the workplace, as they’re worth their weight in gold.
