The second Digit’Ed Fast Forward day was held on October 2, in what was an opportunity to explore the evolutionary dynamics of business and their impact on people management in organizations, while touching on the economy, technology, innovation, and emerging trends in digital society.
Institutional Guests
The event featured guest speakers of great institutional prominence, including the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy Manufacturing, Adolfo Urso, who stressed the importance of reskilling and reemployment support for companies (watch the video), a welcome by Senator Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, and Claudio Durigon, Undersecretary of State for Labor and Welfare Policy.
Continuing Education: The key to corporate success
Successful organizations place major importance on the professional growth of their people, because today, more than ever before, keeping skill sets up to date is the key to taking on new economic and technological challenges.
That was the key takeaway from Digit’Ed Chairman Gianandrea De Bernardis’s opening address, themed “Education is the true driver of change.The world is changing at an unprecedented pace and it is the skills people have that make or break organizations.”
Data-Driven HR
HR divisions are increasingly being called on to incorporate analytic and quantitative approaches into their traditional tools, to support human capital management strategies and investments. That was the subject of the first panel discussion of the day on “Data-Driven HR,” an approach to human resources management based on data and analytics for better-informed decision-making, improving HR strategies and practices.
Education Analytics
Picking up on a line of study started last year, a new research project was carried out on Education Analytics.
The study was presented by Diletta Topazio, economist and lecturer at La Sapienza University of Rome, selected for the post-doc fellowship funded by Digit’Ed. Dr. Topazio’s international research career has taken her to leading universities around the world, including Chicago, New York, Utrecht, Berlin, and Singapore, along with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the United Nations.
Dr. Topazio explained how new training and development strategies for employee skills are essential levers in the success of an organization and a key asset for taking on new challenges. What emerged from her research is that the best-performing industries in Italy over the last five years were those in which companies invested heavily and extensively in corporate education, finding a correlation between training investments and business competitiveness.
The challenge, however, lies not in the size of investments, but in the need to ensure they are channelled into training programs capable of producing measurable results. The future thus calls for new techniques and a data-driven approach to training, to improve measurement processes and, as a consequence, effectiveness.
Job Performance
A scientific approach is of fundamental importance to deliver the strategic objectives of a business, even in recruiting. “If we want data, we have to go back to measuring changes in behavior, which has to do with management culture and the frequency, importance, and accuracy of feedback,” said Massimo Meroni, Digit’Ed Assessment & Performance Strategist and HumanAge Partner, in introducing international guest Zsolt Feher, VP Business Development at Hogan Assessments—the global leader in advanced personality assessments for measuring the potential of people and predicting their performance. Feher gave us a guided tour for understanding Hogan’s scientific tools for predicting job performance and promoting effective leaders.
Digit’Ed Awards: Recognizing excellence in education
This year’s Digit’Ed Awards recognized the best education projects developed with our partners. In the HR Empowerment category, the award went to Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane for a project unifying all its assessment systems, so as to create a development plan targeted at executives.
Edison was the winner of the Corporate Values & Sustainability category, for a program designed to unlock access to digital skills for all employees. The Management & Innovation category was won by an insurance company, for an education program targeting digital skills, with a view to transforming the way people think and act. Finally, in the Health & Safety category, the award went to a major player in the shipbuilding sector, for a training initiative targeted at health & safety officers.
CEOs Head-to-Head
The roundtable brought together leading names from major Italian companies and multinational corporations, including Nicoletta Luppi, chairwoman and CEO of MSD Italy, Stefano Donnarumma, CEO and general manager of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, Maximo Ibarra, CEO of Engineering Group, and Fabrizio Palermo, CEO and general manager of Acea, moderated by journalist Sarah Varetto.
Together, they gave us an inside look into the people strategies of leading companies in their respective sectors. What emerged is that highly-qualified and expertly trained people can be a key asset in rising effectively and innovatively to the challenges of today and tomorrow. The speakers highlighted the strategic importance of training and skill development in dealing with changes underway, with a focus on the partnership between technology, sustainability, and human capital.
Jobs and Economic Growth
The day came to a close with an address on the links between jobs and economic development by Senator Claudio Durigon, Undersecretary of State for Labor and Welfare Policy. The senator provided an overview of the role employment plays in economic growth and tools to promote skilled and long-term job creation in the current economic framework. He then turned to the topic of the Transition 5.0 Plan, under which, in an effort to support enterprises in adapting and taking up new organizational and production models in response to the ecological and digital transitions, funding has been earmarked through the New Skills Fund, which played a key role in supporting worker training during the pandemic. A third round of funding is soon to be announced, with efforts said to be focused on drawing together employment policies in place into an integrated system.
This year’s Digit’Ed Fast Forward was once again an event rich in insights and information, which we trust can be of help to the HR community in addressing the emerging challenges of the working world.
