Digital skills are becoming increasingly important. This is true not only in the professional environment, but also in private life. Digital communication takes place in various ways, for example from the home office with the employer, in the team or even with the family who lives far away.
Digital competence is the ability to deal with digital tools and the associated requirements. A company can also be described as digitally competent if its goals and business processes can successfully adapt to the requirements of digital change in the long term.
Those who have a high level of digital competence can actively support digitalisation in companies. This is another reason why digital competence is increasingly considered a hiring criterion for employees and managers today.
Whether privately or professionally - in the course of increasing digitalisation, more and more sound knowledge and skills are required. For example, in dealing with social media channels, for taking out digital insurance and other services or even for online appointment planning.
With digital skills, you can make your private and professional everyday life more efficient. To do this, you must first recognise the advantages of digital communication and technology and use them accordingly to achieve your (company's) goals.
Here you can find some examples of digital competences:
Digital literacy is in demand today more than ever and can come in different forms. Among other things, digital literacy skills are important for the introduction of new working models with home offices, digital offices and other developments in the modern world of work.
Dealing with digital technology needs to be learned, and behaviour in online meetings and working in digital projects requires completely new skills and competences. These can be strengthened at any time, even if you have been working for a long time. This can be done, for example, through training in the company or through external training measures.
Digital competence already plays a central role in many companies today. Expertise and soft skills are therefore being asked more and more frequently by HR managers in job interviews. So if you invest in your digital competence, you can significantly increase your chances on the job market in the long term. After all, expertise in the field of digital technologies will become increasingly important and indispensable for companies in the future.
Digital competences are not just pure knowledge and technical skills. Certain key competencies are crucial for you to be perceived as digitally competent by others. Among other things, you should have the following skills:
You don't feel particularly digitally competent yet? Anyone can learn how to use digital technologies. There are many ways to do this. We have compiled examples of digital skills for you:
You can get appropriate advice and training from a professional digital coach.
Your company may have training courses to promote digital competence. Here you can train digitally together with your team and then put what you have learned into practice.
Find out about important digital literacy know-how online or in the library.
By networking with digital experts and participating in their workshops and events, you can also strengthen your skills.
New tools that require digital skills should be extensively trained when they are introduced. In this way, all employees are brought on board at the same time, which is also conducive to positive team spirit and promotes general exchange.
If a company increasingly relies on digital transformation, appropriately trained managers are necessary. They must be able to plan and lead digitally. Digital leadership skills are particularly important in very large companies. Here, many complex technologies and employees with very different skills come together and must be coordinated according to the company's own business idea and future orientation.
Always keeping the company's goals in mind, but also strengthening the digital competences of all departments and at the same time observing the technical framework conditions - this requires a high level of digital competence from managers. Digitisation is never complete, but rather a constantly evolving process that presents those responsible with new challenges and necessitates adjustments time and again.
Digital competence does not only include dealing with innovative digital technology. Customer-centred thinking, flexible working, new types of business planning and the further development of digital products are equally important.
More and more companies have recognised the great importance of digital competence and are increasingly hiring digital experts or entire digital teams. These experts are there to professionally supervise and train their own digital competence as well as that of their employees and others involved in the company.
Digital competence is important for everyone - not only for managers and employees, but for the entire company that wants to adapt its business goals to the digital transformation in the long term. Companies that constantly invest in digital competence have more chances to be successful in the market. The focus should not only be on the company's own interests; the requirements of suppliers and customers must also be taken into account.