Digital Competence - Increasingly Important at Work

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: Definition

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.

What Are Digital Competences?

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:

• Dealing with technical requirements (e.g. internet, access to intranet and online clouds, etc.)
• Professional handling of digital tools (e.g. social media, online project management, online telephony)
• Mastery of online communication skills appropriate to the medium (e.g. e-mail, chat or video meeting)
• Regular digital training and adaptation to the constantly changing requirements

Digital Competences - A Changing World of Work

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.

Which Requirements Are Important?

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:

• Open attitude towards new digital technologies
• Willingness to learn new ways of working and learn new things
• Responsible use of digital media
• Understanding the opportunities and risks of digital communication
• Willingness to change in order to digitally connect professionally, socially or culturally
• Flexible willingness to work in interdisciplinary teams
• Acting empathetically to be able to put yourself in the shoes of customers and colleagues
• Critically and reflectively evaluate information from different sources
• Analytical thinking and planning skills
• Knowledge in data processing
• Dealing with digital collaboration and communication tools
• Knowledge of digital dangers (e.g. data and virus protection, copyright, licences and copyrights)
• Fulfilment of safety requirements

How Do You Develop More Digital Competence?

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:

Coaching

You can get appropriate advice and training from a professional digital coach.

Internal Training

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.

Information from Blogs & Books

Find out about important digital literacy know-how online or in the library.

Networking as an Opportunity

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.

Digital Leadership Skills Increasingly Important

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 Experts in Companies

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.