Presentation

Description

Saskia Van Uffelen is:

Digital Champion of Belgium to the European Commission
Leader of the Belgium National Coalition for Digital Skills & Jobs
Ambassador for BeTheChange (Agoria)

Bethechange is a federation for the tech industry which focuses on the evolution of the employment markets between now and 2030 and how to solve the issue of open vacancies, upskilling and reskilling, e-inclusion and other accessibility and inclusion barriers in Belgium.

As Digital Champion for Belgium, Ms. Van Uffelen represents the federal government for the European Commission in order to execute the Digital Agenda for Belgium in an efficient, fast, secure and e-inclusive manner.

Digital activity

It covers 5 domains:
1. Digital economy, which encompasses the offline/online hybrid and the balance between local and international we are experiencing today.

2. Digital security, which tackles GDPR, cyber security, fake news, ethical behavior online, safety on the internet for youngsters.

3. Digital role of governments in the era of smart cities, smart transport, etc., but also, more broadly, defining and determining the role of the government in a digitally connected world.

4. Digital infrastructure, which explores the questions and possibilities brought on by 5G.

5. Digital skills and competences, in order to fill the 541 000 vacancies expected to appear in Belgium in 2030. Even with re-skilling and upskilling existing workers, the labor market is lacking. Activating everybody is an aspect of digital inclusion which can help Belgium reach an 80% employment rate. At the moment, Belgium only has 66% of women and 66% of youngsters between the ages of 20 and 29 who are active in the labor market, not to mention the 46% of secondary school dropouts that require up-skilling.

Good practice targeted

Inclusion

To go further

http://https://bethechange.agoria.be/en/

Good practice

Ms. Van Uffelen is the link between the initiatives and the resulting good practices in the realm of digital inclusion (charters, trainings, projects, etc.). Two such good practices have been the signing of the Digital Inclusion Charter and the ongoing execution of the Digital Agenda for Belgium.

Costs

If there is a long-term commitment to improving digital inclusion, cost is the wrong question. Asking about cost is akin to the manager who goes to HR and requires that something be done about digital inclusion, but to make sure there’s a Return on Investment (ROI) in order to meet quarterly business reviews. Therefore, cost in itself is only linked to the cost of the leader of the good practice, as they are the ones who must have the vision to think long-term and include everybody from the organization. The cost of such an endeavor doesn’t amount to anything but time required. Failing to think in such a way will result in losing money because members of your organization won’t see the deeper purpose behind what you’ve proclaimed as a ‘good practice’. This will then mean going back to the drawing board to think up more suitable good practices, when the problem really lies in the leader’s lack of long-term vision and commitment.

Starting date of the good practice

Her work as a Digital Champion for Belgium in which she oversees and spearheads good practices in digital inclusion began in 2012 and is still ongoing.

She signed the Digital Inclusion charter in 2021.

Time to implement the good practice

Sticking to a good practice in the realm of digital inclusion requires changing the business culture. By experience, this takes 3-5 years for an organization to do. You need to get to the ‘hard disk’ of every individual and to realize that people adapt at different speeds (and some may never adapt).

Tools/partners/suppliers of the good practice

Digital inclusion good practices require more than just a leader. They require partners, in the form of the people working in the organization who must have their voices heard, and a digital champion within the organization who takes on the responsibility of finance, HR, marketing, all through the lens of your long-term vision.

Use technology as a tool to better connect these partners in the workplace.

Speaking to Belgium's Digital Champion, Saskia Van Uffelen, on how digital inclusion can have tangible results for organizations

What are the benefits of the project ?

Committing to a digital inclusion practice will result in achieving your business objectives. Regardless of the type of organization you lead – NGO, educational, commerce, etc. – your business objectives (whether they be profit, innovation, etc.) will not be met if you fail to create a long-term plan for digital inclusion.

What were the constraints faced by the company ?

Failing to think long-term. In business, everyone is driven to produce results for the short term. However, the organizations with the most impressive results did not think up their business plan last quarter or at the end of the previous year – they crafted their business plan years prior and worked consistently on their long-term vision. Thinking short-term means that the good practice won’t ‘stick’.

Which advice would give to another company ?

Good practices can only ‘stick’ if there’s been a change to the culture of an organization. Therefore, you need to:

Think long-term instead of short-term

The business culture of today involves someone discussing an initiative, making an action plan, and then deciding whether it should be done based on the ROI, preferably for this business quarter. Instead of this short-term thinking which is oriented towards quarterly and annual reports, it’s important to have a vision of where you want your organization to be in 2040. Long-term thinking about digital inclusion does not exclude profit considerations nor meeting short-term results– in actuality, it’s the best way to reach your business goals because failing to plan for digital inclusion means failing to fill vacancies and acquire the needed skills/competences.

Be a great leader in order to plant the flag

Someone who can think long-term can also inspire others to see the purpose behind the initiative. A leader must consider how everyone can be included to make the initiative work. For example, how am I going to increase the employment rate of women up from 66%? How am I going to train dropouts to acquire coding skills?

Make an analysis to map out your current situation.

Ask yourself: “Is everybody connected?” (from a technical standpoint, but also socially/empathically, and whether people have the right skills and competences to be connected and execute their roles within the organization) and “how digitally inclusive are we?”. This second question includes both the internal aspects of digital inclusion (such as relations towards employees and the ecosystem), and the external aspects (such as relations towards customers, the competition’s perception of us and what’s being written about us in general).

Based on this analysis of your current situation you will be able to choose the digital inclusion initiative that best fits your organization.

Instead of defining what should be done, look to your team for answers

Instead of prioritizing insight from management, look to the team and the ecosystem for answers, as they represent the everyday reality of your organization. Get to know your team, allow them to talk about themselves, their reasons for working. Listen in order to inspire. Use technology as a mediator to better connect people in the workplace. Suggestions on improving digital inclusion must start as a bottom-up initiative. One person cannot bring about change, everybody needs to be involved; therefore, digital inclusion is a shared responsibility and everyone should be interested in what digital inclusion means to them and how they can be better included. Appoint digital champions from your organization that can regroup suggestions and focus on what should be done to make the culture evolve.

Use the resources offered today

There is a great ecosystem on skilling up, re-skilling and connecting people to be inclusive to those that are not fully integrated. Digital skills passports are being made to reach the 2027 digital competences that people need, such as language acquisition. Language is a digital skill and an overlooked aspect of digital inclusion. If you work in a factory and cannot read the safety manual, how can you feel secure and confident in the job you do?

What are the next steps?

Digital inclusion is important not only for organizations, but for society as a whole. I have hope that things are heading in the right direction because the taxonomy of the European Union (EU) now measures organizations with more than 250 people on their non-financials. Throughout history, the business sectors and managers have always been measured on financials, and it has created a behavior of short-term thinking. However, if we are now asking the organizations to be measured on non-financials, this obliges good managers to think as great leaders. Non-financials include more than just sustainability metrics such as CO2 consumption, electric car usage, optimization of heating and lighting, and so on. Rather, organizations must also be able to answer the question: how am I going to develop my talent going forward? By obliging organizations to think about how they will measure and meet such a metric, you will have embedded a behavior of long-term thinking.