A Reflective Framework for Understanding Workforce Evolutionary Pathways in Industry 5.0

The transition towards Industry 5.0 standards characterized by an increasing and responsible use of digital and smart technologies as well as by the development of more sustainable, human-centric, and resilient industrial systems, requires a careful reflection on the competencies and skills that will be needed in its workforce. Indeed, changing production processes and systems following an organizational renovation and/or the introduction of new technology can have positive impacts in terms of productivity and efficiency in a company’s operating model, but also can lead to negative effects in terms of resistance to change, increased workload, and mismatches between the workforce skills and the skills needed for the newly created types of jobs and duties. To prevent these possible issues, proper workforce management and operators’ training strategies should be implemented to not only contain costs and improve the efficiency of manufacturing and logistics processes but also to preserve operators’ satisfaction. This research work aims to support the transition towards Industry 5.0 standards by analysing the main trends of workforce evolution and by designing suitable pathways that companies could pursue for crafting proper talent development strategies and for facing current skill-related challenges such as skill shortages, skill gaps and shortfalls, and skill mismatches. To do so, this paper presents a Workforce Evolution Framework, with six Workforce Evolutionary Pathways, which are described to guide academics and practitioners in their understanding of the evolution of specific job profiles in the field of manufacturing to set targeted training strategies.