Hasta La Creative!

The business world has a crippling lack of technology skills, and the cost to the U.S. economy is staggering. According to a Harris Poll commissioned by learning company Grovo last year, only one in 10 U.S. workers consider themselves proficient with the digital tools they use every day at work. And when you consider that “challenges related to working with documents” cost businesses 21.3% in total productivity, according to IDC, the lack of digital skills may drain over $1.3 trillion per year from the U.S. economy.

This penalty could be significantly higher in companies where employees are uncomfortable with social technology. Companies see social networks as the future “office” — a setting where teams can communicate, share documents, collaborate and work more productively, no matter where they are. The big tech companies recognize this demand and are racing to capture the enterprise market. Facebook, for example, is preparing to launch an enterprise social network called Facebook at Work, and LinkedIn, too, is piloting an internal social network for businesses.

At the same time, businesses view social networks as the future of marketing, selling and recruiting — the place where workers across all departments connect with leads, share content and generate awareness of their companies. So employees have to be equally comfortable on both internal and public-facing social media, yet it seems clear that the U.S. workforce doesn’t have the skills to use social technology effectively — yet. The question is, how should businesses respond to this dilemma?

Continue reading at AdAge.com