Keywords

1 Introduction

The Industry 4.0 concept is significantly changing products and production systems regarding design, processes, operations and services, permeating global value networks, with implications for the management and organisation of future workplaces through the creation of new business models. The advancement of digital transformation creates new challenges for many organisations, which translates into a number of different consequences, resulting in, among other things, the need to build networks of machinery, changing organisational structures, stimulating integration and changing employee behaviour in networked processes. Working in the new production environment and in conditions of dynamic development of modern technologies (the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc.) requires adequate competences, beyond those hitherto considered to be of key importance. The main objective of this study is to present the competences that are essential in the context of Industry 4.0 as identified in literature from the point of view of employees and employees.

2 Methodology

The main research methods adopted for the purpose of this study have been desk research method and meta-analysis of current research reports presented by various entities of the labour market in Poland. The study focuses on identifying competences that are relevant for Industry 4.0 from the point of view of employees and employers. Quantitative analysis methods and distributions of the frequency of answers to questions from diagnostic surveys serving as research instruments in the analysed reports have also been used. Keywords under search were ‘competences’, ‘skills’, ‘profession’, ‘industry 4.0’, ‘Poland’, ‘employee’ in well-known databases such as google scholar, McKinsay.com, Deloitte.com, ResearchGate.com.

3 Industry 4.0—Historical-Economic Background and Components

Industrial revolutions had a profound impact on developing the methods of production, lifestyles and human work. The cradle of the first industrial revolution (the late eighteenth century—the mid-nineteenth century) was Great Britain; it was symbolised by the mechanisation of production due to the improvement of the design of the steam engine by the Scottish inventor James Watt. The revolution in the manufacturing industry began with the invention of a spinning machine (the so-called flying shuttle) by the English clothier John Kay (1733) [1]. Thread, which had been produced on simple looms, could be produced eight times faster thanks to mechanisation. From then on, steam engines started to be used instead of human muscle power to drive spinning mills [1, 2]. Economic development and the progress of industrialisation were also stimulated during this period by further inventions (the spinning jenny, the water-powered spinning machine, the steam turbine patented by James Watt, the power loom developed by Edmund Cartwright) [3]. This was a period of positive changes in the textile, steel and metallurgical industries. During the next period in the economic history (the second half of the nineteenth century—the early twentieth century), referred to as the second industrial revolution, technological developments in the gas lighting, chemical, glass, transport machinery and paper machinery industries played a major role [4] The third industrial revolution, which began in the 1950s, brought enormous changes that affected almost every aspect of the economic, social, political, and cultural life. One of the first impulses of the third industrial revolution, associated with the development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), occurred in 1969. This gave rise to the development of the Internet and, with it, the Information Age. Similarly to the previous revolutions, the third industrial revolution is mainly driven by technological progress in the production, distribution and energy factors. At the same time, the world is moving from an information society to a knowledge society. The idea that computers no longer need to be programmed to act, but instead can sense the surrounding world to obtain facts and figures without additional human intervention, started a new era of computing technology [5]. It was pointed out that the Internet of Things concerned the global communication of things, objects, devices, the transfer of information between objects and humans, as well as only between objects. The Industry 4.0 concept first appeared in the United States of America in 1999. Kevin Ashton coined the term the ‘Internet of Things’, claiming that physical objects could be connected to a network (the Internet) [6]. In Europe, the Industry 4.0 concept was first used in Germany at the Hanover Fair in 2011, when German science, business and politics representatives presented the ‘Industrie 4.0’ initiative [7]. Today, the ‘Industry 4.0’ concept is applied in many European countries, although it is referred to differently. In English-speaking countries, the concept is referred to as the industrial Internet, the Internet thing or smart factory. In addition to the non-uniform name, the characterisation of the Industry 4.0 concept is not the same in all countries, as it depends on the interpretation and perception of this conceptual category by individual communities [6]. Irrespective of the geographical location, studies of the literature on the subject allow for the creation of a typology concerning technological trends included in the Industry 4.0 concept [8]. These include the technologies listed in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
A chart presents 9 technological pillars of Industry 4.0. They are autonomous robots, simulation technologies, horizontal and vertical system integration, I o T, cyber security and cyber physical systems, additive manufacturing, A R, big data analytics, and cloud computing.

The technological pillars of Industry 4.0. Authors’ own work based on previous works [8,9,10,11]

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It is difficult to provide a single, universal definition of the Internet of Things, despite numerous attempts made by researchers. However, the Internet of Things can be defined in three categories: (1) human to human, (2) human to machine/thing, (3) thing/machine to thing/machine, by way of interaction over the Internet. In such a context, the IoT refers to a concept and paradigm that considers the ubiquitous presence of diverse things/objects that are able to interact with one another and collaborate with other things/objects to create new applications/services and achieve common goals [12]. The Internet of Things can also be thought of as a global network that enables human-to-human, human-to-thing and thing-to-thing communication, providing a unique identity to each object [13]. Industry 4.0 is the digitalisation and networking of production and the corresponding transformation of business models and strategies. It is a category that combines the real world with the virtual world in real time [14]. It is a collective term for technologies and concepts of value chain organisation [15]. It is a complex solution created at the intersection of engineering, IT and management knowledge. Industry 4.0 represents a smart combination of multiple IT technologies used in companies and involves the computerisation of traditional manufacturing industries and the gradual blurring of boundaries between individual factories [16]. The main examples of the application of the fourth revolution are autonomous manufacturing systems (‘smart’ factories that autonomously organise the production process and flexibly respond to changes in requirements), autonomous vehicles (e.g. cars, drones), advanced robotisation (robots used in factories, for elderly people care, cleaning), with sensors to track and monitor objects (e.g. monitoring their location), 3D printing (a promising technology for producing personalised products, used e.g. in medicine, dentistry, jewellery) and new materials with unique properties (e.g. self-cleaning clothes, pressure-exchanger ceramics, graphene) [16, 17].

4 Employee Competences in Line with Industry 4.0

The term ‘competence 4.0’ emerged naturally as an offshoot of the general concept of Industry 4.0. The starting point for considering the competences of an employee 4.0 is the model of key competences proposed by the Council of the European Union in the context of lifelong learning [18]. The model includes [19]: scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical competences, understanding and producing information, multilingualism, digital competences, personal, social and learning competences, civic competences, cultural awareness and expression, entrepreneurship.

The model of desirable future employee skills has clearly evolved in recent years. Some skills have remained in the ranking, although their position has changed, but at the same time new competences have appeared. Based on the results of research conducted by various entities, a comprehensive model of future competences has been built [20,21,22,23]. It consists of the following three categories (Fig. 2): cognitive competences, technical (digital) competences, social (and emotional) competences.

Fig. 2
A chart presents 3 categories of employee competences 4.0. They are cognitive, technical, or digital competences, and social and emotional competences. 3 to 5 characteristics of each are mentioned.

Employee competences 4.0. Authors’ own work based on previous works [20,21,22,23]

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Previous industrial revolutions transformed the skills and competences of the workforce and the same process is also characteristic of the current revolution 4.0. Among the competences of the future, those that differentiate human work from that of information systems, robots or artificial intelligence are becoming important. Equipping the workforce with these competences is crucial, as they are what will enable them to succeed in the digital transformation and the development of Industry 4.0.

5 Employee Competences 4.0 as Exemplified by Poland

The Polish labour market is experiencing a growing challenge in terms of companies hiring employees with the right competences. Professional skills closely linked to the employee’s social and psychological aspects are becoming increasingly important. The intensifying technicalisation of work, the ageing population, the use of new communication tools and new forms of business organisation become a challenge in this context. In the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, so-called competences 4.0, i.e. competences of the future, gain importance. Competences such as creativity and innovativeness, critical thinking skills, digital competences, problem-solving skills, communication and cooperation, entrepreneurship and the process of continuous improvement can be mentioned in this context. On the basis of an analysis of reports and studies carried out in Poland, special attention should be paid to competences that are important from the points of view of both employees and employers. Companies consider employees’ cognitive competences, above all creativity and critical thinking, to be the most desirable ones in the future and simultaneously in short supply now. Entrepreneurs also notice deficits in social competences, such as cooperation with others, negotiation skills or human resources management. Companies also perceive a deficit in industry-specific competences, which will be of great importance in the future. As many as 91 per cent of the companies surveyed [24] indicate that the difficulty in recruiting employees with the right competences is a barrier to their business, but not for all companies is it a barrier that strongly hinders operations. The survey shows that the shortage of cognitive competences, above all creativity, is considered by entrepreneurs to be the most significant. Slightly less of a problem is the shortage of social competences, of which only cooperation with others was in the lead. In the case of specialised and digital competences, in addition to industry-specific specialised competences, companies also indicated shortages, but not at such a high level. The shortages of competences are illustrated in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3
A horizontal bar chart of the number of shortages of employees' competences versus 3 categories. Cognitive competences have the highest bar at 28, while technical or digital competences have the lowest bar at 16. Values are estimated.

The shortages of employees’ competences as perceived by entrepreneur. Authors’ own work based on previous work [24]

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For nearly half of the entrepreneurs (48%), the competence in short supply was creativity, i.e. the ability to find not obvious solutions. Many entrepreneurs also indicated that they lacked people with industry-specific competences (45%) and the ability to cooperate with others, i.e. the ease of completing tasks as part of group work (41%). Slightly fewer companies indicated a shortage of employees with developed critical thinking skills, i.e. the ability to make rational and logical inferences about the causes and effects of phenomena (36%). Around 30% of the employers felt there was a shortage of employees capable of solving complex problems (33%) and characterised by cognitive flexibility, i.e. the ability to look at a problem or event from many different perspectives in order to take appropriate action (32%). The smallest numbers of the entrepreneurs pointed out the shortages in the ability to think systemically, i.e. to see the business in a broader socio-economic context (4%), the ability to identify signs of unlikely events which could still significantly affect the business (7%) and the ability to find and interpret signals of change in the organisation's environment (9%). In addition to identifying the competences in short supply, the entrepreneurs also assessed the importance of the competences from the point of view of the industry's future development. The ability to act in a situation of uncertainty was considered by all companies to be the most important competence for the future. It received by far the highest average score of 4.21 (on a scale of 1 to 5). After transposing the listed competences into the three groups of competences listed above in the context of the employee 4.0, it should be noted that the most desirable competences in the future are digital competences and the least desirable competences are cognitive competences Fig. 4.

Fig. 4
A horizontal bar chart of the percentage of desirable employees 4.0 competences versus 3 categories. Technical or digital competences have the highest bar at 3.99, while cognitive competences have the lowest bar at 3.80. Values are estimated.

Desirable employee 4.0 competences in the future. Authors’ own work based on previous work [24]

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Among the ten competences of the highest importance, only two were from the digital and specialist group. Of these, in terms of average scores, industry-specific competencies ranked the highest (3.94). Companies also anticipate that creativity (mean score of 4.01) and collaboration with others (4.02) will be of very high importance in the future. However, the respondents attached a slightly lower importance to the competence of assuming responsibility (3.99) and sector-specific competences (3.94). It should be noted that these competences of the future are now also frequently desired by entrepreneurs and were often indicated as being in short supply.

6 Conclusion

In the twenty-first century, the rapid pace of change in connection with technological development is evident. In every area of life and in every industry or sector, the dynamics of change is significant. Such rapid changes necessitate permanent adaptation of every company to the changing environment and, consequently, the adaptation of employees to the changes taking place. This requires constant upgrading of skills in new activities that have a key impact on the development of companies. The growing competitiveness of businesses is increasingly dependent on not only available material resources, but also so-called soft resources, including human capital. For this reason, there is a growing interest on the part of both the academic and business communities in the competences of the future. There are more and more discussions on human resources in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, a consequence of which is the increasing complexity of the surrounding world. Employers should be increasingly aware that employees, in addition to specific professional skills, should be able to manage stress and react flexibly to unexpected developments. Entrepreneurs representing various industries differ quite significantly in their assessments of the importance of social competences in the future recruitment of employees. Most companies forecast that social competences will have become as important as professional competences by 2035.