What actions are you taking internally to future-proof employee skill sets?

I'd turn the question around and ask, why many companies still don't see the need to provide any means or form of improvement to their employees in supply chains?
I regularly see companies working SC employees to the bone and not giving anything in return, even seeing high employee turnover and complaining about it.

I see many good answers here and I always establish (as an interim leader) all forms and means that can help an employee develop and feel that they are going somewhere in their roles, wherever possible.

But many times the real problem is the leadership and not the middle-management who could act on these.
If the budgets are trimmed to the bone and one has only as few employees as legally required (e.g. there is no holiday cover for operational roles of daily business! and please consider, giving "time" for any upskilling is also your budget!), then I really don't have much to say but encourage employees to look for another employer.

Our approach involves giving employees the time to upskill. We're encouraging the use of new technologies and streamlining our own processes, which often involves automation and the use of AI. We provide space for our employees to work on identifying new solutions for our current problems. We start by identifying where we can improve and then guide our employees through the business case creation. This approach is inclusive, involving everyone from regular contributors to management, to fully understand what is needed and lean in.

We've found that many platform companies we work with have removed our IT team from the equation to a certain extent, especially in terms of supply planning. There are a lot of low code or no code environments that allow us to run the business. Adoption from our standpoint is high when it comes to controlling those activities. Interestingly, our partners prefer us not to be the ones controlling them.

With the speed of change and the evolution of technology, it's important to build learning capabilities into your applications, processes, and team. We've implemented solutions around labor management that use AI to help train colleagues on why they aren't meeting their productivity numbers. As the labor pool continues to be a challenge, retention has to be a key focus of any large operation. We need to find ways to educate, train, encourage, and drive productivity while thinking differently about how we operate our facilities.

A lot of it has to do with how companies market the future. It's not so much about job loss anymore, but about changing the way work is accomplished. If a company paints a picture of the future that doesn't involve drastic job loss, but rather focuses on making work easier and more efficient, there's less fear and more adoption of new technologies and methods. When we start thinking about working smarter, not harder, and transition some of the workforce into this mindset, it's a gift that keeps on giving. They start to embrace the fact that they're not having to work 16-hour days or lift heavy boxes, and there's more adoption and embracing of what the future could look like. So, in terms of future-proofing skills, it's about painting a picture where people can see their work is better and different in the future.