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There is no doubt that the New World of Work presents an ever-evolving landscape that requires our constant attention as we, ourselves, shift and evolve to embrace a whole new way of being in business and earning a living. Yet, this new landscape has become a highly-trafficked highway, with technology, business and people doing their very best to establish a meaningful and consistent flow of activities while avoiding crashing into one other. But, the only constant that can be relied upon as we navigate the challenges that we face in a world that is still vaguely familiar, yet, comes with a whole new modus operandi, is change.
While the pandemic is largely responsible for these unparalleled changes in the workplace, along with that many jobs now require a whole new set of skills. The fact is employers need to change their approach in terms of how and who they recruit by paying less attention to technical qualifications and degrees and instead focussing more on skills. This is not to say that employees must not be technically qualified in their respective fields. Rather, it is the ‘how’ that we are concerned with in terms of the way people use their expertise in a setting that bears very little resemblance to the pre-pandemic world of work. The idea is to build upon existing technical expertise, and employers who go the whole hog and invest in the training and upskilling of their employees will find it that much easier to retain talent.
Focusing on skills makes the hiring process that much easier and more efficient
The world around us has shifted to such an extent that when we take a quick snapshot of the economies of today, it becomes apparent that many businesses are either technology businesses or technology-enabled businesses. Data recently released by LinkedIn reveals that job skill sets have changed by approximately 25% since 2015 and by 2027 this number is likely to double. This means that whether you like it or not, your job is changing even if you aren’t changing jobs, as it were. This runs parallel to the fact that business demands are changing even if you are not changing your business. In the light of this, we can say that the world of work has been turned on its head and many leaders the world over have concluded that the best way to navigate the New World of Work is a skills-first mindset for people, businesses, economies and societies at large. Hence, an increasing number of CEOs worldwide are emphasising the need for businesses to reassess the hiring process entirely.
Focussing on career development and improving talent retention
Traditionally, individuals were hired based on three primary factors: their technical competence as demonstrated by a qualification such as a degree or diploma, their previous track record and forging the right connections, that is, ‘who they know’ in the grand scheme of things. Skills did not factor into the equation. However, as quickly as the world has changed, hiring strategies too are changing. Since, in seeking work that is more personally rewarding, individuals now understand the need to specify and describe what skills they have as well as those skills that they seek to acquire. Whereas businesses who are keen to fill roles in a historically tight labour market, have shifted their thinking towards whether potential hires have the right skills needed to accomplish the tasks at hand and effectively get the job done. This sees a skills-first labour market unfolding as we speak.
Skills-first hiring is the new way to match talent with opportunity
According to the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that over 1 billion people worldwide will need to be reskilled by 2030, This plays out not only as far as digital skills are concerned but also stretches into what are known as ‘Soft Skills’ which are high on the agenda in the new hybrid workplace. So, as jobs shift and evolve and demand new skill sets, talent managers need to evolve their hiring strategies towards making qualifications less of an issue and instead source talent with the skills that match the role in question. This means that established hiring practices that have been in place for decades need a complete overhaul. Yet, we still have a long way to go given that recent research from Harvard Business School reveals that 88% of hiring managers are still in the habit of screening out highly-skilled talent because they do not have traditional qualifications. This needs to change in the face of the accelerated advancement of technologies used in the workplace ushered in by the pandemic. Therefore, the demands of work along with the required skills needed in constantly-evolving job roles are radically different to what they were prior to the pandemic for individuals and companies alike. According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts, in the next decade, over 1 billion jobs, which equates to close to one-third of all jobs worldwide, are expected to be transformed by technology. The upside is that many of the top skills needed in emerging and high-paying roles are comparable to those in other fields. For instance, a driver has 57% of the skills required to switch over into the role of supply chain associate and a supermarket cashier has 70% of the skills required to take on the role of customer service representative.
Upskilling employees to succeed in the New World of Work requires a strategic shift at management level
The urgent and critical need to focus on upskilling employees requires a strategic shift in mindset at management level. From maintaining the organisation’s competitive edge through to satisfying the need to grow employee potentials and equipping them with the right skills to embrace the changing workplace, companies that ensure that their employees remain abreast of new technologies are the ones that will succeed and indeed thrive, in the ever-evolving landscape of the New World of Work.
Reference sources: LinkedIn|weforum.org