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During the pandemic, the importance of preparation and prevention has hit home for companies around the globe. When it comes to upskilling or reskilling a workforce to face an unwritten future, employers and HR managers must think on their feet if they want to nip burnout and dropout in the bud.
Top candidates are drawn to companies that adopt a thrive vs. survive mentality and are willing to make a cultural change at all levels of the organization – starting with its leadership. These shifts ripple through HR, as the search for skills – rather than jobs – takes the foreground. Changing focus can positively impact employees’ engagement, motivation and sense of purpose. Tangible change starts with a realistic, 360-degree look at where an organization is and where it wants to be and mapping existing and desired skills. From there, companies and human capital leaders can build in the flexibility, resilience, and robustness not just to bounce back but bounce higher.
In this article, we take a look at the skills and capacities that candidates, companies, and recruitment managers will need tomorrow, as well as today.
Want to know more about how to thrive in the next normal? Download our new eBook now to get more insights.
Make tech work for you
Agility got many companies through 2020 and is still shield and sword as companies settle into the next normal. The need to bend, flex, and stretch to face fluctuating customer demands and take on-the-spot-decisions is making companies nimble in ways many could not have even imagined. At the heart of this is digital dexterity, but as leaders are seeing - for all its power as a driver and dynamiser, tech can also be a divider and a disruptor. Making a digital strategy work for a company and its employees means seeing tech as the tool – not the solution - and investing in hard skills and training for the people that use it.
Workforce planning is crucial and companies need leaders who can action data-driven scenario planning to streamline costs and optimize growth. Data is no use if it sits around looking pretty. Companies must ensure the human capacity to unlock the data gathered across an organization and put it to optimal use across departments. Superteams – made of people and technology - are becoming the armies of the new revolution, but the winning element remains the people factor. Embedding hard skills is not always a question of rushing to onboard a data scientist – but about thinking outside the box and bringing in, reskilling, or redeploying people who see the benefits of adding digital skills to their toolbox and making technology work for them and their company.
Reskilling also echoes security and commitment – values that are cherished by employees and candidates today. Access to training is in the top three priorities for employees and candidates considering their next move – 82% of those surveyed by Michael Page claim it is a go/no-go factor.
Soft skills are the rising stars
If hard skills are the facts a company needs to face the future, soft skills are the intuition that can prevent nasty surprises. Coordination, time management, and communication are coming to the fore – especially in leadership – as more companies maintain remote or hybrid working strategies and employees juggle expectations and limitations.
When asked by Michael Page which soft skills they think are most-in-demand for companies and hiring managers today, employees and candidates pinpoint problem solving (52.3%), communication (52.3%) and team spirit (44.6%). As the pandemic evolves, it is showing that these skills go hand in hand with communication, emotional intelligence, and crisis management skills. If reactivity and resilience got companies through the first year of the health crisis, anti-fragility –seizing the opportunity to grow within chaos by learning to learn – will get many through the second. Showing candidates that a company is listening, through actions like teambuilding activities, counselling services, and a willingness to adapt to their needs on a one-to-one basis, often inspires employees and candidates to be more communicative and prevent problems before they avalanche.
Hiring excellent candidates who will fit in, grow, and go the distance with a team also means responding to individual, as well as collective needs. “Empathy works on an individual basis” says Jean-Baptiste Olagne, Senior Client Engagement Manager, Michael Page Switzerland.
New horizons, new captains
At the heart of any organization-wide paradigm shift is HR. Hiring managers are being called to shake up their practices and processes. Talent mobility starts with recognising commitment, valuing potential, and providing candidates with opportunities to fulfil their goals. Research conducted by Michael Page found that 62.8% of employees and candidates looking to improve their skills are driven by self-reflection and career ambitions, 47.1% by comparing their skills to those on job ads, and 12.8% by either manager’s feedback or recruiter’s advice.
The CHRO is taking a central role in the companies in the next normal and one that should actively challenge the status quo. Like a captain of a ship, today’s human resource leaders must be enterprise change pioneers, steering business strategy, driving company culture and purpose, and navigating a workforce through the twists, turns, and tornados of a rapidly changing business landscape.
Human capital leaders must also reflect the skills they want to see in candidates. These could include hard skills like using analytics to select candidates who are ripe for reskilling and metrics to quantify success and longevity or soft skills like ramping up their own EQ, communication, and problem-solving skills. Hiring managers cannot sell qualities they do not practice: If a company promotes flexibility, diversity, inclusion, and reskilling, these elements must be present and palpable throughout its HR department in order to show candidates that a company does what it says on the label.
Key takeaways
The skills companies need to grow and learn during and despite uncertainty, affect all departments and levels of an organization. Blending hard skills with soft, adapting, and leading by example are key to attracting and retaining candidates who are truly engaged with a company’s mission, vision, and values.
- Start with a solid strategy and clear map, then set new directions and build in the skills to support them.
- Focus on balancing hard and soft skills and lead by example. Ensure change is present and visible to candidates and employees and touches all areas of an organization.
- Shake-up the HR department. Actively build an agile, resilient workforce by reflecting an organization’s passion and purpose, and by acknowledging employees’ and candidates’ pain points.
Download the eBook now and learn how to thrive in the next normal of HR.
