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#trendconfirmation – New Skills

Posted by Flux on 

2 February 2017

#trendconfirmation – New Skills: now hiring but differently

The progression of automation within various industries is encouraging a shift in the concept of work, recruitment and careers. The need to re-skill and recruit lifelong learning employees is becoming more prevalent. Institutional skills and qualifications are no longer the deal breakers for employment. Our New Skills: now hiring but differently presentation highlights the future on emerging jobs and sheds light on companies’ responses to the continuous evolution of the digital era. Here are some of the shifts that we have been tracking.

Re-skilled employees

Companies are either going completely automotive as seen with Japanese insurance company Fokoku Mutual life, which plans to replace 34 of their employees with IBM Watson AI system by March this year. Other companies are creating a merger between their human and robotic employees and systems. Indian IT service firm, Tata Consultancy Services, has re-skilled their employees in digital technologies such as automation and AI. AT&T, now a software company, generated a project in collaboration with educational start up Udacity which has re-skilled their employees in computer coding.

Hiring differently

As company culture becomes less formal and more interactive, so have the methods of recruitment shifted. The hire for ‘attitude and train for skill’ motto continues to be practiced. South West Airlines has job candidate’s complete questions such as ‘the one time my sense of humour helped me was?’ The aim is to attain people who can immerse themselves in the company environment. This is further tested with the group exercise, Fallout shelter where candidates have to imagine that they are given the opportunity to rebuild civilization after a nuclear war. They are given a list of 15 people from different occupations such as a teacher, nurse, pop star etc. The groups are given 10 minutes to unanimously decide which seven occupants can remain in the only available fallout shelter. As the candidates discuss and debate, the HR team of South West Airlines watches from across the room and grades each candidate in categories: passive, active and leader.

Future of work

More companies are embracing the concept of remote working. Flex jobs, whose entire team works remotely, shows how the concept of work is becoming more about the outcome versus the place. This eradicating the limits to obtaining the best skills for specific projects and creates further links into the continuous expansion of the gig economy. Adobe’s 2016 survey points out that 35% of the US workforce will be freelancers within this year. As the gig economy expands, so will we see the emergence of new occupations. In their Future Jobs report the US Bureau of labour mentioned Personal Worker Brand Coach and Professional Triber as future jobs in the gig economy for 2025. Professional Triber is a freelance manager that specialises in putting freelancers into teams for specific company projects. Personal worker brand coach will train freelancers to develop self-management, self-promotion and marketing skills to compete against other freelancers in the same field.

By Khumo Theko


Image credit: wp-content AND AcademicAffaris AND Hbr.org AND Dezeen

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