A new era for recruitment: Shaping the skills of the future

In Conversation with Bettina Schaller, President of World Employment Confederation and Sue Duke, VP Global Public Policy & Economic Group, and Country Manager for Ireland, at LinkedIn?

Earlier this year, LinkedIn was delighted to bring together search and staffing professionals from around the world for our first #TalentConnect in London. Following on from our hugely successful annual event in the US, the London Talent Connect offered another great opportunity for industry leaders to share ideas and insights on some of the biggest topics shaping talent markets today.?

High on the agenda across the London sessions were some of the transformational challenges facing the recruitment industry today, as technological change and the climate crisis continue to emphasise the need for new skills and an innovative approach to talent strategy.?

Ahead of the first day, I was privileged to sit down with Bettina Schaller, President of the World Employment Confederation, and Sue Duke, LinkedIn’s VP for Global Public Policy & Economic Group and Country Manager for Ireland. Both are in a great position to share perspectives on today’s labour market realities and what recruiters can do to stay ahead of the new dynamics.?

Mind the gaps?

We know that the pandemic represented a watershed moment in the world of work, as candidates reconsidered so many elements of why, where and how they wish to engage with employment. We have seen a huge shift to remote and hybrid working, for example, with LinkedIn’s latest Future of Recruiting report finding that half of recruiters now say fully in-office posts are becoming hard to recruit for and attracting fewer applicants.?

“Covid was a watershed moment,” says Sue, “structurally impacting all three of those key questions around work – the where, the why and the how. Where people were working changed overnight, leading to a huge spike in remote work. We have seen significant normalisation since but hybrid work is clearly here to stay.”?

As candidate priorities are shifting in favour of work-life balance, flexibility and shared values, employers are having to figure out how to make their brands stand out in competitive labour markets. But after a period of record hiring in the wake of Covid, recruitment scaled back in the past 18 months. Sue shared LinkedIn data showing the pace of that slowdown has decreased, but there remains a lot of economic uncertainty driving people and companies to hunker down.??

Bettina argues that leaders should use this period of relative quiet to focus on upskilling, mindful that we are going to need very specific new skills moving forward and now is the time to address any gaps. There is a growing realisation that the roles of tomorrow, as we transition to AI and green jobs, are going to require a new set of skills and that upskilling, reskilling and changing how we skill are going to be critical to powering the transition.?

The changing face of skills?

Data is our friend here, capable of significantly enhancing our understanding of skills gaps and helping us identify the most effective means of addressing them. When I speak with business leaders across Europe, some of the pace setters are now focusing on skills transformation, looking at the skills they will need over the next five years and factoring that into succession planning and learning and development to put people to work.??

“We have already seen that 25% of the skills that make up the average job have changed,” says Sue. “When we look ahead to 2030, with the accelerant of AI, we are looking at a 65% change in those skillsets. We have to plan for the fact that those jobs, even if they have the same titles, are going to require different skills.”?

The climate crisis is one area where we see governments looking to act to build the human capital that can drive innovation and power a just transition. LinkedIn’s Green Skills Report highlights the scale of the challenge, with only 1 in 8 workers around the world boasting one or more green skill, far from the penetration required. The median hiring rate for workers with at least one green skills is 29% higher than the workforce average.?

“Organisations need to be identifying the green skills they are going to need and designing the learning programmes to equip workers with those skills,” says Sue. “The good news is that young people who are thinking about how they as individuals can make a difference to the climate crisis are now reflecting very strongly on the professional levers. We see candidates making decisions to prioritise working for organisations that have established green credentials, and looking to acquire green skills and bring them to the jobs they do and the industries they work in.”?

Adapting to technological advances?

The other big labour market transition taking place is technological transformation, a trend that has been going on for some time but is now gathering pace. The impact that generative AI will have on the labour market is fundamental, especially in terms of the jobs of tomorrow.?

Bettina says: “My focus right now is on the responsible AI piece. I’m thrilled to watch the innovation and creativity taking place in the HR space, with start-ups coming in and disruption happening, but it needs to be done in the right way. We need to put the guardrails in, because there is potential for harm and have to be militant about doing this in the right, ethical, human-centric way.”?

She adds: “In the recruitment sector, we will see those companies that put the greater emphasis on responsible AI come out on top.”?

This is a conversation happening at the intersection of government policy, workers’ representatives and business. “There are not enough private sector voices at the table,” says Bettina. “We need to be there to co-create the frameworks – I would love to see more companies coming forward to get involved in the policy process.”?

A new era of complexity??

Bettina describes a hugely transformative moment for labour markets today, requiring forward-thinking leaders to plan ahead. The dynamic environment and pace of change is also piquing the attention of regulators: “I deal with labour policymakers and since Covid it feels like they have been on steroids and have gone into hyperactivity mode, looking to over-regulate in some cases,” she says. “They are putting an even bigger emphasis on the security and safety of workers, which is important and needed in many countries, but which sometimes comes at the expense of better efficiency and productivity. With everything going on with digitalisation as well, any regulation related to AI and emerging technology has picked up exponentially as well.”?

In addition to navigating transformation, employers and recruitment professionals must also work their way through an increasingly complex talent landscape. There are no longer just two players in these worker/employer relationships – the parameters now also include the team, the purpose, the side hustle and the work-life balance. Leaders need to navigate all of those for both current and future employees, at a time when there are five generations working side-by-side.?

When LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky spoke recently about the questions he asks himself as a leader, he highlighted his focus on things like did I create energy? Did I create clarity? Did I remove roadblocks. We know that complexity can be quite draining, so as leaders we need to focus on priorities and challenges and help our teams address those.?

The critical role of talent leaders?

There is a key role for talent professionals to play in helping employers navigate the fast-moving labour market and build the skills of the future. Talent Connect offered us all an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and really focus on the long term shifts occurring and what we can do as an industry to help facilitate a smooth transition to more inclusive workplaces and more meaningful work.?

Skills-first hiring will have a key role to play, as recruitment professionals help employers get smarter about the way they approach talent acquisition.??

“We see in our data that this focus on skills is taking hold,” says Sue, “but there is a long way to go. Half of recruiters that go onto LinkedIn now search for talent through the prism of skills, but that is quite new. There are a lot of questions about how to do skills audits, how to upskill existing employees and how to recruit for certain skills. But once you start adopting a skills-first approach, you realise how empowering and demystifying it can be. It is the way to get the best people into your organisation and thriving, regardless of background.”?

Bettina says companies need to align with talent experts to navigate these challenges. “What is clear, given all the complexity, is that employers need to be working with the people that are dealing with this on a day-to-day basis,” says Bettina. “Business leaders should be focused on running their companies and providing their goods and services. When it comes to developing and shifting talent, they should be turning to recruitment professionals.”?

There is a huge opportunity for the industry to step up and take the lead in many of these conversations, drawing on data insights and empowered by technology to position as strategic advisers. We are seeing talent leaders not only acting as advocates for more flexible, meaningful work, but also for policies and behaviours that benefit society.?

“For me, it’s about the impact piece,” says Bettina. “We are business people and we want to make a difference in terms of our economic impact, but it has to be about people, purpose, planet and profit. We need to make sure we keep all four in mind as we reflect on the changing world of work.”?

The key theme underpinning many of the trends being discussed at Talent Connect was skills: the rate at which skills requirements are changing, the challenges around predicting the skills gaps of the future, and how we can better embed skills into recruitment and retention strategies.?

I am really grateful to Bettina and Sue for sitting down with me to share their thoughts on these topics, and I’d love to hear your views on the issues we talked about and those shaping the future of recruitment. It certainly feels like a pivotal moment for what we do.?