Our skills are diminishing faster!

Raising rates, inflation, drones, robots, AI, protectionism, war, regionalisation, changes to supply chains, hybrid working, less business travel, net zero, and changing customer demographics. I could go on, but these are just a few of the things that go into the mix of issues affecting companies and society at the moment. Before the industrial revolution, skills were passed on from generation to generation because you could reliably say “you’ll always need some who can do x”. Whilst change happened fast in the 20th century, I think the period of change we’re going through now is far more profound. Jobs for life may not even be jobs for five years. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2023) says two-fifths or the core skills workers have today will be disrupted by technological change by 2027. Half of all workers’ core skills will need to be updated every five years, the report adds.

Hiring is always an opportunity to change tack, to upskill, to reflect on what you want to achieve through making the hire. With executive searches and senior hires we undertake for clients, a great deal of time is spent focusing on this. We work with the client to go into depth on where the market is, where it’s going, and the options for a route forwards. With roles requiring less experience, the temptation is to simply just hire for a job that needs doing and to not give much thought beyond that aim. The late financier, Sir James Goldsmith, talked of management being an inverted pyramid of responsibility. At the top, you’re responsible for everything and when you start in your career, often only for a very defined task. Therefore, you could argue that with more junior hires you can focus on the job in hand, but I’d urge all managers, given the World Economic Forum’s report, to think about where their team maybe in five years. All interviewers need to give thought to “how is our business going to need to change to meet the ever-changing market and what skills do I need in the team”. All hirers need to be thinking about leaders of the future, or at least people who are willing to develop themselves and to be open to changing how they work.

Santander were reported be the first major bank to hire people with a third-class degree. You can see my comments in the Daily Mail here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11597803/Santander-major-bank-UK-hire-graduates-class-degree.html . What I suspect Santander are doing is looking beyond qualifications and are focusing on personality traits and wider skills than just a degree.?I’m sure that adaptability will be a key trait they’ll be trying to identify. Think of the wide range of roles they have, even those which have historically been thought of as “graduate roles”, and you can see why a cookie cutter approach of just looking at academics may not always be the right solution. Personality and aptitude testing maybe a better route for many firms than looking at traditional qualifications.

In many consulting or B2B sales roles, firms used to like to hire graduates and ideally those from “red brick” universities. Why? Well the thinking was you needed to be able to understand a client’s complex business and products, to design a strategy to solve the client’s problem, but before all of this you were also expected to cold call a client and then “wow” them in a presentation. It was felt a graduate was best placed to do this. According to our recent survey, cold calling is still part of the City life, but the amount of cold calling post pandemic has fallen dramatically. Most firms rely on SEO, referral, content marketing, or they’ve realised that having teams where people focus on one task, and excel, is better than finding teams of all-rounders. You no longer need to be good at everything to be successful, but just good at some aspects of a role. A great “salesperson” may not in today’s world actually be a great person to deliver a solution – and they definitely may not be a graduate. For many firms, the move to a specialisation of roles has taken many years, but if you throw into the mix the factors I started this article with, i.e. AI etc., you can see how teams may need differing skills when circumstances change. Marketers who were fabulous at arranging events had to look to new methods to generate leads during lockdown. Whilst events are back, digital marketing has become central to all firms’ strategy. Some roles do require high levels of intellect and formal training, but many don’t and let’s not underestimate the power of emotional intelligence. For those which don’t require formal training, firms need to shift their assessment to focusing on personality traits and qualities such as adaptability, resilience, and openness to change. Of these, resilience is very important and some studies suggest, the most important.

What else are we seeing? It was recently reported that Slaughter & May are linking bonuses to office attendance. We’ve said for some time that we’re seeing the requirement to be more present in the office increasing, but this is the first time I’ve seen bonuses linked to attendance. If implemented by more firms, I think it would be very effective, but each firm needs to make their own decision.

Everybody seems to also be talking about “where is the light at the end of the tunnel?”. There are no doubt some businesses are really struggling, but did we see some light at the end of the tunnel last week? My last newsletter was entitled “when bad news is good news”. Well, the news over the last couple of weeks has been pretty awful and yet we saw some shares increase in value, buoyed by the potential slowdown in rate rises. The general consensus amongst many I talk to is that once rates peak, or even fall a bit, firms will be more confident. Today, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation reported an increase in hiring confidence. Let’s hope that things are improving and the Bank of England doesn’t overcorrect on rates.

Also, a huge clap for me. A whole newsletter with no comment on Coutts.?