Recession-Proof Your Career and Your Organization – All About Skills!

By?Serena H. Huang, Ph.D.

Welcome to my newsletter! I share practical tips to help you go from Data to Action so join the thousands of readers and subscribe to my?monthly newsletter?today!

PwC recently surveyed hundreds of C-suite executives based in the U.S. and found some troubling indicators for the workforce. Half of the respondents indicated there would be soon a reduction in their overall headcount and another 19 percent were considering or developing plans to do so. A troubling 44% said they were rescinding offers to job candidates. One of the questions I receive frequently these days as an economist and executive who has successful transitioned between industries is how to be recession-proof. To change things up in this newsletter, I’ll share my recommendations to recession-proof your career and discuss how organizations can prepare for an economic downturn. ?

Recession-Proof Your Career

Invest in Growing Your Skills. In addition to staying focused on providing value to the business, I’d recommend that you invest in growing your adjacent skills. What are adjacent skills? Adjacent?skills are skills that are related to the ones you already have. If you currently have expertise in marketing, your adjacent skills may be in sales and negotiation. Expanding your skills can improve your marketability. For busy professionals who want high-quality content, LinkedIn Learning has an incredible library of courses that each takes 1-2 hours to complete and you can share your completion or certificate on your profile. ???

Seek Regular Feedback. When’s the last time you received feedback at work? To be recession-proof, you need to seek regular feedback on how you are performing and make effort to address concerns as quickly as you can. It is absolutely critical for your career success to know what your manager and other stakeholders think of your work. If you are uncomfortable seeking feedback, check out this Forbes article for concrete suggestions.

Set Aside Funds to Cover 6-9 Months of Expenses. Having savings to cover your expenses in case of a layoff would give you the flexibility and peace of mind to do your job search. I have seen many people taking the first job offer that came their way after a layoff because they felt like they had no choice. While the job market is still hot, depending on your domain/industry and level, it may take more than 6 months to find a suitable new role. You can reduce your financial stress in advance by being prepared. ????

How Organizations Can Prepare for Economic Downturn

Skills-based Workforce Planning. There is no better time to double down on skills-based workforce planning. Traditionally, workforce panning is based on roles rather than skills. Having rolled out skills-based workforce planning in F100 organizations, I’ve had the unique opportunity to experiment with different approaches across industries and also see first-hand how the HR tech industry matured when it comes to skills measurement. I am watching vendors like OrgVue and Eightfold.ai closely as they expand on the ability to bring skills into their solutions and help accelerate workforce planning efforts at scale. Most organizations do not have real-time data on all employees when it comes to their skills and competencies. It is a huge opportunity especially as most companies are facing headcount and cost challenges. If you know how many employees have front-end skills such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS vs. back-end skills such as NodeJS, Java, and Python and those who are skilled in both front- and back-end development, you can create a workforce plan with more granularity and flexibility. Talent acquisition teams can also use the skills data to fill otherwise difficult-to-fill roles by finding candidates with adjacent skills.

Revisit Location Strategy and Work Model. Once you know the skills your organization needs in the future and the current state of what skills employees have, you can leverage location intelligence to inform the build vs. buy strategy to close the talent gaps. For instance, if the majority of your employees lack a skill that takes years to master and your business needs it in the next few months to deliver on a new strategy, you may want to consider a direct acquisition of an organization with such talent or recruiting in locations where such skill is abundant in supply. If you do not currently have offices in these locations, consider allowing fully remote setup to help your organization attract talent in the meantime. Check out this article for an in-depth discussion on how you can leverage data analytics to shape the next phase of the future of work.

How will you grow your skills to recession-proof your career? For those of you who lead large organizations, how will you incorporate skills into your upcoming workforce planning efforts? I will be speaking and writing more about this topic later this year, so follow me on LinkedIn to stay tuned! ?

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ICYMI Updates: ?

I had a wonderful time discussing how to use technology and analytics to improve employee wellness on the latest podcast interview, “Technology should support you being intentional with your people” with David Savage.

I am honored to be featured in Profile Magazine as one of the Women in Tech Code Breakers. Check out the detailed interview here. ?

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Dr. Serena Huang?is a thought leader and professional keynote speaker in people analytics, HR technology, future of work, ethical AI, employee experience, and mental health. She brings deep analytics expertise and HR strategy experience spanning large multinationals including PayPal, GE, Kraft Heinz, Koch Industries, and Deloitte. Dr. Huang regularly guest lectures at top MBA programs including Kellogg, Wharton, and Haas. She is a LinkedIn Learning instructor of the newly released course “The Data Science of People Analytics” and a LinkedIn influencer from the highly-selective LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program focused on Innovation and Technology. Her monthly newsletter “From Data to Action” already has thousands of subscribers and delivered directly to the inbox of CHROs, CIOs, and CDAOs. Featured in Profile Magazine as one of the Board Ready Leaders and Women in Tech Code Breakers, Dr. Huang is passionate about helping organizations create value with data analytics. DM her on LinkedIn to book her for speaking engagements and podcast interviews. Get to know her by checking out her recent interviews on?Profile Magazine,?Tech Talks,?People Matters,?Women in AI podcast,?Data Chief podcast,?HR Leaders podcast?and more.

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