It’s hard to believe that merely six months ago, the talent management industry was comfortably cruising along. With the recruitment of best-fit candidates in high demand.
During the last decade, the world held its breath in anticipation of the widely featured and now imminent fourth industrial revolution. Which would bring with its digital transformation in leaps and bounds and introduce the era of Artificial Intelligence. But little did we know that the future would be fast-tracked to 2020 when a virus turned into an international pandemic. It forever altered the way in which we work and redefine how we do business.
So, how did the Data Industry hiring landscape and trends change during the global pandemic?
For Companies
With a global risk-averse outlook to spending and budgets being widely frozen. We have seen the shift in demand for more targeted and highly skilled data resources on a temporary, rather than permanent employment basis.
This bodes the question: Is the era of hiring an employee on a permanent or fixed-term basis over? Maybe not completely, but the shift to delivering value as an output most definitely overshadows the need for having employees working from eight to five every day.
Time will tell, but we now often hear market experts talk about the new and digital way of working, which in a sense has fast become the new normal.
Companies were forced to digitise and so did employees. We have seen:
- Remote working is being implemented and adopted widely with great success.
- Adoption of a more Agile delivery methodology, which led technology and tools to rapidly change in order to facilitate and measure this approach on a virtual basis.
- Vastly increased levels of digital collaboration, requiring companies to be more visible and make use of various online channels to sustain organisational culture and employee-wellbeing in the absence of real face-to-face time.
A shift to value output, rather than complacent employees. The era of just showing up for work to do the bare minimum is slowly fading away, with the shift to a more temporary and agile way of working, at least for now.
The individual needs to adjust fast and frankly answer these pertinent questions:
- What am I offering as a skill or a service that adds value to companies, programs, projects, or teams?
- Why would someone need my service?
- How do I market myself and my skill sets?
- How do I keep my skill sets current with a fast pace changing environment?
- How do I prepare for the future, knowing that the pace of digital evolution will increase drastically?
Digital trends with working from home are at the order of the day. With the more temporary types of engagements, virtual collaboration forces individuals to gear their digital maturity about new digital tools, techniques, and processes to a level where they can become competitive with peers in the market.
In addition to the digital changes, individuals must adapt. They also must be able to master the skill of marketing themselves over various channels, such as LinkedIn. They must also have the skill and flexibility to promote themselves and relay their personal story by means of a virtual interview or engagement with potential clients or companies. People must adapt in terms of managing their own time and output to a large degree. One should be able to take responsibility for your deliverables, instead of waiting for tasks to be assigned.
For the Talent Industry
Like with companies and individuals, the talent sourcing industry must adapt and adjust. There is a shift to value offering. Instead of showing up for a job at the office, talent sourcing agencies must now be able to offer a more holistic talent solution.
The industry now expects candidates to fill positions over a shorter engagement period, which implies that:
- Candidates must match suitable skills that were tested on a technical level as per the required output. A normal search won’t deliver or guarantee suitable competency anymore.
- A true understanding of the team, culture and working environment should be identified and explained to the candidate.
- Talent agents must be able to explain the position to candidates fully, even on a technical level.
The industry must improve digital maturity to ensure a valued service to their clients. These improvements could include:
- Adopt the necessary technology and infrastructure to perform online interviews.
- Use modern techniques, like Artificial Intelligence, to help source suitable candidates.
- Ensure that their footprint and marketing channels are digital and fit for the target audience
That said and with the raging effect of this pandemic felt across all spheres of our working world, all is not doom and gnomish. This unprecedented challenge presents unequalled opportunities for companies and individuals. However, only for those who are willing and able to adapt to the rumblings of a perfect storm. People need to position themselves to fully advance their talent pool and individual skill sets to match drastic market shifts, while navigating the winds of change.