In order to stay ahead in the recruitment game and attract the top candidates, you have to keep up with the job market trends…

Recently in the news I read an interview with Paul Davies of Microsoft UK. With a little help from The Future Laboratories, Microsoft had been analysing data in order to try and predict the top ten new jobs that will be on the market in 2025… and to give you an idea, one of these jobs was:

Rewilding Specialist: Due to increase in populations in cities and urban areas, Rewilding Specialists will be responsible for reviewing our ecosystems and adding more plants and animals to them.

Let’s get to the point! The world of work is constantly shifting and evolving as technology changes our requirements. Last year The Future Workforce report published by the World Economic Forum predicted that emerging economies (such as ours) will lose up to 5 million jobs by 2020, as more processes become automated and robotics are developed to replace humans.

Don’t panic. We’re not going to be surrounded by droids or going for after work drinks with C-3P0 anytime soon! But there are more subtle changes to the job market that we’ve seen taking place over the past year. For example:

• Increased call for flexible working (hours and location)
• Traditional hierarchical structures changing to horizontal orders
• A rise in collaboration in the workplace, rather than solitary desk working
• A massive increase in the number of freelancers (now reaching 2 million in the UK).

Check out this infographic from Next Generation for more statistics that demonstrate how the world of work is changing.

 The Future Workforce report also found that social skills (such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others) will be in higher demand than narrow technical skills (like programming or equipment operation). In essence, technical skills will need to be supplemented with strong social and collaboration skills.

In a recent interview, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and now Executive Chair of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said that the two key characteristics in a job candidate are persistence and curiosity. The ability to “thrive in chaos!” But what does this look like on paper?

Hiring manages often come to me wondering where and how they should begin advertising a new role because their industry sector is changing so rapidly.

“I don’t know exactly what I need yet!” or “What if the role evolves and changes?” are phrases I hear often! With so much indecision, writing a job description made up of role and responsibility can be difficult. And how can you be clear on who you are looking for, or ever measure a candidate’s performance or expectations if you don’t have a clear job brief?

The irony in the situation is that most of these hiring managers still come to me with a long list of qualifications, technical experience and skills they want in a candidate. But they don’t know how to judge the candidates’ motivations and inherent abilities, to see if they have the potential to grow with the role.

That’s where the LAB Profile steps in (read more about this here).

How does the LAB Profile help us to recruit for flexibility, adaptability and resilience?

 The LAB Profile allows us to understand, predict and influence behaviour. It teaches us how to use language in order to delve beneath appearances and listen to what candidates are really saying. We get to discover what makes them tick!

Next time you are approaching the recruitment process, consider the following:

• Stop structuring your job descriptions in the same old way, with a skills and experience checklist. Instead, dedicate at least a third of your job description on how the right person should be motivated.
• Spend time up front thinking about the impact this role will have on the way you do business in the next 3 – 5 years.
• Look for how candidates have used their skills in the past, not what skills and qualifications they’ve got. Remember, it’s what you do with what you’ve got that’s important!

By doing this, you will attract candidates that will fit with where your company is going, rather than just ticking all the boxes on paper.

If you would like support attracting and selecting candidates motivated and fit for the changing world of work, get in touch.