After the Hiring Boom: How to Upskill the Workforce You Have

BY Susan Kelly | January 03, 2023

As the new year begins, forecasts for an economic slowdown weigh heavily on the minds of managers. The hiring frenzy that followed the lifting of pandemic restrictions is cooling.

Against this uncertain backdrop, a shift from recruitment to retention is underway. In fact, the current environment presents an opportunity for employers to bolster skill-development programs that will shape the internal mobility and career growth of employees, including those recently brought on board, for years to come. 

Or as From Day One panel moderator Bryan Walsh, editor of the Vox network’s Future Perfect section, framed the challenge: “What are we going to do with the people we hired?” In the conversation he moderated, “Anticipating the In-Demand Job Skills of the Future,” part of From Day One’s December virtual conference, experts shared strategies for helping workers develop the capabilities needed to be successful even as their roles within a company change and evolve.

For Khairunissa Jivani, VP for the future of work, talent transformation and organizational effectiveness at Prudential Financial, three broad skills can help ­“future proof” careers: learning agility, business acumen, and taking a macro view, she said. Being agile means embracing continuous, lifelong learning, while business acumen involves staying focused on the company's purpose. Seeing the macro view lets employees connect the dots across different parts of the business to identify unique synergies or opportunities that might not be spotted without taking that step back.

The marketplace is evolving so rapidly that students today will be applying for jobs that teachers and parents have not heard of yet, said Lindsey Dixon, assistant VP of innovation at NAF, a nonprofit that partners with industry to operate learning academies within high schools in high-need communities. Career awareness is a big focus for the organization, whose future-ready curriculum teaches young people relevant technical and soft skills before they head off to college, apprenticeships, or other training programs.  

Helping job seekers build social capital, the relationships that they can leverage to find employment, is another priority for NAF, which is taking aim at the social and economic disparities that continue to be reflected in the traditional labor market, Dixon said. “The hiring pools, the entry-level pipeline–if those aren’t diverse, you’re going to see that replicated at higher and higher levels of employment. So we’re working hard on that issue,” she said.

Fostering a sense of belonging for newly hired employees is key, especially in today’s sometimes isolating hybrid work environment, to ensure employees are resilient, able to overcome challenges and setbacks, and ultimately grow and thrive in their careers, said Tamar Becks, VP of diversity, inclusion and belonging at information-technology firm CACI International. Agreeing with Dixon on the importance of social capital, Becks said CACI has focused on humanizing the workplace by providing career coaches and individual mentoring. The company also has changed its performance reviews to be future-oriented discussions meant to support what employees need.

Similarly, Prudential is employing talent catalysts who focus on sharing enterprise-wide initiatives designed to move the company forward, Jivani said. These internal consultants bring perspectives and best practices from across the organization that can be adopted in other areas of the business to accelerate talent transformation. A deliberate onboarding process that resonates with entry-level employees who haven’t worked in a large organization before, as well as a culture of ongoing coaching, are approaches the company uses to address gaps in soft skills.

The speakers offered their initial impressions on the potential impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the workplace of the future. The artificial intelligence system's arrival is generating much buzz for its ability to generate written texts from simple prompts. The consensus: While machine learning is here to stay, with its potential to speed up work and replace some jobs or job functions, what humans bring to the partnership with machines cannot be replicated.

“Whether it’s augmentation or automation, I think the important thing for us to continue to do is double down on our humanness and our human ingenuity–be really proud of that and figure out how to continue to elevate that,” said MaryKate Morley Ryan, a managing director at Accenture. The consulting firm offers a robust apprenticeship program to attract new talent that now accounts for 21% of all entry-level hires in its North American operations.

Future uses of artificial intelligence will not mean students no longer need to learn to read, write, listen and speak, said Dixon. “Oral communication, the ability to listen and respond, is the top skill across all sectors,” she stressed.

Hand in hand with effective communication is social awareness. “You can't just communicate the same way to the same people. You have different audiences, cultures, business needs,” Dixon said. Internship managers and hiring partners want to see workers coming into an organization who are excited about learning and resourceful enough to “look around, find a problem, and solve it yourself,” she said.

Leadership, project management skills, and the ability to work with each other will become more important because machine learning cannot replicate those qualities, said Becks. “Things are going to change more and more, but it’s about our mindset, it’s about our attitude, and how quickly can you learn new skills,” she said.

Susan Kelly is a business writer based in the Chicago area.

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