Geoff Smith, executive director, Capita Resourcing
The year of new automation tools, the purposeful workforce, the employed consultant and recruitment agencies for robots.
1. The CV is dead. The new currency for talent is the ‘learning capacity’ not employment history We’re seeing an elevated change in how organisations resource talent. One’s ability to learn will now be the new indicator of success, not the historic experience and skills listed on a CV. As a result, we will start to see a rise in assessment tools and how they’re utilised to assess cognitive skills and ability to step change.
2. There is a realisation that poor recruitment automation is actually ‘self-service’ therefore we will see greater intelligent automation Organisations are starting to wake up to the reality that poor automation of their HR and recruitment function just requires more self-service and more people to make it work. As a result, we will start to see organisations invest more heavily in greater intelligent or AI related automation that can demonstrate real talent process efficiencies.
3. Today’s freelance contractor is the future’s dynamic employed consultant In the wake of legislative changes such as the IR35 reform, and with Brexit raising challenges for both organisations and workers, it’s inevitable that we will see a rise in employed consultants. With millennial contractors and freelancers now seeking the security of permanent employment in uncertain times, and employers seeking fully compliant and on-demand access to skills, it is clear that employed consultants will become the preferred route to talent. Not only that, but it will provide opportunities for workers to up-skill whilst also improving organisation’s project diversity.
4. The ‘purpose’ of your company will be the determining factor for you to attract and retain talent Purpose is now the determining factor for how attractive your organisation is to work for. If you don’t have a simple, defined company purpose that people can connect to, then you will struggle to attract and retain the best skills and talent in the market. Tomorrow’s workforce wants to have a compelling reason for devoting their time and energy to an organisation other than just contributing to the bottom line. Champion a good moral and community purpose, and your organisation will inevitably attract more motivated and skilled talent.
5. Only robots need apply – we expect to see the first job description for the robot… In 2019 we might actually see HR start assessing the best robot for the job, rather than the best person. Not only are robots an attractive, cost-efficient alternative for repetitive, administrative tasks, but their ability to remove human-error and bias means they are also well-equipped for legal and financial tasks. In terms of what the future may hold, I could go even further and say that we could expect to see a marketplace for recruitment agencies representing robots, with organisations renting/contracting robots for temporary assignments instead of workers. But what we do know is that the more robots we employ, the more organisations can invest time and money up-skilling their workforce, creating more highly skilled workers and closing skill gaps.