“Our employees are really voicing their views, not only about their (financial) compensation as we would traditionally think but also their employment security,” said Jonas Prising, the Manpower Group Chairman at the recent World Economic Forum 2022.
What is employment security and how can the global workforce equip themselves with such security?
Prising and Bob Moritz, the Global Chairman of PwC recently sat down with Saadia Zahidi, the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum for a press conference to discuss PwC’s latest survey report titled “Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022”.
Drawing from over 52,000 workers across the globe, the survey revealed that the post-pandemic global workforce is actively seeking out opportunities to improve their employment security.
“They know that they will change jobs many times in their careers. So if they are going to apply their talents to an organization, it isn’t enough for the compensation levels to be attractive,” highlighted Prising.
Today’s workforce is more attracted to companies and employers that enable them to build their skills and have greater employment security.
Prising and Moritz identified the four types of skills the global workforce would need to develop to improve their chances of pivoting within and between industries.
Technical skills: the skills you need to land a job
Say you’re applying to be a digital marketing manager, you need to have these basic technical skills at hand – video, social media, and content marketing, and the know-how of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
“These are the prerequisite skills an individual needs for hiring managers to even consider them as potential candidates,” said Moritz.
Digital skills: technology won’t replace us if we learn to use them
Even before the pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for digital talent and these are skills that most companies are focused on developing.
However, “it isn’t enough to be digitally-fluent, people need to be able to apply those skills, innovate or co-create better ways of doing their jobs with emerging technologies,” noted Moritz.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) skills: the skills that will attract the younger generation of workers
Employers may want to ignore the ESG issues but the PwC survey report revealed that employees are demanding for their companies to take a stand and be more proactive in navigating these ESG issues.
This is especially evident amongst the younger generation of workers who are more likely to work for companies that provide them with the avenue to develop the necessary skills to tackle environmental, social, and governance issues.
Human skills: the least easily replaceable skills
“The skills that will be most important going forward are those that are not easily replaced,” said Li-Kai Chen, McKinsey Malaysia’s Managing Partner.
Such skills include communication, advanced cognitive skills, problem-solving skills, leadership, and EQ skills. These are the skills that individuals can augment with technology to distinguish themselves as frontrunners in a world of work that is constantly changing.
If individuals want to improve their employment security or companies want to attract the right talent, lifelong learning has to take center stage in the world of work.
