March 2017 – Page 2 – ManpowerGroup

The defining labour challenge of our time

Rarely a day goes by without news of digitisation, artificial intelligence and virtual reality impacting the workplace. Our recent research found more than 90% of employers expect their organisation to be impacted by digitisation in the next two years.

Business leaders, politicians and economists want to quantify technology’s impact on employment – but no one knows for sure what the outcome will be. Plenty has been written predicting the future: more jobs, different jobs, less jobs, even no jobs. Few are telling people that they will need new skills and they will need them more often to stay employable for jobs we may not even have heard of yet.

What lies ahead?

We are seeing the emergence of a Skills Revolution. During this period of change, helping people up-skill and adapt to the fast-changing world of work will be the defining challenge of our time. Added to this, learnability – the desire and ability to acquire new skills to stay employable – will be more important than ever. People will need to learn, apply and adapt throughout longer working lives to stay relevant for a rapidly changing world of work.

On the whole, technological advances are a positive evolution. Although some may associate the terms ‘AI’ and ‘automation’ with a negative impact on the workforce, ManpowerGroup believes the future of work is bright and that, in the end, more jobs will be created than destroyed.

Digitisation and growth in skilled work will bring opportunities. Technology will replace both cognitive and manual routine tasks, so people can take on non-routine tasks and more fulfilling roles. Skills that tap human potential, such as creativity, emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility, will allow people to augment robots rather than be replaced by them.

Although the impact of AI will vary from industry-to industry, our belief is that changes will be incremental. This period of transition will take considerable time to work through – therefore, organisations and individuals should take action now and use this period of time to prepare for what lies ahead. With purposeful planning and a clear awareness of what’s coming, companies will be able to navigate through this.

What needs to happen?

Organisations and policy makers cannot afford to ignore the implications of digitisation on the world of work. The fact is, the way work gets done is likely to change substantially, and aggressive workforce development is needed to help our future workforce make the transition and develop the necessary skills and learnability.

Companies need to tighten the alignment between their workforce strategy and their business strategy. As employers, we want to help individuals navigate the changes – from a financial, security and a training perspective. Businesses should ask themselves – how are we ensuring our workforce is agile enough so we can continue to compete?

We can’t slow the rate of technological advancement, but we can invest in our employees’ skills to increase the relevance and resilience of our people. Employability – the ability to gain and maintain a desired job – no longer depends on what you already know, but on what you are likely to learn. The future of work will require different skills and employers will need to focus on re-skilling and up-skilling people more than ever before to address today’s talent shortages and anticipate the demands of tomorrow.

We need to shift our focus from job security to career and employment security. Policy makers must think about how they ease the transition we’ll be going through and how they can help support individuals. For example, what are the changes that need to happen within education? At the same time, we must acknowledge that while education is important, it does not hold all the answers, and time is required for this to impact the talent pipeline. It’s, therefore, crucial that employers are proactively involved in this transition.

The value of human connection

Now is the time for leaders to be responsive and responsible. Employers, governments and employees must work together to be part of a long-term solution and be an active voice in that process.

We should not underestimate the value of human connection. Transformation of work need not be a battle of human versus robot. Although digitisation and automation will ensure our future workforce will look very different to how it looks today, smoothing this transition, in whatever way we can, is part of ManpowerGroup’s work with more than 400,000 clients and 3.4 million people every day. This is what gives us a unique employer and employee perspective.

We believe meaningful and sustainable employment has the power to change the world. And we are passionate about helping people and employers better navigate the impact of technology today and tomorrow as we adapt to the changing world of work.

To find out more, download our whitepaper The Skills Revolution.

This article first appeared in the sixth edition of The Human Age newspaper.

IR35: De-risking your future workforce

Improving business agility through Managed Services

With the implementation of the IR35 changes now imminent, we’re starting to see organisations looking for alternative workforce solutions that will ensure continuity of their existing projects. And this search doesn’t appear to be limited to the public sector, with private sector companies working on public sector contracts (and therefore potentially falling in scope of the changes) also looking for the best way for their business to ensure stability.
For many of these organisations, this is in direct response to witnessing contractors leaving for new private sector contracts ahead of the shift, as predicted by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE), or requesting rate increases to cover their additional tax liabilities.

What changes are being proposed?

The main change to IR35 proposed by the government is to shift the responsibility of ensuring individuals are paying the right tax to the ‘engager’, where the end client is a public sector organisation. And with the Government estimating that only 10% of PSCs are currently complying with the legislation, there’s a significant risk of upheaval waiting just around the corner.

Rebalancing your workforce

Much of the discussion around the IR35 changes has (sometimes understandably) been negative, focusing on the pitfalls and lack of clarity around the legislation. But, taking a step back from the coalface, this change presents organisations with an opportunity – helping to drive changes that they may otherwise have been slow to make.
We’ve previously highlighted a number of solutions that organisations should consider when de-risking their workforce ahead of April 2017. For those of you who have implemented a temporary option, or are still making a decision on the best way forward – this may be the best chance to rebalance your workforce. One of the many solutions that could help you to achieve this balance is enhancing your permanent headcount.

Who will it affect?

For this round of changes, the legislation will apply in any instance where the end client is a public sector body. So, whether you’re a public sector body who works with contractors or a third party organisation that provides contractor support to the public sector, you need to pay close attention to the changes and how they might impact your organisation. Alternatively, consider partnering with a company like Experis that can put a plan together for you.

The changes will not impact private sector ‘engagers’ at this point, providing that they are not supplying contractors to the public sector.

What are the benefits?

Whilst contractors can often be hugely beneficial to an organisation for short term expertise and projects, they are sometimes deployed in roles more suited to a permanent team member. With the right permanent employees, your organisation is likely to identify:

Increased retention rates
Improved in house capabilities
Reduced risks
Reduced costs

Historically, businesses have cited the skills gap as one of the reasons they are not able to hire people permanently for these positions, but in many cases they haven’t been looking in the right places, or simply aren’t thinking creatively enough. Does the individual need to meet all of the job requirements immediately, or could you take some time to upskill someone who is 90% right for the role, aligning them with your requirements? Or, if you need a project to hit the ground running, could you use an experienced contractor to run the programme, training your permanent headcount in the process and ensuring that they can lead similar projects in the future?

We’re seeing the benefits of moving to a permanent workforce with a number of our clients. From a government agency looking to make a digital and cultural transformation, to a leading telecommunications provider taking a ‘try before you buy’ approach – with Experis hiring graduates with the right capabilities and upskilling them on the job, giving the business the option of hiring someone who’s perfect for the role and knows the organisation inside out at the end of the two year training programme.

While the process of preparing for IR35 isn’t straightforward, it shouldn’t be seen as all bad news. The changes are coming and your organisation must be ready – but why not take this as an opportunity to shake up your hiring model for the benefit of your organisation? And for public sector organisations in particular, this is a chance to bring the government’s industrial strategy to life by developing their own in-house digital talent.

If you need support maintaining your workforce ahead of the impending IR35 changes, or if you already have a temporary solution in place but would like to take a closer look at rebalancing your future workforce, get in touch today using the form below.

experis

The evolving world of talent attraction

With new communication channels emerging every day, today’s talent is being bombarded by messages from prospective employers. This is making it increasingly difficult for companies to stand out – but also giving them more opportunities than ever before to tell their story effectively.

These changes mean the importance of an authentic and distinctive employer brand proposition cannot be understated. Even more critically, employers need to think creatively about how they take this message to market and use it to source and recruit the talent they need.

The fragmented media landscape

Advances in technology mean the media landscape has become increasingly fragmented. With so many ways to inform prospective candidates about job openings, building a robust talent pipeline has become an increasingly complex task.

Faced with intense competition for in-demand talent, candidate attraction efforts need to be more targeted, more proactive, and more relevant if an organisation is going to stand out from the crowd. It’s clear that the lines between HR and marketing teams are now blurred, and organisations that want to succeed need to embrace this.

A robust candidate attraction strategy starts with understanding the audience. To do this, it’s important for organisations to know their ideal candidates inside-out – what drives and motivates them; the best way to inform them about job opportunities; and, of course, the skills and experience they need to possess. From here, a strong attraction strategy can be formed, with candidates truly at its core.

With so many attraction channels now accessible by employers and jobseekers alike, it’s important for organisations to utilise a blend of communication channels, with tracking and analytics embedded deep within each. Doing so allows employers to communicate with prospective employees through multiple touch points, while maintaining clear visibility of channel effectiveness.

Viewing talent through the marketing lens

Understanding how to reach out to your ideal candidates is one thing – what you reach out to them with from a messaging perspective is quite another.

Today, branding is one of the most important aspects of any candidate attraction strategy. Put simply – all companies must have a proactive employer brand strategy that positions your organisation as an employer of choice.

To build healthy talent pipelines, HR professionals need to build and reinforce a compelling, candidate-centric dialogue with employees and potential employees. They need to tell their story of what it’s really like to work there, and share this across relevant communication channels.

For those companies who have not looked at their brand through a talent recruitment and retention lens, this requires new strategies and practices to deliberately enhance the brand promise and its potential to inspire talent to engage with the organisation.

At ManpowerGroup, we’re increasingly combining recruitment workforce solutions with employer branding and talent attraction. Our capability spans every touch point: media channels specific to a company’s target audience; attention-grabbing creative adverts; compelling messages that encapsulate a company’s offering; and an engaging, seamless web experience with relevant, inspiring content.

To find out more about our extensive media planning and candidate attraction capabilities, contact [email protected].

This article first appeared in the sixth edition of The Human Age newspaper.

Mind the gap: accelerating the path to gender parity

Millennials believe they will achieve gender parity, but they are cautious. They think it will take at least 20 years before they can say ‘job done’, according to ManpowerGroup research.

It’s a stark statistic, and one which seems particularly poignant today as we mark International Women’s Day 2017. As a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, it presents a prime opportunity for organisations to accelerate the path to gender parity, and commit to taking action now.

Business leaders and politicians have spoken about the importance of gender parity for a long time. But companies are still struggling to shift the needle. The statistics speak for themselves: globally, 54% of women participate in the workforce, compared to 81% of men. Furthermore, the number of women in senior positions remains stubbornly low; with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers.

It’s clear that we’re still not making enough progress. And, in the coming years, employers will find themselves increasingly in the spotlight as regulations call for more transparency. Here in the UK, for example, it won’t be long until large employers will be required to publish how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees.

It’s not just a numbers game though. Organisations that are transparent about actions, not just figures, are the ones that will become talent destinations.

It’s time to shift the gender parity needle

At ManpowerGroup, we’re on our own journey towards gender parity. We’ve made good progress in getting women into leadership. And we have nurtured a culture and commitment that will accelerate this. What has made the difference is that our leaders have owned it.

In 1999, Jeff Joerres, then CEO, made a personal commitment to get women onto an all-male board. Within a decade, over a third of the board was female, and remains so today. Today, a third of our top executives and half of our Emerging Leaders are female. We’re making good progress, but we know there is still a way to go, and we’re focused on getting there as soon as we can.

We’re advocating this with our clients too. We’ve been working in partnership with the Australian Defence Force – one of the latest and most complex RPOs in the world – to create an inclusive culture and address unconscious bias.

Through targeted advertising to promote the flexible opportunities available for women in the Australian Defence Force, we’ve helped the number of female applicants increase by more than 85%. We know we have much more to accomplish and that there is no silver bullet. However, through a dedicated, prolonged and multi-channel strategic approach we have reached a broader audience, changed perceptions and achieved diverse results.

Gender parity isn’t just the right thing to do – it makes clear business sense. But it’s not easy and there is no quick fix. If organisations are serious about gender parity and getting more women into leadership roles, they must go beyond programmes and change the culture. It’s time to put words into action. It’s time to #BeBoldForChange.

Building on what leaders told us and on our own commitment and experience, we have identified seven practical steps that will accelerate organisations from circular conversations around awareness to the tipping point that will help them achieve gender parity.

Download our whitepaper 7 Steps to Conscious Inclusion to find out more.

experis

Demand for cyber security skills soars

At a time when the industry is reporting a widening cyber security skills gap, the latest Tech Cities Job Watch report from Experis shows that companies are prioritising longer-term investment over short-term fixes.

In the wake of several high profile hacks from the likes of Yahoo, the National Security Agency, and the Bangladesh Bank’s SWIFT software, and with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to come into effect from May 2018, cybercrime is at the top of the C-Suite agenda for companies of all sizes – not just the big multinational players.

With business leaders taking cyber security concerns more seriously than ever before, we’re starting to see a shift in how they integrate the necessary skills into their workforce. While there’s still a requirement for contractor support, employers are now prioritising long-term defence, and are increasingly looking for permanent IT security professionals to do this.

Embedding skills for the future

This shift is also reflected when comparing permanent salary increases to day rates. Annual IT security permanent salaries climbed by 5% year-on-year, compared to a 0.62% rise for contractor day rates over the same period.

With the threat of cybercrime showing no signs of abating, our latest report demonstrates that employers are committed to ensuring IT security skills are embedded into their organisation for the foreseeable future.

Linked to this is the increased need for internal training and development opportunities. Businesses must foster a culture of learnability and up-skilling to equip existing and new security professionals with the right tools to defend against future attacks.

Demand for IT security talent is at an all-time high. As our data shows, those organisations that are looking to plug the skills gap are willing to pay more than ever before to bring in the right people with the right experience at the right time to ensure their business doesn’t become the next cyber security headline.

The report also found that Security Engineers, Security Consultants, Penetration Testers, Security Analysts and Security Architects are the roles most in demand by employers. Additionally, London remained the dominant force in the country’s cyber security frontline defence, with almost three times as many permanent IT security roles advertised in the Capital than in every other tech city in the study combined.

About Tech Cities Job Watch

The Tech Cities Job Watch report provides employers with a barometer of the changing workforce dynamics within the technology sector. Five key disciplines are focused on in particular: Big Data, Cloud, IT Security, Mobile and Web Development.

It also puts a spotlight on the emerging opportunities and challenges businesses face in ten UK cities that are rapidly developing reputations as technology cluster hubs – London, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne.

This article first appeared in the sixth edition of The Human Age newspaper.

experis

Unlocking the potential of the Apprenticeship Levy

In April 2017, the new Apprenticeship Levy will come into force. This presents employers with an excellent opportunity to bring in new talent or up-skill their current workforce through apprenticeships – yet many employers continue to struggle with how best to integrate this into their wider workforce and business strategies.

As part of the Government’s aim to introduce three million new apprentices by 2020, the Apprenticeship Levy will see all UK employers with an annual pay bill of more than £3 million required to pay a Levy of 0.5% based on their PAYE bill. They can then use this Levy to pay for the training costs of apprentices.

It is a major legislative change, and informed employers are using this as a catalyst to review their entire workforce planning process afresh and invest in the training of their future workforce.

What’s changing?

Going forward, there will be no restriction on the age of apprentices. There will be few restrictions on the previous qualifications an apprentice can possess. And, with more and more qualifications being mapped to the apprenticeship system, they now cover the full range of qualifications – from school leaver to degree level.

In essence, for the first time, there will be an apprenticeship qualification to meet almost any skills gap within an organisation. This will be fully paid for via the Levy – whatever the level of qualification, and no matter the age of the apprentice. And where the employer either doesn’t pay into the Levy or has used up their contribution, the Government will pick up 90% of the outstanding cost.

This all presents employers with an excellent opportunity to bring in new talent as an apprentice – or to up-skill their current workforce, by converting existing workers into apprentices.

The new war for talent?

When the Levy is introduced in the spring, the challenge for employers will be competition for talent. Many organisations will use their Levy to recruit additional workers to join their company as an apprentice. Making your apprenticeship proposition as compelling as possible for prospective candidates will be crucial, in order to stand out from the crowd.

We expect the number of apprenticeships on offer to dramatically increase. With so many employers fishing in the same talent pool, it’s important that they understand what motivates and appeals to their ideal candidates, and tailor their attraction strategy accordingly.

Getting the selection element of your strategy right will be crucial too. The very nature of apprenticeships means you can’t judge someone by their existing skills and experiences. After all, you’re looking for a blank canvas that you can nurture. Building a hiring process that unlocks an individual’s hidden potential will be vital.

At ManpowerGroup, we can help organisations to navigate these new, unchartered waters. We’ll help you to unlock the potential of your Levy pot, by advising you on how the Levy can be used to support your wider talent strategy, providing advice on the training partners and qualifications available, and different employment models, where appropriate.

To find out more about how we can support your organisation through the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy and beyond, visit: manpowergroup.co.uk/apprenticeships

This article first appeared in the sixth edition of The Human Age newspaper.