Stefano Scabbio, ManpowerGroup’s President of Northern Europe, Mediterranean & Eastern Europe, was part of ManpowerGroup’s delegation at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos. We caught up with Stefano to understand how the Skills Revolution directly links to the themes discussed in Davos, and what the implications are for today’s leaders.

How does this year’s WEF theme ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’ relate to the Skills Revolution?

This year’s theme made the case for renewed commitment to international collaboration as a way of solving critical global challenges. Among the numerous agendas addressed at Davos, the focus of the business agenda was on helping industry and government leaders prepare for a Digital Age where new skills emerge as fast as others become obsolete.

In this Skills Revolution upskilling and reskilling the workforce for the jobs of today and tomorrow will be critical for organisations to find the talent they need to remain competitive and for individuals to remain employable.

We can’t mention the rapidly changing geopolitical, economic or business landscapes without considering Brexit. While the true impact of Brexit remains to be seen, what message should UK employers be sending to talent right now?

No matter where we live, the environment we operate in is characterised by volatility and uncertainty and there’s no doubt that these features are here to stay. Adding the impact of Brexit to our ever-evolving world of work, it’s clear that those with the right skills will have the most choice when it comes to future job opportunities, and where and how they will work.

As part of the ongoing Brexit negotiations, we have been given certainty that EU nationals in the UK will be protected post-Brexit, as will UK nationals in the EU. Nonetheless, there is still more work to be done to ensure the UK remains attractive to skilled talent across Europe. Employers will need to make it clear that they welcome people with the right skills and will help them to navigate the changes ahead, including helping them to remain employable.

We also ought to bear in mind that the factors that motivate workers in the UK aren’t necessarily the same for workers elsewhere in Europe. For example, when making career decisions, our research has found that UK workers consider the type of work to be the most important consideration. However in Poland, compensation is the biggest consideration. Employers should be aware of local candidate preferences, and leverage these insights to ensure they are appealing to the talent they wish to attract.

One of the solutions ManpowerGroup spoke about at the WEF was the importance of skills adjacencies. Why are these so critical?

Skills and access to employment will be the solution to the Skills Revolution. As employers, we need to identify skills adjacencies that create clear career paths from education to employment. We need accelerated reskilling programmes with faster, shorter bursts of on-the-job and experiential training. And we must shift more people from declining industries to growth sectors.

Digital skills and expertise will be essential for almost all workers, from entry-level to leadership. Mapping adjacent skillsets will guide organisations, drive productivity and motivate even the most disillusioned individuals.

Can you share an example with us of what ManpowerGroup is doing to support skills adjacencies? How does this actually work in practice?

There are many examples of what ManpowerGroup is doing to upskill and reskill for growth sector roles. I’d like to share a local example with you.

Automation is changing how work gets done and we must find solutions for workers who are displaced from declining industries. This public-private partnership, led by employers, offers a compelling upskilling solution and is transforming hiring demand and revitalising communities.

In Italy, the world’s most advanced motorsport manufacturers – Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Dallara – were struggling to find enough skilled workers to fabricate the stronger, lighter-weight components used in their high performance cars. Partnering with local technical schools, universities and government, ManpowerGroup’s Experis team developed the Labs and Academy Training Centre to bridge the talent shortage and meet marketplace demand. We deliver training in seven Italian cities that helps upskill and reskill displaced textile workers for in-demand roles in high-end automotive manufacturing and design.

Leveraging a uniquely targeted curriculum, the Experis Lab has retrained hundreds of workers. Scaling across Europe and US in 2017, the programme has placement rates of 70% and increases the earning potential of participants by 30%. This is a formula that can be scaled elsewhere too.

As we navigate the Skills Revolution, what are the implications for today’s leaders?

There’s no doubt that upskilling people, identifying adjacent skills and leading through transformation is top of the agenda for business leaders, politicians and economists alike. Leaders must shift the conversation from ‘will robots steal our jobs?’ to action on how to harness human strengths in a digital world.

In the Skills Revolution, we can and must shape a brighter digital future for everyone, where artificial intelligence and robotics augment what’s humanly possible. This will help to create forward-thinking, successful companies and societies alike.

Demand for new IT Security skills has dropped by 5% in the past year, according to the latest Tech Cities Job Watch report from Experis.

While some may interpret this fall in demand as meaning that it’s becoming less of a priority, it may actually prove the opposite: that a cultural shift has occurred in how organisations view and manage IT security. Countless organisations have fallen victim to hacks and security breaches in recent years, causing significant financial and reputational damage. Add to this the impending introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and it soon becomes clear why IT Security is firmly on the boardroom agenda for 2018 and beyond.

In spite of this, the latest Tech Cities Job Watch report reveals that demand for new IT Security skills has fallen over the last year. The decline in demand is most acute in the permanent market, which has fallen by 10% year-on-year. Furthermore, the research also found that the average salary for a permanent cyber security role (£60,004) is much lower than a Big Data specialist can expect (£70,945).

These figures paint a complex picture of the cyber security landscape. While hacks are on the rise, the slowing demand indicates that businesses no longer require as many IT Security specialists. The Internet of Things has transformed the way that companies across every industry work; and cyber security is now everyone’s responsibility – not just the IT department’s. From Web Development to Big Data and Mobile, businesses are conscious that IT Security needs to be factored into all digital projects from the start and employers are upskilling their existing workforce in response.

However, in what is being dubbed ‘the year of regulation’ and following several years dominated by major hacks and security breaches, businesses need to ensure that they are not resting on their laurels when it comes to keeping pace with the ever more sophisticated cyber threats they will face.

A cultural shift in IT security management

Increasingly, businesses recognise that IT Security is now a core competency that’s woven into a wide range of both technical and non-technical roles. Consequently, employers are looking to upskill their entire workforce in security matters, rather than solely relying on the talents of specialists. While this is a necessary step, as cyber threats become ever more sophisticated, businesses shouldn’t neglect recruiting the specialists they need to keep pace.

This cultural shift in the management of IT Security can also be seen in the contractor market. Tech Cities Job Watch found that demand for new IT Security contractors has increased by 24% year-on-year, while day rates dropped by 13%. Instead of looking to contractors to manage large-scale, specialist security transformation projects, organisations are using them to plug short-term skills gaps. By allocating them to lower value, higher volume security tasks, they’re able to free up the time of permanent staff members to focus on more complex, strategic transformation projects.

The public sector impact

Looking more broadly at the findings, there is also evidence that developments in the public sector are having a significant and long-lasting impact on the jobs market; with budget cuts and the introduction of IR35 artificially forcing down the market value of IT Security contractor day rates.

The extensive architecture and high-profile nature of public sector work will always ensure the volume demand of IT Security contractor work, but the downward pressure on day rates could see the supply of workers transition to permanent roles in the private sector – potentially leaving the public sector understaffed and vulnerable to attack.

Many contractors are uniting in response to this, forming their own contractor businesses to work on a subscription based model. If this trend continues, we could see these new players disrupt the traditional large enterprise outsourcers in 2018 and beyond.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning become more sophisticated, we expect the IT Security landscape to evolve once again in the years ahead. Enhanced security management tools have the potential to support threat detection and lower the required organisational headcount. While the road ahead may be unclear, organisations need to think more long-term about IT Security, and make it a priority for the many, not the few.

To find out more, visit techcities.experis.co.uk

This article first appeared in the eighth edition of The Human Age Newspaper.

As one of Europe’s leading entertainment companies, Sky serves over 22 million customers across five countries. Employing more than 25,000 people across the UK and Ireland, Sky engages with all different types of permanent and contingent workers.

ManpowerGroup has partnered with Sky since 2010. We spoke with Alison Todd, Director of Talent Acquisition, regarding Sky’s approach to Total Talent Management and how their journey has evolved. We invite you to watch the video to see the full interview, or alternatively you can read an overview below.

What do you perceive to be the greatest challenges in attracting and retaining the best talent over the next five years?

There is a great deal of talk about attracting and retaining talent, considering such areas as wellbeing, purpose at work, work-life balance and the working environment. For me, there are three main challenges to consider:

1. Making work meaningful, looking at how people fit in and what contribution they can make. It is managers who provide the context and culture to help their teams link the work they do to the aims or goals of the business – get this right, and you greatly increase your chances of retention.
2. You need to give your employees the development they need, the opportunity to grow their skills and to stretch their experiences at work.
3. Finally, you need to develop a positive working environment. While great offices and facilities are fine, fundamentally it’s good managers who are the key. Coming to work must be a motivating and rewarding experience for people. In terms of attraction and retention, if this is not right, they won’t stay. Externally, you need to be able to tell the story that sets your organisation apart. Candidates need to understand what it is really like to work for you. It’s about the give and the get. If your employer brand is in line with what potential candidates are interested in and what they want to achieve, their interest will be sparked.

How important do you feel a Total Talent Management approach is to dealing with future talent challenges?

At Sky, our approach is to put a strong engagement layer in place. Recruitment Managers work with HR Business Partners and with the business to enable us to understand the organisational challenges and, ultimately, to plan together. Recruitment has historically been seen as a reactive service but, to get ahead in the talent race, it is essential that we understand the total workforce needs for the short, medium and long-term.

The reason this is important for Total Talent Management is that the solution the business wants isn’t always the right one and we need that ‘expert’ layer in place to advise. This allows the right discussions to take place to ensure the business is taking the correct approach. It is challenging for suppliers to get under the skin of the business if they do not have that engagement layer and have been contracted purely to deliver on-demand.

Which solutions have you utilised throughout your partnership with ManpowerGroup and how are these supporting you in your journey to Total Talent Management?

Our core relationship is in support of recruitment in our volume permanent space and to meet all of our temporary resource needs. The permanent roles we hire are in Retail Estate, Contact Centres and Home Service, where we hire engineers to install Sky into customer homes. In total, we hire around 4,000 people per year into permanent roles.

We have found that there are different needs across these volume areas so we need to think differently to address these. One size does not fit all. Our core business recruitment is delivered as standard, however, in addition to this, we have worked with ManpowerGroup on a number of projects to solve the business challenges and work through how we can reach the people we need in the market, for example, women in Home Service.

On the temporary worker front, we have a long-standing relationship with Experis, who work with the business to meet our short-term professional and non-professional needs. Our Recruitment Managers and ManpowerGroup work with the business to agree the blend of temporary and permanent workers to optimise the hiring needs.

This brings us back full circle to Total Talent Management, where we don’t just respond to short-term, operational demands in the business. This blended approach is often required for innovation projects, where we need large numbers of people very quickly and this is where we will blend temporary and permanent hires.

What barriers have you faced in developing a Total Talent Management strategy within your organisation and how have you overcome these?

However organisations decide to meet their Total Talent needs, be that insource, outsource or a mixture of the two, there are barriers to making it work well. Communication must be seamless, but there are many things that can trip us up on the way.

The main barriers we have faced as an organisation are:

1. Building a common understanding – If parts of the organisation don’t have a common understanding of what you are trying to achieve, you could easily travel in different directions.
2. Lack of governance – Whatever the relationships are, if you lack good governance, there will be problems ahead. You might set yourself up well at the beginning, but you must nurture these relationships to deliver the strategy and continue successfully. This is particularly common where you mix the insource and outsource model. You may relinquish responsibility for delivery if you outsource, but the active nurturing of the relationship will get the best out of both sides.
3. Lack of flexibility – If you decide to outsource part or all of the operation, or if there is a lack of flexibility and unwillingness to work with a fast-changing business, then the operation is likely to fail. Most businesses change frequently, as we do here at Sky, so you need to be adaptable and open minded.

To help address these challenges, I believe that if you set up formal mechanisms, create a strong governance structure, have a good plan and all stakeholders agree to the direction of travel, then you are set on a good course. You must have good connections with the business and, regardless of who provides the service (whether it’s in-house or outsourced), relationships are critical to understanding and responding to changes in the business.

What benefits are you seeing from taking a more holistic approach to your talent strategy?

Having an overview of all the types of talent we engage with provides a rich perspective in terms of the overall needs of the business. It gives us real context when we look across the whole business rather than just reacting to an individual demand. We can see synergies and identify where we can move talent within the organisation, rather than have people leave and new people come in. It is much easier to then decide – from the bigger picture – what roles we will need to go external for.

Working across the supplier’s broader capability can mean that we can flex resource in and out of different solutions. Our business needs change very quickly and our solutions need to be flexible. Clearly there are commercial benefits working at scale too.

And lastly, what tips and advice would you give those who are considering adopting a Total Talent Management strategy?

• Listen to the business!
• Create a solution that fits your culture and organisation.
• Communication with the business is critical – before, during and after any transformation to a different approach.
• Give yourself the chance to think before you dive in… another business’ solution might not be right for your own.

This article first appeared in the eighth edition of The Human Age Newspaper.

Technology is transforming the way we live, work and lead – calling for new thinking and new ways of doing things. Wherever companies are on their digital journey, they need to be more agile than ever before, in order to unleash human potential, develop skilled talent and pair it with the best technology. Forward-thinking organisations must plan ahead to be prepared for all eventualities, including future skill requirements and new workforce structures.

Harnessing Human Strengths in a Digital World

The Human Age newspaper is our overview of the workforce trends which are challenging employers to think differently about their workforce. In this eighth edition, we’re proud to share some of the exciting ways we are partnering with organisations to steer their workforce through the digital era. In addition to highlighting our strategic thinking on current and future issues impacting our clients, this edition also explores the vital role that human strengths, human ingenuity and human capital play, to ensure our talent can augment rather than compete with technology.

Highlights from the latest edition of the Human Age newspaper include:

• Supporting Sky on their journey to Total Talent Management
• Managing Apprenticeship End Point Assessments
• Digital Transformation – A Special Feature
• Implementing Career Management the Right Way
• Upskilling Workers in IT Security
• The Impact of Digital Transformation on End Users
• The Evolution of Logistics Recruitment

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Thursday, 8th March is International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

The call for gender parity in the workplace is stronger now than ever before. The aim is clear – having women of all backgrounds participate to their full potential at all levels, leading to better business, better decision making and better business results.

To mark this day, we spoke to one of our candidates, Sarina Lal*, an Information Security Engineer, about her experience and career in IT, and her words of advice for women entering the sector.

Who or what inspired you to get into the industry?

For the first 5 years of my working life I worked in retail. However, I felt there wasn’t much progression for me at the time and I really wanted a change in my career. I searched relentlessly for new opportunities, but I wasn’t qualified for most roles.

This was when I came across Netcom Training Solutions, where I studied the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) course, which could open up opportunities in the IT industry for me. It was a risk I was willing to take and can confidently say that it paid off. A few months after passing the course I landed my first IT role as a Support Technician.

How and why did you choose this career?

Not long after my first role I was working as an IT Support Analyst. After a while I felt that I wanted to progress my career and decided to research more IT courses which were suitable for me and which would open further doors in IT. I came across the syllabus for the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) course and I was sold straight away, as it sounded really interesting! This was when IT Security landed on my lap and since I’ve started, I’ve loved every minute of it.

What is a typical ‘day in your work life’ like?

I’m responsible for monitoring and reducing any cyber vulnerabilities. In fact, I’ve just recently implemented a new anti-virus upgrade.

I also deal with 3rd party vendors regarding pen-testing, security output and reporting. Other than that, I also manage most BAU activities and work with other teams in IT and give them Security related advice when needed. In a nutshell, I try to keep my company safe.

What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?

Knowing that you’re good at your job. It’s when I reflect on my work that I actually realise that my role isn’t as simple as I may have thought.

Most importantly, knowing the fact that my employers value me as a member of the team, can rely on me and trust me to manage my own work – that’s a feel good factor.

What education requirements, college degrees or licences are needed for your career?

The CEH qualification is a great way to get your foot in the door for IT Security roles. I was initially a little reluctant to apply for Security roles even after I passed my course. Most companies require a degree which I don’t have, but ultimately it didn’t hinder my chances. When I applied for my first role as a Junior Security Analyst, my employer required 5 GCSEs from C and above, which I did have. I ended up getting positive feedback from my CV and interview and was then offered the role. A few months later I was promoted to IT Security Engineer.

I think honesty is the best policy. If you are able to showcase your skills and experience a degree isn’t always needed.

What are the most important skills and abilities required in IT Security?

I would say having the ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines. The IT Security industry is rapidly growing. You’ll therefore need to be able to keep up with the latest threats and learn how to protect your company from them.

Good communication skills and being a team player are also key, as you’ll be required to liaise with other teams in IT for configuring and rolling out new software.

What do you wish you knew (but didn’t) when you first started this career?

I wish I actually sat down with a few other engineers to understand systems more and learned how to apply all principles to a working environment, rather than just revise to pass an exam. Sometimes I struggle with certain technical conversations as I haven’t been exposed too much, other than reading textbooks.

The real world isn’t an exam and sometimes the theories and examples that you study also aren’t always relevant to real world scenarios.

Any ‘words of advice’ for women entering this sector?

As a female in a typical ‘male role’ I would say don’t let anything hold you back, as it’s not as hard as you may think. I’ve been the only female in the IT team in my last two roles and found that it can actually be an advantage. I’ve always been respected and got on well with all my team members.

Also, don’t be afraid to apply for a role even if you feel you don’t have the necessary qualifications – your personality counts too.

Are you considering a new role in IT? Click here to find our latest job opportunities in the IT sector, or alternatively, you can register to receive the latest job alerts.

*All information is based on Sarina’s personal experiences and may not be factually correct or applicable to current qualifications and requirements.