Own Your Skills, Own Your Future

Welcome to The Shift, a weekly newsletter where I provide thought-provoking ideas to help you think differently about your career and money.

Last Week + This Week = It’s All Connected

Last week I discussed why layoffs are a sign a new era of work is dawning. Read here if you missed it. This week I explain that part of that new era is reorganizing employees by skills rather than job title, leading to better career autonomy.

Reaching a Tipping Point

It sounds like a dream – having complete autonomy over your career.

It could be reality sooner than we think.

The catalyst? Unprecedented change. Obviously 😉 

Everything that impacts the way a company makes money is changing at breakneck speed.  

To remain competitive, organizations must become agile. That happens by adjusting corporate structures and the way work happens.

This is the tipping point.

Changing Corporate DNA

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi, characterized the current environment this way:

Change is happening so quickly that leaders must adapt their company’s DNA.

Sound daunting – changing corporate DNA. Yet, Indra is not the only CEO thinking this way:

• 75% of CEOs say their companies face significant disruption¹ .

• 98% of CEOs recognize they need to change their business models within the next 3 years in response to internal and external disruption¹ .

Evidence suggests that 3-year projection might be conservative.

Business models are changing now.

Replacing the Hierarchy

Deconstruction of traditional hierarchical structures isn’t new.

Except now it’s become a headwind for growth. This manifests changes like:

1. Corporate decentralization.

2. Employees working horizontally across the firm, not just in set silos.

3. Technology and innovation creating an unprecedented speed to market.

4. New employee expectations.

Business model change, for the sake of flexibility and adaptability, cannot happen without impacting people.

If corporations are becoming more dynamic – to quote lingo used in HR circles – so must the labor force. Thus, the culture of work changes.

Companies and individuals will need to embrace a culture of learning, constant reskilling/upskilling, and change.

The way we get hired, paid, and promoted will all tie to this.

Skills > Titles

How can one’s job description stay constant in a world of change?

It’s estimated that 44% of the primary skills needed by a worker to be successful will change in the next 5 years² .

Meaning in just 5 years, almost half of what you do in your current job will be completely different!

The skills needed today won’t be needed tomorrow. The potential to acquire new skills becomes much more important.

Many companies recognize this and are experimenting with skills-based hiring³ .

Companies as big as Unilever -- owner of Dove, AXE, Hellman’s, etc. -- are deploying this strategy.

This is huge! Experimentation like this shows less resistance to changing a company’s DNA than we might have initially assumed.

It doesn’t hurt that corp. performance is better under a skills-based strategy³ .

Mass Deployment

When there is talk of skills-based hiring the term “intrapreneur” is often tossed around.

This term suggests employees have entrepreneurial characteristics: they’re innovative and resourceful.

I’m all for offering that opportunity inside a corporation! But not all employees have an appetite for innovation and changes in focus.

The greater opportunity with skills-based work is in increasing the mix of contingent, temporary and consultant work.

This can increase efficiency and boost profitability for companies. For employees, it offers freedom, ownership and control.

I believe this will be the first phase of mass deployment of skills-based hiring.

Employee in the Driver’s Seat

With companies still in the experimenting stage, frustrated employees are eager to take matters into their own hands.

Consulting and contract work have become more attractive alternatives for those that want change.

That type of work allows individuals to define their skills and interests, rather than relying on a company to do it for them.

Owning your skill set, gives you greater control over your career path.

Let’s make The Shift!

Lindsey

P.S. Please share this with 1 other person who you think would find this topic interesting. I would be so grateful! 🙏

Sources:

1. AlixPartners Disruption Index 2023.

2. World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2023.

3. Deloitte 2022.