JR is a talent leader with 20+ years of experience, VP of North America at Reejig and an advocate for sustainable talent strategies.
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A quarter million jobs in tech have been lost since 2022, with over 100,000 of those losses coming in 2023. This is not necessarily surprising; one traditional viewpoint is that in order for companies to succeed during times of economic uncertainty, talent must pay the price. However, it’s not necessarily the only course of action.
I’ve previously discussed the concept of talent mobility, which essentially means fostering the movement of talent within an organization. During a down market, the ability to redistribute existing talent can potentially provide an alternative to layoffs while also enabling an organization to take advantage of opportunities and market shifts that perhaps others are not prepared for from a talent perspective.
In order for this to happen, a few things need to occur within a company.
A shift in the talent-recruiting mindset.
When most employees (66%) think about career growth, they think about leaving their current company. This number jumps to 74% among Millennials and members of Gen-Z.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 the "median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men held at 4.3 years," while for women it was 3.8 years, and these numbers tend to be infamously lower in tech. I’ve personally experienced this as well; during my time at Uber, the average employee tenure was 18 months.
Organizations lose so much when employees leave after only a year or two, but the fact is that talent ecosystems are often built to help employees leave. The use of headhunters, LinkedIn and marketing/advertising aimed at external candidates encourage employees to look elsewhere when they want to progress their careers. Instead, organizations need to shift into a reskilling and upskilling mindset.
A better understanding of existing talent.
It’s likely that any given organization’s recruitment market is often filled with roles that internal talent can fill, yet the prevailing sentiment is that it can be easier to go “shopping” for someone new. There is a false perception that the market provides better value, when in reality, supply is not limitless. There are only a limited number of individuals who may possess the skills for a given role and there are countless reasons as to why these individuals may not even see an opening, let alone align logistically and culturally with an organization. However, looking externally continues to be the status quo because often talent HR has little visibility into organizational talent, and furthermore, this data sits in silos.
When different parts of the organization communicate and this data is brought together in a transparent way, it becomes easier to identify those people who have the skills, engagement and readiness for change to be tapped for new roles.
An eye toward the future.
According to the World Economic Forum, the half-life for skills is about five years. This means that every five years a skill becomes half as valuable as it was before. More importantly, this means that it’s highly likely that any given organization lacks the skills it will need five years from now.
Many organizations avoid reskilling their workforce because they view it as risky, but the greater risk may be getting caught flat-footed, unable to pivot to meet new market demands and conditions. There is one certainty in an uncertain economic climate, and that is an inevitable rebound. By reskilling employees now, not only are individuals able to keep their jobs, but the company as a whole will be better positioned for future growth.
If I can leave readers with a single takeaway, it is the importance of embracing a skill-based, as opposed to a role-based, approach to talent management. Skills are the currency of the future, and in fostering their development, organizations can not only reach zero wasted potential within their existing talent pool but also build organizational resilience that can withstand inevitable market ups and downs.
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