Agile talent in the age of AI
The dramatic rise of generative AI is already transforming the workplace, but do employers have the people they need for what comes next?
Agile talent in the age of AI
The dramatic rise of generative AI is already transforming the workplace,
but do employers have the people they need for what comes next?
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“I don’t think AI’s likely impact on the workforce is fully appreciated. Generative AI is going to affect everyone in every industry. We’re seeing broad-based adoption that’s unlike any previous new technology.”
These are the words of Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of SHRM, who is clear about just how dramatically AI will affect the way we work.
There’s little doubt that AI’s potential impact on how we work is enormous. And it’s increasingly clear that what PwC describes as an “age of continuous reinvention” isn’t just about business models and changes in strategic direction. It’s also about talent: technology is redefining the skills needed by workers at every level and in every sector.
The big skills rethink is starting
Industry research on perceptions of AI has shown a high level of optimism. Randstad finds that more than half of working people believe that AI will lead to career growth and promotion. The Adecco Group has likewise found that most workers are optimistic about AI in the workplace. But do they understand it? According to that report, “workers and organisations need a deeper understanding of [AI’s] potential” — including how it will affect their jobs.
For organisations, the skills they’ll need tomorrow are increasingly hard to predict. Already, they’re encountering big skills gaps in key areas, particularly in digital expertise. And as new technology continues to disrupt business models, our global survey of 715 senior executives found that organisations are having to rethink every part of their talent strategies.
of senior executives
believe that AI and other tech disruptions will force organisations to radically rethink skills and resources across large areas of the workforce
are concerned that their organisation can’t train employees fast enough to keep up with technology developments in the next three years
This could be very difficult. Organisations might find themselves with skills gaps that badly constrain their performance and limit their ability to adapt to the new digital era.
INTERVIEW:
Navigating the AI evolution
Kay Firth-Butterfield CEO of Good Tech Advisory
Artificial intelligence is a game-changer for business. Over the past year, this disruptive technology has taken the world by storm, creating a range of new career paths while replacing other functions altogether. So, it’s no wonder that business leaders say it’s harder than ever to predict their future talent requirements.
In this episode of The Work We Want, we explore how the rapid adoption of AI is reshaping our workforces. We consider the new skillsets needed to build, deploy and integrate AI systems, and the strategies that companies must adopt to create a workforce that’s suited to an AI-enabled future.
To discuss this topic, FT Longitude’s Managing Editor Hannah Freegard is joined by Kay Firth-Butterfield, CEO of Good Tech Advisory and former inaugural Head of AI at the World Economic Forum.
Talent planning is increasingly challenging. Agility is key.
Senior executives say that digital transformation and workers’ desire for more flexible working practices are going to be the biggest challenges for talent planning over the next two years.
But our research shows that they’re grappling with other issues, too: the scarcity of talent in the market, the so-called Great Resignation, talent migration and remote working, and workers’ increasing willingness to move roles.
Digital transformation and flexible working will create the greatest challenges for talent planning in next two years
Digital transformation
Workers seeking more flexible working practices
Scarcity of talent/workers in the market
The Great Resignation
Talent migration/The increased ability of local workers to work remotely
Workers placing less emphasis on working for one organisation for an extended period of time
The rise of AI in the workplace
General tech disruption
of senior executives
say they’ll need a more flexible workforce in the next two years
Agile talent models should help them meet workers' most important expectations. Moreover, they will be crucial to organisational success when constant change is the norm.
of senior executives
say they’ll need a more flexible workforce in the next two years
Agile talent models should help them meet workers' most important expectations. Moreover, they will be crucial to organisational success when constant change is the norm.
Digital transformation
Workers seeking more flexible working practices
Scarcity of talent/workers in the market
The Great Resignation
Talent migration/The increased ability of local workers to work remotely
Workers placing less emphasis on working for one organisation for an extended period of time
The rise of AI in the workplace
General tech disruption
How to get the flex factor
Our survey shows us how organisations are adjusting their talent strategies to create more flexible workforces in the next two years.
Setting up sectoral talent pools
Taking a skills-based approach to hiring
Using online talent platforms
Increase in employment of agency workers
Offering more internal flexibility, e.g. through job rotations
Hiring talent from abroad
Increased training opportunities
Offering more part-time roles
Offering more remote or hybrid roles
Creating more fluid roles
The most popular tactic is sectoral talent pools. These lists of engaged candidates with relevant experience and skills might include previous contingent workers, former permanent employees, freelancers, retirees and even previous applicants.
Organisations are clearly becoming more porous, with people moving in and out over time. And it benefits both sides: employers can bring in relevant skills and knowledge when they need them, and the workers can move between different organisations, learning as they go.
Measures such as these enhance ‘external flexibility’ – but 88% also report that they are seeking to build ‘internal flexibility’ through measures such as secondments or rotations, while 87% are offering increased training opportunities. Both aspects of flexibility will be key for organisations to build true talent agility.
The rise of the agency worker
of organisations
plan to increase the use of agency workers
The senior executives in our research tell us they’re turning to agency workers to realise multiple benefits. Top of the list is increasing their workforce agility and bridging unexpected resourcing gaps — vital benefits when businesses have to change direction at speed.
But our survey shows that these workers aren’t seen as just an extra pair of hands. Other key benefits of using agencies include the ability to access digital skills that are difficult to hire on a permanent basis, and access to higher-calibre candidates – as well as helping to prepare for planned changes in resource requirements at particular times of year.
Organisations' reasons for using agency workers
To increase the agility of our workforce
To bridge unexpected resourcing gaps
To access specific digital skills
To access a higher calibre of talent than is possible through permanent hires
To increase resource in a planned way at specific times of the year
Agency workers drive knowledge growth
“
A whole new set of workers will be needed to do a lot of the data work around AI, AI needs to be trained, it needs to be validated, it needs to be checked. As we need more and more data, this is an area where we might need more workers, and I suspect that a lot of these will be flexible contingent workers.
Stijn Broecke
Senior economist
OECD
Contingent or agency workers bring new skills and knowledge to an organisation, and the senior executives in our research seem to recognise this.
“The exchange of knowledge goes both ways," says Dr Anna Gurun, director of future of work at UK consultancy HSM Advisory. “Part of the reason you see people with digital and tech skills working on contracts is that, if you have tech skills, you learn by the projects you're on — you learn by being around different people. That’s why digital workers often don't stay in one organisation for a long time — because once the learning is done, they move on.”
So, shorter-term workers become learning vectors: their mobility helps to spread knowledge and enhance capabilities across the organisation — and across the economy at large.
of senior executives
say employing agency workers with knowledge of a new technology is an effective way to spread understanding to permanent employees
AI predicts skills gaps…
“
We predict that 51% of HR departments will be using AI by the beginning of 2025.
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
President and CEO SHRM
The mobility of tech-savvy talent can help close skills gaps, but the scale of the gaps facing employers – driven in part by major demographic shifts that we explore further in Chapter 2 – mean that a range of solutions are needed. AI will be one of them. The strategic uncertainty that it creates might be making it harder to predict talent needs, but the technology can also transform how organisations analyse and anticipate skills gaps – and fill them.
“Companies are asking, ‘What are the job roles that we have in the organisation? What are the skills that sit in those roles?’” says HSM Advisory’s Dr Anna Gurun. “Using AI to answer these questions allows organisations to redesign their talent strategies. You can start thinking about how you move talent around, so you're led by the tasks that need to be done, rather than by which employees you have.”
In this way, AI can complement the key role played by HR departments and recruiters in helping to design workforce strategies.
In some cases, AI will also be deployed to directly help make up for talent shortages where employers have been finding it hard to recruit for key skills.
“It has probably come along at the perfect moment from the point of view of this looming demographic shortage of workers,” says Barry Asin, chief analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). “Yes, AI will cause job losses. But it's also going to be a solution to not having enough people to do the work — and it will make us more productive and able to grow and become wealthier as a society.”
…and then closes them
“In some countries — Japan, Korea and Germany, for example — you have very rapidly ageing populations, and in others you have skills shortages for other reasons,” says the OECD’s Stijn Broecke. “The hope is that at least some of these skills shortages can be filled by AI.”
That doesn’t have to mean redundancies. “I've heard stories of companies where workers are retiring and the workers aren’t replaced,” says Broecke. “Because they transfer the expertise of the older worker to the AI instead.”
Indeed, OECD research on the impact of AI in two key sectors, finance and manufacturing, found that 64% and 71% respectively of employers in those industries retrained or upskilled existing workers as AI was rolled out. That was many more than the number who reported job attrition or redundancies (17% and 14%, respectively).
Those numbers may increase over time – but in many cases, where employers opt not to employ new workers, the reality is that AI is providing a solution to the difficulties of filling roles in recent years. “Employers have had this realisation: ‘Instead of five people doing that work, I can get three people to do it, because the first draft can be done by ChatGPT’,” says SHRM’s Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.. “The war for talent has meant that positions went unfilled. AI is a way to close that gap.”
In many cases, AI will not necessarily ‘replace’ a human worker – research from ManpowerGroup shows 58% of empowers believe AI and Virtual Reality will be job creators. But it will serve as a hugely powerful aid to productivity. Increasingly, it is likely to be used as an element of a job, vastly speeding up previously time-consuming tasks and freeing people up to do more ‘human’ work. It could be the difference between spending time crunching the numbers for a monthly report – and spending it advising existing clients and generating new business.
That may be more value-adding for the organisation – and more engaging and rewarding for the personnel involved, too.
Using AI ethically
Excitement about the potential benefits of AI have been offset by concerns about how it will be used – and the risks that it could replicate or worsen existing workplace biases.
The World Employment Confederation’s Code of Ethical Principles in the use of Artificial Intelligence sets out how employers can adopt AI responsibly. At its heart is the need for human-centric design: AI systems used in recruitment and employment should be beneficial for individuals and society as a whole.
The Principles on AI also embody those set out in the Confederation’s overall Code of Conduct, such as fairness, non-discrimination, diversity, inclusiveness and privacy. The notions that should guide HR services as a whole are as important as ever when it comes to ensuring that AI is deployed ethically.
Agility is now non-negotiable
The unfolding digital and AI revolution has ripped up the talent strategy rulebooks. Talent agility is now essential: it allows organisations to adapt to the new world and redeploy workers into the roles of the future.
Moreover, flexibility is expected and welcomed by many workers, helping them meet their lifestyle requirements and desire for work-life balance. Often, their views are aligned with those of employers’: both stand to benefit from the expansion of flexible models of work.
Next, we explore how that flexibility also helps organisations to reach deeper into the talent pool and provide the opportunities that today’s workers want.
The World Employment Confederation is the voice of the private employment services industry at the global level, representing national federations as well as workforce solutions companies from across the world. Members of the World Employment Confederation represent a wide range of HR services, including agency work, direct recruitment, career management, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Service Provider (MSP).
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