This is the second in a two-part series on the emerging relationship between job recruiting and digital reskilling / upskilling. For Part I, "Why Talent Managers Are Investing Big in Digital Skills," click here.
In the first part of this series, we discussed why a Fortune 500 recruiting company like Adecco is investing big money in a digital reskilling and upskilling company like General Assembly.
Before jumping into how exactly talent managers everywhere can help their talent master digital skills—an answer which essentially amounts to "follow the Adecco-GA model"—it's necessary to bring up the two key points from Part I, which lay our groundwork for Part II.
Why Talent Managers Need to Get Invested in Digital Skills Training
Two big reasons:
1. The Adecco-GA merger is a Facebook-Instagram moment for the recruiting, training, and talent management industry.
In the Facebook-Instagram merger, both companies shared the common goal of strengthening the social media industry by helping users connect across multiple platforms. In the Adecco-General Assembly merger, we have a similar situation, with the older, more well-established talent management company taking the younger, smaller talent acquisition company under its wing to strengthen the talent management pipeline and better serve people's need for reskilling, upskilling, and corporate training opportunities in a digital world of work.
2. We can expect education, recruiting, and training to integrate within the job placement pipeline as the need for reskilling and upskilling for digital skills becomes greater in an age of automation and fast-paced change.
While Adecco and General Assembly may have less name recognition than Facebook and Instagram, their merger signals big growth for the people they help land jobs. It also spells a definite direction for the future of work and talent management as a whole—a direction the industry recognizes is bound up with near-future job losses among practitioners of non-digital labor (e.g., job types like office support).
Unless talent managers can find a sustainable way to face an age of automation by showing they can help people master digital skills, they will watch from the sidelines as their clients and companies are displaced by digital technologies beyond their control.So how can talent managers help their clients and candidates master digital skills instead of become mastered by them?
Glad you asked.
How Talent Managers Can Help Talent Master Digital Skills
Train for Digital Marketing First
So much of learning digital skills depends on digital marketing.
From knowing how to send a persuasive email, to creating a social media account and a Google ad campaign, using the internet today naturally demands certain skills in digital marketing.
Part of the reason why is because marketing was one of the first industries to enter and develop (if not drive and demand) a digital world of work. And it's still going strong today.
According to a report based on survey data from over 2,500 CIOs and released by Robert Half Technology at the end of last year, "In the latter half of 2017, digital marketing, cloud or big data, and mobile projects were the top digital initiatives driving technology hiring in most U.S. businesses."
In fact, if one counts web and user experience as an essential marketing role, they could argue persuasively that digital marketing skills comprise over half of the technical skills cited by nearly 500 technology professionals with hiring authority as the most lacking on their teams.
So how can talent managers take advantage of this lack of digital marketing skills?
Encourage clients and candidates to reskill for digital marketing first. Many digital marketing skills can be fast and easy to get a handle on, particularly email marketing and automation.
Doing so will help both clients and candidates gain control and confidence over their digital world of work. It will also help them fill the skills gap that is widening fast between those who have digital skills and those who don't.
Protip 1: There are thousands of classes and certifications for digital marketing skills. Make sure clients and candidates pick the most relevant and up-to-date classes that cover critical digital marketing topics like OMI.
Protip 2: Talent managers need to help reskill the candidates they are placing to help them stay valuable to clients, as well as upskill clients' internal teams to ensure they stay competitive and forward-thinking. Class databases like OMI's can help reskill those candidates, while certifications like OMI's can help with upskill those internal teams.
So get invested in digital skills training. Double down on digital development.
The future of work depends on it.
Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.
