June 16, 2021 – Future proof your business by hiring candidates with these competencies.
The future of work is impossible to predict. In fact, 65% of children entering primary school today will work in jobs that don’t yet exist. Between the transition away from offices to the increase in automation and AI, career paths will fundamentally change in ways that we have not imagined.
To prepare employers and their future workforce, the University of Waterloo launched the Future Ready Talent Framework (FRTF). The FRTF helps employers understand the skills that their employees will need in the future and how to hire for and cultivate them today.
So, how can you begin hiring and training employees to prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist? These four competency groups will be critical for employers to hire and train for in their current and future workforce:
What is the Future Ready Talent Framework? For Employers
- Expand and transfer expertise
Employers should look for candidates and employees to showcase their discipline and context-specific skills, specifically in how they develop and integrate knowledge and ideas into their work. Synthesizing data into meaningful information through information and data literacy will also be a valuable skill for the future workforce. Employers can stay competitive and keep ahead of industry by hiring talent with technological agility, like St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton did in 2017 to fully integrate patient information into one digital platform. - Develop self
Employers should look for the future workforce to self-manage by bringing a positive attitude and incorporating feedback into their work. They should also encourage employees to practice self-assessment by acknowledging their skills, abilities, and limits and providing feedback for them to improve. A dedication to lifelong learning will also help the future workforce and employers explore how personal values and interests align with occupational demands and help them to transfer skills between disciplines. - Build relationships
The future workforce will need to be strong communicators who can share their ideas and listen to others. Employers should also reinforce collaboration by encouraging employees to work effectively with diverse groups of stakeholders and sharing credit where it’s due. Recognizing intercultural effectiveness is essential across all roles and industries. Employees in a global workplace must celebrate diversity and adjust their cultural assumptions. - Design and deliver solutions
Employers should look for employees to take measured risks and demonstrate an innovative mindset. Look for ways they can apply critical thinking, like University of Waterloo student Natasha Rozario, to solve big picture problems. Effective employees develop the skills to implement steps to complete projects and manage their time to fulfill their responsibilities and deadlines.
During the global pandemic, it is more important than ever to identify, recruit and develop the right candidates. Doing so can help future-proof your company.
About the Author: Tammy Kim-Newman is a business developer and tech talent specialist at the University of Waterloo, Canada’s #1 university for Computer Science, Mathematics and Engineering (Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings). She has 10+ years supporting industry partners with their early talent strategies and advocates for work-integrated learning. If you have questions about early tech talent recruitment strategies, please reach out to Tammy Kim-Newman.