We are in the early stages of a renaissance period. Coming out of the depths of despair, dealing with a dreaded virus, our collective mindset has shifted. Seeing firsthand how fragile and fleeting life can be, our perception of work and life has changed.
Wasting time commuting two or three hours each day now seems cruel. Forced to work in a cubicle for eight hours a day, staring at a computer screen, seems antiquated. There is a collective call for having a better quality of life. To achieve this goal, work needs to be flexible and tailored around the needs and desires of the individual, says Daniel Shapero, COO of LinkedIn.
In an in-depth interview with Shapero, he discussed the revolutionary workplace trend of the “Great Reshuffle” that he has seen on the social media platform that caters to job seekers and people looking to advance their careers, upskill, network, get in touch with recruiters and find exciting new opportunities. Shapero has his fingers on the pulse of the job market, as LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 774 million members in more than 200 countries around the world.
He believes that we are living through a momentous era of change—unlike anything we’ve seen before in the history of work. Both leadership and employees are reimagining the way we work. It’s a time when everyone is rethinking everything. It’s remarkable that we’ve come this far since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak.
A driver of this new movement is due to the fact that we are in a hot and tight job market. There is a war for talent being fought by businesses. There are over 10 million jobs available, according to U.S. government data, and not enough people to fill these vacancies. Over a year ago, workers went hand in hand begging for a job, as millions of Americans were fired or furloughed. Now, they’re highly sought after. This elevates the power of workers.
To entice people to join their companies and keep staff from leaving in the “Great Resignation,” businesses needed to change their traditional standard operating practices. For the first time, leadership actively listened to their people and put in place policies that they actually wanted. The key, management realized, was to offer flexibility, have trust in their employees and ensure managers are well-trained, empathetic team leaders.
LinkedIn, Shapero says, is seeing this happen in real time on its platform. Global data from the social media site’s Glint division shows that 87% of workers would prefer to stay remote at least half of the time. Remote job listings on LinkedIn garners double the amount of views and 2.5 times the share of applicants compared to in-office listings. Although remote is an attractive option, there are still people who want to return to an office setting, surrounded by their colleagues, and are excited to feed off of the collective energy.
Companies are embracing positive employee-centric change
It’s not easy for some executives. Used to a certain style of management, around 75% of leaders have felt pressure to alter their work-style models and adopt workplace policies to allow for greater flexibility, according to LinkedIn’s recent C-Suite survey. Even old-school managers had to acknowledge that workers’ demands for change was widespread, as evidenced in the outsized share of remote job listings on the platform. The job board boomed by 8.5x since the beginning of the outbreak, with a strong preference for remote positions.
Additionally, people are calling for an inclusive workplace for people of diverse backgrounds. Past generations didn’t like talking about emotions and feelings. Fast forward to today and management gets that attention must be paid to employees’ mental health to ensure that they are not getting burnt out, suffering from anxiety, stress, depression and feelings of isolation.
Amidst the Great Reshuffle, the talent market dramatically changed
According to the company’s recently launched Talent Market Driver survey, it was made clear that candidates want a work-life balance, appropriate compensation and benefits. They want to work alongside smart, motivated colleagues and desire a positive corporate culture that is supportive of the values and social issues shared by the employees.
I recall researching the resume database of Indeed.com, the large job aggregation site, during the early months of the pandemic to gain a sense of the enormity of job losses. Recruiters and human resources talent acquisition professionals were downsized in droves. Now, there is an almost insatiable demand for recruiters, up seven times in Q2 2021 vs. Q2 2020. With seemingly everyone looking for talent at the same time, you can expect a more competitive environment for virtually any role, creating a demand for top recruitment professionals.
What a difference a year makes. Shapero shared that LinkedIn has a record-setting number of open jobs. People are also being hired faster than ever, his data shows. The social media platform, with a focus on white-collar professionals, is ranked the No. 1 site for professional hiring and corporate learning. Hires have increased 173% on LinkedIn with one person getting a new job every 15 seconds. When people explore open roles on LinkedIn, they are finding jobs faster with fewer applications.
Members of the site consumed over one-million hours of learning per week, up more than 50% from just a year ago. Upskilling and continued learning has become mission critical to both workers, who need to add new skills, education and credentials to their résumé, and management seeking workers with specific knowledge and expertise.
For instance, since the start of 2021, GroupM, a global media company, has made several thousand hires—in software engineering, data science, strategy, marketing and analytics—across 80 countries. Another example is PayPal. The company’s employees leveraged LinkedIn Learning more than ever during the first months of the pandemic and more than 10,000 employees globally took advantage and completed over 550 courses weekly on average.
Shapero is excited to see that people on the platform are rethinking where, how and why they work. Employers are recalibrating their talent needs and corporate culture. As we’ve learned during the outbreak, we can’t take things for granted. There will likely be ups and downs and Black Swan events. Shapero recognizes that it’s not a straight line forward. LinkedIn and other companies will learn as we all go along.
We’re in the early innings of the Great Reshuffle, but it’s crystal clear that there will be winners and losers. The organizations that embrace empowering employees by providing flexibility, trust and upskilling will thrive. In a Darwinian fashion, those who refuse to adapt will fall behind. Their best and brightest talent will quit and move to the companies that offer employees choices, options, respect and dignity.
Source: Forbes
