SKILLS PODCAST: THE FUTURE OF TALENT SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE:
HOW TO RETAIN YOUR STANDOUT TALENT

Skills for the Future: How to Retain Your Standout Talent

John:

Hi, Rupali and Tessa. Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming on and being a part of this. We appreciate it.

Rupali Gupta:

Thanks for having us, John. Good evening to all our listeners here.

Tessa Misiaszek, PhD:

Thank you, John. It's really nice to be on with you and Rupali.

John:

Okay. We know there's a lot of information out there about retaining talent. There's loads of books, articles, research studies, even podcasts. We didn't want this to just be a repeat of things that maybe you've heard a million times already. We wanted to add a bit of a twist to ours, so we're not going to talk about how to retain talent in general. Instead, we're going to zero in on how to keep those people who possess the most in-demand skills for the future from leaving your organization. We're focusing on this nuance because, as you know, these future skilled people, they're crucial to your organization's ongoing success. They need to be identified and nurtured so they're not courted away or want to leave. That's what I'm going to speak with Rupali and Tessa about. But before we jump into that, maybe each of you can tell us a bit about yourselves and your connection to this topic. Rupali, let's start with you.

Rupali:

Well, thanks again, John. I'm really happy to be here with Korn Ferry. I lead consulting for our life science clients across Asia-Pacific. I've spent many, many years across both consulting in the space of people, organization, job skills, and technology. I've done an in-house team internally in a pharmaceutical company, building organization and talent strategies for emerging markets. In summary, with all the ambitious goals that organizations have, it's really right and ripe to talk about how do we get the right people, how do we get those people to leverage structures and processes to establish common goals. Again, hopefully I'll be able to connect those dots and share with you as well as our listeners our perspectives.

John:

Thanks so much. How about you, Tessa?

Tessa:

Thanks, John. I am head of research for the Korn Ferry Institute. Our work in the institute focuses on understanding the top trends that are occurring globally as it relates to talent recruitment, retention, engagement. Similar to what Rupali said, we look specifically at challenges in different industries such as life sciences, or we look at different regions of the world and see what they're facing and think specifically about how we can really think about a comprehensive talent management strategy to help address those business challenges. Really, we think specifically about those future skills and so this conversation's right up my alley.

John:

Yeah, okay. Rupali and Tessa, like I mentioned, we didn't want this episode to be a repeat of everything that's out there already focused on the more general topic of retaining talent. We wanted to zero in on retaining talent who possess skills for the future. While I'm pretty sure everybody out there listening probably gets what we mean when we say that, I think it makes sense to just make sure we're all on the same page and speaking the same language here. When we say, "talent that possesses skills for the future," can one of you explain to the listeners what we're actually talking about?

Tessa:

Yes. I'd be happy to jump in on that question, John. This is a very important one because there's a lot of confusion about what future skills are actually needed and why they matter. I'd love to shed some light on this topic. When we think about future skills, oftentimes companies are thinking about the technical abilities or knowledge that can be taught and learned to deal with all of the new challenges we face as companies bring on this emerging technology, such as generative AI and so forth. But what is really important to think about are what are the underlying competencies and mindsets that really enable people to think about how to be agile in this very complex and changing world that we exist in. While these types of skills I'm about to speak to are sometimes referred to as soft skills, I think they're really the core skills because they are essential for any role in any industry, in any context. They're not optional. They're not nice to have. But they're actually the foundation for success and how an organization can be most agile and adapt to the emergent change that happens with any company.

There's five skills in particular I want to speak to. The first is adaptability. Adaptability is really the ability to be able to cope with uncertainty, ambiguity, change, and to really be able to listen and learn from failure and from that feedback. Communication is another really important skill, which is not just about being able to communicate oneself clearly and persuasively and really be able to story tell, but it's about listening actively and having that respect for others. Collaboration is another piece. This is becoming more complex as we think about different types of work conditions, whether it be remote or hybrid work conditions, but it is the ability to work effectively and constructively across diverse teams and stakeholders and to really be able to leverage what we call collective intelligence, which really spurs more creativity and innovation.

Another core skill is critical thinking, which is the ability to analyze and evaluate and synthesize information and really to be able to also apply logic and reasoning and evidence to help solve problems and make decisions. Then another core skill, the fifth skill that I want to talk about, is empathy. Empathy is a topic that I think has gained a lot of traction over the past 10 years or so, actually, when we have really come to understand that empathy isn't something that you're born with. It's not necessarily a trait, but it's actually a skill that can be practiced that allows people to really understand and appreciate differing perspectives, emotions, the needs of others, and to really think about how to act with compassion and respect. These core skills, they're not static, they're not fixed, they're really dynamic and evolving and requires constant practice and development.

It really allows employees of, especially global organizations, to think about differing viewpoints. They're also interrelated and complimentary to one another. They reinforce each other. Again, when we think about why these core skills are so important, first of all, when we think about certain research or reports that come out from great institutes like the World Economic Forum, by 2025, nearly over 90% of employers will need these workers to have these types of skills, yet only about a third of workers actually have these types of competencies in place. The other piece is that these are future-proof and transferable. Unlike, again, the technical skills, which the estimate is that 80% of technical skills that people have today in jobs will be replaced in five years, these are the types of core competencies that allow employees to become agile and to really have that learning mindset and to be able to transition and to adapt to new conditions within the workplace. They're human centric and purposeful.

When we think about the unique capabilities that humans bring to the workplace to create meaningful work, to think about us as a greater society and how we're going to interact with new technology like, generative AI, it's really important for us to think about that which makes us uniquely human, which are these types of core skills. Again, when we think about future skills, yes, we're going to be constantly chasing those skills taxonomies or the list of buzzwords around technical skills, but we need to also nurture these core competencies and mindsets that, really, they're what make us human in a very complex, changing world.

John:

I love that you called them future-proof because they really are future-proof. That is they should be ... You're right. Today they're called those soft skills and it almost undermines them a little bit. They are future skills, but I love that you said future-proof because that's a great way to describe them.

Tessa:

Absolutely.

John:

Rupali, can you explain to the listeners maybe why this talent pool is such an important one for them to focus on and nurture?

Rupali:

Well, if I pick on from what Tessa said, firstly, the core skills help thrive in a complex and a changing world purely by constantly learning, relating with others, and staying relevant. Secondly, these skills are ... I love that term. They are future-proof because these are not skills. Learning, relating with others, and staying relevant is never going to go out of fashion. These are future-proof, they're transferable. If you take into account the half-life of other technical or what the world focuses on in terms of hardcore technical skills, the half-life of those skills is estimated to be about four or five years, which means by ... Or rather, the prediction by World Economic Forum by 2025 was that 50% of all employees will need reskilling. 44% of skills are expected to be disrupted in the next few years, which means you and I, along with Tessa, maybe not her, but you and I for sure, John, given the statistics, will be looking for new jobs and new skills.

John:

That's right.

Rupali:

What this means now is that the employees who collaborate, who are consistently learning, who are remaining adaptable and agile, are solving for tomorrow's challenges. They're going to be purpose-led, inspiring role models to others in an organization. They're the ones who will keep organizations future ready. From a data perspective and really building the why, companies with this kind of talent pool when they retain them, they are 2.5x more likely to exceed the financial targets. Replacing this talent costs between 50 to 75% of their annual salary. Now you start to see the why or the business case of retaining these talents with future skills is starting to build up very, very clearly because they're the ones producing disproportionate, long-term results.

John:

Now, I think the obvious question that a lot of the listeners may have is, yeah, it makes sense for us to retain talent with those future skills, but how do I find the people in the organization with those skills so that I can focus on them? Tessa, where do they even start finding this internal talent? Should organizations maybe have a list of these future skills and start saying, "Yeah, John is good at this. Let's definitely focus on him with our future skills retention strategy." What should they do? How should they start?

Tessa:

Yeah. That's a great question, John. Honestly, a lot of clients that I've been talking to recently have that exact same question. The first step is really to assess what skills employees already have and how do they align with the organization's goals and needs. It's actually estimated that employees have 40% more skills than companies actually leverage or recognize, by a recent study. That means there is a lot of untapped potential and talent within an organization that actually can be used for future growth of the company. But one way to assess employee skills is to use a skill management platform that allows employees to actually create their own skills profiles. We can actually have these platforms be able to auto-recommend and confirm or even nudge based on what is the market or the internal skills trends that's required by the companies. Employees can have this opportunity, through this type of a platform, to actually showcase their achievements, get feedback from their peers and managers.

When you look at a multi-generational workplace, this is actually really important to, especially early careerists or those younger in the company, those Gen Z and Millennials who are coming into the company who really want to understand what is their future career growth and how can they gain more visibility within the company to understand what are their opportunities to move and to learn within the company. Of course, another way to think about assessing skills is through the regular performance reviews and those types of career conversations that focus on the strengths and interests of employees. Again, I think what happens is companies become hyper-focused on what companies need. But if you just tap into what are the passions, the interests of your employees, what are their career aspirations, this can help organizations really understand the readiness and the potential of their employees for new roles and challenges.

To really emphasize the importance of assessment, both the employees and the organization, it's not just a way to measure and evaluate the employee's skills, but it's a way to empower them and engage them in their own learning and their career development. By offering employees feedback, recognition, guidance around up-skilling and learning new skills, organizations can help them grow and really help increase their confidence and satisfaction. There's one more thing I want to say as it relates to being able to align employee skills with the organization's strategy and vision. Again, by communicating the expectations, the requirements of the current and future roles, organizations can help employees understand the relevance and the value of their skills and understand where they can develop new skills. What this helps facilitate is what we call internal mobility within an organization, which is the ability and opportunity for employees to move across different roles, teams, functions, or locations within a company.

When I started, when I graduated from college 25 years ago, I went into a sales organization, the sales function of an organization of a big company. If I were to project my career for 25 years, it would've been sales for 25 years.

John:

Right. Right.

Tessa:

Whereas today, with internal mobility, you can benefit both employees and organizations in ways that allows employees to think about not just having one or two jobs within the company, but one or two careers within the company with new diverse experiences, challenges, perspectives, to really think about what functions within the company they might want to move to eventually. These types of alignment around their career aspirations plus the needs of the company really will increase the level of engagement and loyalty and retention. For the employee and for organizations, it really does optimize the employee's skills and talents to be able to put them in the right places at the right time with the right projects. Internal mobility can help reduce turnover, improve recruitment, it decreases training costs, and again, it helps retain and develop employees internally.

John:

Yeah. Those are great recommendations. How about you, Rupali? Any thoughts about where organizations can even start and how they would even start finding this internal talent that possesses these skills?

Rupali:

Tessa just gave such a wonderful, comprehensive approach there. But if I were to add onto that, I would just say that gathering perspectives, what appears in other leaders saying about the impact that some of these people are creating, listen for that. Ask about it. Gather some 360 information, feedback for holistic perceptions and assessing both the influence as well as the impact that talent are making, not just their visibility. Where most organizations focus on is who do I know, who's very well-connected and networked, and it stops there. But start to think and ask about the impact. Very simply, organizations could look at three key sources. The first is individual and 360 degree assessments for an objective view for the skills people have and the impact they're making. Second, look at data and technology for an outside-in perspective on skills and enabling mobility, the stuff that Tessa talked about. Look at a platform. Look at technology. What is trending outside? What's trending inside? Then who has those skills? Finally, a strategic talent segmentation to establish this talent pool on a common definition for the organization, given the business strategy and the direction where they're headed.

John:

Those are great recommendations as well. Okay. Let's say I've identified these people in my organization who possess those in-demand skills for the future. Now I'm committed to developing initiatives to retain and keep them at my company. Rupali, what are some of the things you would recommend that I do?

Rupali:

John, the question you're asking me is in addition to the million perspectives out there. What else can I share? That's a wonderful, tough question. Let me dicker a little. Let me share some simple but fundamental things that organizations can do. I'm taking it as a given, most organizations out there, all our listeners, know the base expectations of talent. Talent are looking for competitive pay that is in line with your employee value proposition. They're looking for flexible work. 65% professionals out there are looking for flexible work today. They may leave if you don't offer flexibility. They're looking for tools and technology for you to enable work. I'm taking that as a baseline and a given.

Now here are four ideas. Why am I taking four? Just to be different. Everybody goes with rules of three and five. Firstly, give talent a purpose that's larger than themselves. Make them feel part of a team. Help them link their personal purpose to the larger organization purpose. That will give them inspiration. That will give them fulfillment. Second, give them great colleagues and a wonderful work culture. Now, a safe and supportive environment with high trust and inclusivity can lead to 76% higher engagement, that's what our data and surveys tell us, 50% higher productivity and 57% higher collaboration. Think about the impact purely great colleagues and work culture can give you in an organization.

Third, provide them experiences. Give them opportunities for mentoring, both reverse mentoring if they're young talent, leader mentoring if they are ... Sorry, I meant the other way. Provide them experiences. Reverse mentoring if they're young talent and leader mentoring for the rest. Provide them skilling opportunities, challenge them to grow and maintain their career relevance with you so they don't have to go anywhere else. Give them exposure. Give them mobility, interesting gigs, projects, and loads and loads of coaching, loads and loads of constructive feedback. Finally, provide both lateral as well as upward career movement. Careers are changing. Careers, instead of being a straight line, are becoming squiggles today. Companies that excel at internal mobility are able to retain their employees for an average of 5.4 years, which in Asia looks like a huge number. That's roughly two times longer than the average employee.

John:

Yeah. Those are great recommendations. Tessa, any additional thoughts about this?

Tessa:

Yes. Just to add on, and I agree with everything Rupali just said. But Rupali also mentioned the employee value proposition. We actually did research through looking at our engagement databases, the millions of bits of data we capture every year from employees across different companies globally. What we see in our employees' perception database are some clear insights around these factors that really do influence the employee value proposition and the employee experience and what employees are looking for. Just to name a few of these components of an ideal employee value proposition that our data reveals is really important to retaining those employees, the first is really about playing for winners. Employees need confidence that the organization is well-led and headed in the right direction. Somewhere to go if I stay; employees need to have a positive view of what their opportunities are to learn and grow in the organization, as we talked a lot about, so far over the past few minutes.

A fair exchange. Again, not just about compensation, but really total rewards. Do employees know that they're valued as people and is there a balance between rewards and the employee's contributions? Control and influence; employees really wanting the autonomy, the authority over their work and to really create meaningful work and how can they shape how and where the work is done. Then finally, an environment for success. Employees want a positive, energizing work environment. This really speaks to the culture piece that Rupali just mentioned. This is sustained through a collaborative support from coworkers, allowing them to perform at their very best. Those would just be some additional pieces of an employee value proposition that really enhances the experience of the employee and really helps with that retention.

John:

Yeah. Those are great recommendations. Well, Rupali and Tessa, this has been fantastic, but before we go, is there anything maybe that we didn't discuss when it comes to this topic that we should have, or maybe even a question that I should have asked that I didn't?

Rupali:

Maybe I'll give you an answer to a question you didn't ask, John [inaudible 00:23:41].

John:

Sure, yeah, that'd be great.

Rupali:

I'll borrow a quote from the president of Columbia University. I loved it. "In the past, jobs were about muscles. Now they're about brain. In the future, they'll be all about the heart."

John:

That's great.

Rupali:

That links very beautifully to say, when you're looking at this talent with future-proof skills, you want them to be with you, start by asking and listening, what are their needs? What are their wants? What do they really want to achieve? Then co-create with them. They want to be involved. They want to be engaged. This is a group of people that want to have their voice heard and valued. Really collaborate with them. Finally, adapt and personalize. Unique as this talent pool is, their needs are also very, very specific based on their personas, the impact, their purpose and their life stage. One size does not fit all. Treat them as a unique workforce of one. Engage and connect with their hearts.

John:

Yeah. I love that quote. Tessa, how about you? Any final thoughts for the listeners?

Tessa:

Yeah. I think the only thing I would add, and I love that quote as well, Rupali, is for companies to remember that talent is their greatest asset. It's the way that business strategy will happen and be executed upon. Really investing in the growth of your employees, understanding the importance of developing a culture that will encourage the employees to make a real investment in the company, and offering those opportunities for growth will ensure that the company will maintain a sustainable growth into the future.

John:

Yeah. That's great. Well, Rupali and Tessa, thank you so much for coming on and doing this. We really do appreciate it.

Rupali:

Thank you so much, John. I have learned being here with both you and Tessa. Thank you to our listeners. Have a lovely evening ahead.

Tessa:

Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you, Rupali. It's been a wonderful conversation.

John:

Okay. Well, everyone, if you were looking for some strategies and approaches to help you keep those employees who possess the most in-demand skills for the future from leaving your organization, now you have them. Thanks again, Rupali and Tessa. Thanks, everyone, for listening.