Tackling youth unemployment, widening talent pool crucial amid structural shifts: Hays

THE Covid-19 pandemic has unlocked a new talent pool that could benefit the global technology sector in particular, which is experiencing significant skills shortages.

Having acted as a catalyst for remote working, borderless jobs and the "telemigration phenomenon" offer the potential to unlock additional skilled workers for employers facing skills shortages, said recruiting firm Hays in a report on Monday (Dec 27).

"The world is struggling with acute skills shortages, which presents organisations with a challenge as to how they compete for the skills they desperately need in order to operate. If organisations are unable to source these skills locally, one potential solution is for businesses to tap into labour forces further away from home, giving them access to a larger global talent pool," said Hays CEO Alistair Cox.

Indeed, Hays' analysis found that employers should expect certain long-term change in the way the global labour market operates, suggesting employers and skilled workers alike will need to adapt to the longer-term implications of these structural shifts.

They cited surveys by Boston Consulting Group which found that companies expected 40 per cent of employees to be working remotely in some capacity in the future, and that 37 per cent of companies expect at least a quarter of their employees to operate under a hybrid model.

A separate survey by Gartner found that 74 per cent of chief financial officers plan to move at least 5 per cent of their workforce into permanently remote positions after the pandemic. About a quarter (23 per cent) plan to move 20 per cent or more of their workforce to remote positions.

This appetite to "work from anywhere" as opposed to simply working from home or the office is an opportunity for business and policy leaders to consider whether borderless jobs and telemigration can provide a long-term solution to address the global skilled labour shortage, noted the report.

That being said, working from home should be optional and when companies are thinking about the office space they require, it is important to consider that workers' views may change.

"Remote working is here to stay and it will likely accelerate as businesses become more comfortable hiring people from further afield and their structures and technology allow it. There are potential barriers to this that organisations will need to overcome, such as cybersecurity, embedding their culture remotely, and ensuring they comply with local labour laws. But if these can be navigated, then the potential for accessing talent pools that encompass the globe is huge," said Cox.

Separately, the report also highlighted that business leaders need to ensure that young people who have been out of work are helped back into the workforce.

Across the 34 markets Hays operates in, the unemployment rate rose throughout 2020, from 4.3 per cent in Q4 of 2019 to 5.5 per cent in Q4 of 2020.

Younger people (aged 15-24) were impacted at a higher rate. For the 26 markets where data is available, employment among those in this age range fell by 17.4 per cent - this recovered by 5 per cent by the end of 2020.

"This can be achieved by creating jobs for younger workers with built-in training, as well as working with educational institutes to provide up-to-date career guidance and advice on what skills are currently needed," noted the report.

Women were also more negatively impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Across the 24 markets for which data is available, female employment fell by 3.4 per cent, 0.4 percentage point more than the decline in male employment.