The Tech Version of Flipping Burgers
Today, high school students are better equipped to compete in the high-tech economy than any other previous generation. Most are more technologically perceptive than their parents and certainly more at home online than their grandparents. So, why do we expect their first job to be at McDonald’s or In-N-Out? Given a better and more applicable work option, most 16–18 year olds wouldn’t want to be spending time in jobs with no applicability to their future. However, there currently isn’t an alternative way to get their “foot in the door.” Given all of the improvements that the internet has made to communications, knowledge, and work it’s time to develop the tech version of “flipping burgers.”
War for Talent: Just Heating Up
Talent is a scarce resource. The rapid evolution of technology constantly redefines the knowledge, skill, or expertise needed in the labor market. Universities and other learning institutions, which society relies to train talent, can’t keep up with demand. In fact, on June 19th, 2017, the Financial Times reported in an article titled “Universities add blockchain to course list” that universities are just now adding finance courses on blockchain. Really. Blockchain technology has been around since 2008 (some would argue that the foundation began much earlier), and universities are finally beginning to train their students. Obviously, companies can’t rely on universities to bridge the talent gap. Likewise, students can’t look at universities as the “golden ticket” to career success and prosperity. Talent, or those few people that can actually get work done, are becoming harder and harder to find. To combat this, companies need a long term approach to talent acquisition. Providing technology and thought work for high school students will not only give those young workers much needed experience but also allow those organizations multiple data points to make better, and more informed, full time hires.
Companies Need to Look at Work Differently
The current model follows that one go to school, earn a degree, and enter the workforce. Then the newly minted graduate and employer live happily ever after until retirement. Right? Not anymore. Nowadays, jobs are more plentiful than they’ve ever been and if you’re not challenging your workforce with interesting projects and work then some other organization will. Instead of looking at work as full-time or part-time, companies should break apart the incremental pieces of a job and then just pay for that. In other words, don’t wait for “Mr. Right”, in the new world of work “Mr. Right-now” is just fine. Looking at work differently is the basic premise behind the rise of gig economy; however, companies haven’t caught up to speed yet. Young workers are the perfect demographic for organizations to begin experimenting with alternative ways to break down work. Through engaging high school juniors and seniors, companies can begin to spread out tasks that a more experienced full-time worker shouldn’t be bothered with. In addition, companies will develop a system and taxonomy of looking at their organization as a summation of thousands of “micro-jobs.”
Relevant Skills (and Where to Find Them)
Where to find relevant skills is the billion-dollar question. I find it interesting that organizations, across all industries, are building a competency in talent acquisition. There’s an army of recruiters across LinkedIn, Indeed.com, Monster.com, and internal company job boards searching for the talent “needle” in the resume “haystack.” This approach isn’t working. Don’t get me wrong, the talent you need is out there and, at present, only a fully-staffed recruitment team will find it. However, this isn’t sustainable. The solution is for organizations to increase their talent pipeline through gigs. Offering small jobs to individuals allows them to build experience and gives companies a “try-before-you-buy” solution to talent. For example, imagine if Audrey, a current high school senior was able to do some coding, graphic design, or google ad creation work for an organization and then a year later, after a few university classes, began doing more advanced work. Now let’s take this further to assume that you, as the organization, also know what courses Audrey took and what other learning resources she consumed (i.e. Udemy, Udacity, Coursera, edX, ASU Global Freshman Academy, or even TED Talks). If organizations can compare work related performance data with academic and knowledge achievement then they can make better long-term hiring decisions. Think about it.
So what?
We underestimate young talent. Are they highly skilled? No. But, do they need to be highly skilled to add value to organizations? No. Is your organization doing enough to grow the talent today that will be needed tomorrow? The war for talent is going to get much more competitive, but if your organization can begin to look differently at how work is done and use data to inform hiring decisions then there is a much higher likelihood of sustained competitive advantage. Let’s give our future workforce employment experience that leads to real opportunity. It’s time for the technology equivalent of flipping burgers. Follow us at gigapult.com to learn more about what you as an individual or organization can do to design the future!
