The Future of Work & Talent – A Multi-Dimensional Exploration Beyond the Horizon
As the workplace continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements, shifting workforce demographics, and changing policies, the future of work and talent remains a pressing topic for industry leaders.
These shifts are reshaping how companies attract, develop, and retain talent, prompting business leaders to rethink their strategies. At the recent TechServe Alliance Executive Summit, a panel of industry experts weighed in on key factors influencing the future workforce, including the evolving talent supply, the impact of AI, shifts in immigration policy, and the changing landscape of tech training.
Mark Roberts, CEO TechServe Alliance, and Mark Taylor, CEO Society for Information Management, moderated the panel. Panelists included Threase Baker, President of ABBTECH, Max Chan, CIO of Avnet, Michael Hammond, Attorney at Corporate Immigration Partners, and Robert Vaughn, CEO of NPower.
Key topics that were discussed during the session include:
- Talent supply
- Impact of AI
- Changes in immigration policy
- Talent training in tech
Long-Term & Short-Term Predictions of the Talent Supply
To kick off the discussion, Mark Roberts commented on the current supply and demand of talent, specifically in the tech industry. He emphasized that the demand for tech and IT occupations is going to accelerate over the next decade as based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data and then asked the panelists for their perspectives on the talent supply as related to a future increase in demand both in the near and long term.
Max Chan said there are specific IT skills that are challenging to hire for or to recruit. “Cybersecurity is definitely one of them. I wouldn’t call it AI, but data and analytics is another big area. Architecture, cloud in general, is also an area that we find a squeeze in the availability of key resources or great talent”.
Building on this point, Michael Hammond added, “What we’re seeing is a big distinction between certain areas. We’re not seeing as many developer cases as compared to data analytics, data science, those kinds of cases.”
Robert Vaughn also added that for his organization, a blend of power and soft skills is increasingly important as “more and more companies who we place with want the emotional intelligence, the customer service, the ability to just ask questions and understand risk and aligning business communication with technical communication.”
Impact of AI on Talent Strategies
Artificial intelligence and its effect on the workplace have been a hot topic for many industry leaders, specifically those in tech companies, and are typically viewed as a symbol of new technology and innovations. Mark Taylor started the conversation by asking the panelists what impacts they may see or have already seen from AI in terms of automation and talent strategies. Overall, the panelists opined that AI is certainly making an impact, and not necessarily in displacing the talent, but changing how they focus on work.
Vaughn provided a great example of how his business has adopted AI in an effective and efficient way. “We since piloted an AI tool that allows our students to do job interviews with an avatar, so to speak, learn how they are responding. It automatically creates resumes, etc. So now our two staff members can spend more time customizing the resumes, the interviewing, see where they need to do the human part in the intervention so we can scale and lower the cost to do business and train people,” he said.
To add a differing perspective, Threase Baker noted that government tech is not as quick to adopt this new technology to their day-to-day operations. “They [the government] sometimes wait to see what industry does and how the impact would be to the industry before they bring it in-house,” she explained.
As many tech companies jump on the advantages that AI technology can offer, Baker reminded that not all establishments are as speedy when it comes to emerging innovations, which is something we should keep in mind going forward.
Impact of Changes in Immigration Policy on the Talent Pool
With the new administration in place now, Roberts noted that changes in immigration policy are guaranteed. Immigration is a large source of talent, so the panelists were asked what they expect the impact of these changes will be on the tech talent pool.
Hammond has a unique perspective on this topic as he is an attorney at Corporate Immigration Partners. “There is still a lot of international talent looking to work in the US…. We also now have the longest wait times we’ve ever had for green cards. If you were born in India right now, your wait time is over 10 years. If you were born in China, it’s over five years. All the countries that you would think would get preferential treatment are waiting three and four years, and those lines are only getting longer.”
The US remains an attractive country to live and work in, and it seems that the supply of foreign workers will increase in the future, according to Hammond. Additionally, with the demand for tech and IT jobs increasing over the next decade according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are still several opportunities available for immigrants. The trend that industry leaders are seeing is that changes in immigration policy are likely to have an impact on the talent pool in the long term.
Talent Training in Tech
Taylor mentioned that entry-level jobs, specifically in tech, seem to be on their way out the door. So how can we prepare upcoming professionals for tech roles? According to Vaughn, the future trend is to train workers on the specific skills that are needed by the company, specifically to replace the retiring generation.
Chan added, “As people retire, we can work with a leaner workforce that is really focusing on the business. I always tell my team that what differentiates us from people who can do the technical work better and cheaper is our knowledge of the business. Our understanding of what is critical to differentiate the company and the business from our competitors.”
Baker noted the shift in generations in the government tech workforce as tech leaders retire. She emphasized the importance of bringing in the next wave of junior-level talent. That could be professionals crossing over from different industries, or blending in talent from non-profit and for-profit firms that support individuals who are reestablishing themselves in the workforce, such as mothers who work part-time or former inmates, who can fill in gaps with established professionals.
To change or not to change?
Many people ask the question, “What do you expect to change in the next ten years?” Building off a famous quote from Jeff Bezos, Taylor posed the opposite question to the panelists — “Understanding what it is that isn’t going to change should really inform, maybe powerfully inform, our decision making.” The responses from the panelists were intriguing. Chan said, “One thing that hasn’t changed for us is that we continue to commit to being a people company…. the three most important components, our downstream customer, our upstream customer, supported by the employee- that relationship is going to continue to prevail.” Hammond agreed and further emphasized the importance of relationships. Baker and Vaughn agreed with their fellow panelists that the human touch and relationship aspect of business is going to stay the same going forward. Vaughn also emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence and the understanding of what the customer wants. “What matters most to the customer is the critical thinking, the emotional intelligence. Those are the things that are going to matter the most. That’s not going to change,” he said.
