The “New Collar” Workforce

It’s only been a few weeks since I wrote the article on “Skills, not Degrees” yet the topic continues to gain steam. Proof again that you’ll know the trends ahead of time by checking out my articles each week! 😉 Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking at the Tech HR 2020 Conference in Singapore. This event was rescheduled from its original live date in February of this year. It would have been my first International Trip of 2020 and a return to Singapore after nearly 30 years. Sadly, that was not the case. The session I presented virtually was “The New Collar Workforce, Skills vs. Degrees.”
2020 is a year few, but most did not see coming. As I wrote about the “2020 Workplace” recently, the authors placed some very strange bets that actually came true. What most were not expecting this year was the magnitude of “Changing of Norms” that we have seen. From working remote, to wellness, the near death of ILT training and the rise of VILT; there’s one norm that accelerated it’s day of reckoning, the College Degree.
Yes, this is one of my favorite pinata’s to swipe at, but then again, I’ve been doing this long before the current day crisis. Existing Talent Pipelines Are Failing. That is to say the standard path of College Graduates matriculating into Corporate, professional positions has diminished. In my travels of 2018 and 2019 I lost track of the number of conversations I had with HR Executives who had lost confidence in the talent pools of College Graduates. Many were just not equipped with base fundamentals, while others needed to be “de-programed” before becoming viable contributors. Many lacked the ability to exhibit Critical Thinking skills.
It’s clear that now is the time to Re-Think Higher Education. The standard measure of time spent in academia that results in a “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval for employment has expired. Dr. Richard Vedder said it best; “So the kids are not learning as much, they’re paying more to learn less – so they’re getting less for more.….for all the money going into educating them, there’s not much of a vocational result.” Student debt is the #1 issue facing most students after graduation. Many are not ready for the fast-paced challenge of constantly changing business cycles. Consider how fast change occurs in today’s world. Now consider how long 4 years of college (typical liberal arts degree timeline) compares in terms of change and innovation at today’s rate.
As I’ve said time and time again, when confronted with an issue that will impact revenue or success, business will always find a way. Josh Bersin indicated that “We have to shift to a world of “creating candidates” not “attracting candidates.” As such, we are seeing New Talent Pipelines emerging to provide the talent necessary to stay competitive and adapt to an ever changing landscape. Skills are the new currency. Gartner just recently published a survey that indicated “33% of skills workers needed 3 years ago are no longer relevant.” Kind of puts a damper on that 4 year degree that now requires a large monthly loan payment.
In this time of Upskilling & Reskilling we are seeing businesses aligning employee skills to the work that must get done. Upskilling improves existing employee skills for their current role. Reskilling, which is in greater application this year, involves learning new skills for a different job. Consider the number of people that have had their jobs impacted due to the pandemic. Reskilling is why we saw such high volumes of training and development consumed early on in the pandemic.
Recently we’ve seen a rise in the offering of Certifications for essential tech skills being offered. Microsoft and Google both made the news with global initiatives they announced to train or “Certify” millions of people around the globe through their respective programs. However, let’s be clear on one thing; Certificate ≠ Certification. Certificates are the diploma like pieces of paper professionals receive at the end of a workshop or professional development session. Certifications are what I perceive to be the modern-day replacement of the Degree. Certifications are generally skills driven and specifically focused on a subject. Businesses will drive these programs, much like Microsoft and Google, to their own benefit. Consider the gaming platforms that allowed players the ability to create their own levels. In reality, the game developer was creating their own pipeline of future engineers. The same applies here.
As we look to the new models of Modern Learning, the key skill above all will be the ability to: Learn, Unlearn and Learn Again. Certifications will support a rapid instruction of a framework that will most likely change and evolve constantly over time. We have all seen how quickly programming languages can change and now even businesses practices are aging much more rapidly than ever imagined. And, you knew this was coming; If you don’t like change you’ll like irrelevance even less!”
This leads us up to the term at the beginning that I’m sure caught some attention; “The New Collar Worker.” Coined by the CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty in 2016, this term applies to individuals who develop technical and soft skills needed to work in the contemporary tech industry through non-traditional education paths. Or otherwise stated, everyone this year who had a job that couldn’t be done remotely is now learning new skills that will enable them to work remotely. We are seeing a massive shift from what might have been considered “Blue Collar” jobs being traded for “New Collar” jobs.
Early survey data from Spencer Stuart shows that the Upskilling and Reskilling trend is just getting started. Companies surveyed for their 2021 spending projections show sizable increases in their training budgets. Unfortunately for Commercial Real Estate, it’s easy to see where the counter-balance is happening. Early projections show at least a 35% decrease in Commercial Real Estate while training is averaging a 48% increase for 2021.
I have to agree with Josh Bersin and his characterization of 2020 as the year of the “Big Reset.” So many “norms” have either been squashed, disputed or downright obliterated due to the pandemic. I do believe that Higher Education will undergo one of the largest resets out of this mass transformation. If I were to speculate on where training, skilling, upskilling, reskilling and degrees all end up, I would say look to new hybrids of Corporate & Higher Education developing and expanding. The diminished value of a degree along with corporate skilling initiatives will force the two entities together to best leverage their combined assets. Who knows where this all ends up, but as I’ve said, Business ALWAYS finds a way.