How the Labor Market is Changing: Between New Professions and Renewed Needs.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to generate a huge impact in the world, the consequences of which spill over into everyone’s daily life, consisting of private and work. Focusing on the latter issue, it is possible to say that it is also abruptly changing the very idea of work and relationships between colleagues, as well as the way of looking for new opportunities or selecting new professionals.
While Covid has shaken the entire economic system by causing a deep crisis, it has also given way to new (or renewed) opportunities to revise certain work paradigms, accelerating both the process of digitization, and actions to empower people through smart-working.
However, it is necessary to understand how and why the context has taken this new form: until recently, it was VUCA, meaning Volatile (volatile), Uncertain (uncertain), Complex (complex), Ambiguous (ambiguous).
Today, and in the near future, the acronym best suited to describe the world around us, and especially the work context, is BANI, meaning Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, and Incomprehensible.
While it is true that many scholars and researchers propose BANI as an elevated degree of VUCA, a kind of “upgrade,” a reflection of a transformation that was already rapidly approaching but was accelerated and reinforced by the pandemic, many others say that BANI is nothing more than the darker and more chaotic side of the VUCA world.
Thus, the common denominator remains the (almost) total absence of solid foundations as they are constantly changing, becoming continuous variables shaken and reshaped by a variety of external agents operating daily in the world.
The challenge of every person then, lies in the ability to cope with uncertainty by constantly questioning, confirming or renewing one’s skills to cope with an unstable and certainly challenging system, where technology is confirmed to be the main actor connecting the threads of this new network.
The opportunity to be seized is precisely this: to be able to read and exploit the potential of the new social arena where Soft and Hard Skills are the calling cards to present oneself to the new job opportunities. And digital seems to be the right environment both for personal branding, for learning or enhancing certain skills, but also for offering or looking for a new job that, in any case, must be a guarantor of security related to well-being.
Work-Life Balance is the key term that accompanies more and more people, as what is sought in a work context, is above all the guarantee of a favorable climate for one’s mental and physical health.
Although new professions have arisen (and will arise) as a result of a whole series of events, what really matters is that people are able to express their value within that particular context that affects both them and the relevant company.
Despite the obvious difficulties that have emerged in recent months, it is interesting to note cthat Italians are looking with renewed confidence to new job scenarios. Technology, as highlighted by a recent Linkedin survey, has helped Italian workers adapt and, in part, made them more confident in their own abilities. A condition that led them to reflect on what their work needs really were.
This aspect is driving Italians’ desire to change jobs. More than half (54%) of respondents were already considering a change in the current year. In particular, nearly 3 in 10 workers surveyed (28%) said the increased prevalence of flexible work has made them more confident in thinking about trying a new role.
And while the pandemic has offered many an opportunity to be able to rethink their desires and skills, at the same time, it has also shifted priorities. Nearly half (48 percent) from said they would consider changing their current job position for one with a higher salary. But just below that, 38 percent said they would do so for a better work-life balance.
“Despite the fact that the global pandemic emergency is generating quite a few uncertainties, the data supporting us show, on the one hand, employees who are increasingly ambitious and willing to leave a stable position to take on new challenges and, on the other hand, companies that, in order to adapt to the new normal, are increasingly focusing on workplace flexibility attention to employee well-being and culture as the main factors for attracting the best talent,” says Marcello Albergoni, country manager of LinkedIn Italy. “New trends, such as the fast growth of the technology sector and the emergence of new professionals, are the answer to current market needs and digital transformation”.
In fact, LinkedIn News has published its annual list of growing jobs that confirms what has been said so far: technology, digitization and sustainability are determining factors for current and future professions.
There emerges a market need, accelerated by the pandemic, to find and train professionals who base their skills on digital, such as: Robotic engineers, Cloud architect, Sustainability manager, HR analyst, Talent Acquisition specialist, Cyber security specialist, Data scientist, Back-end/front-end developer, Business developer, Infrastructure architect.
