The list of currently existing professions is inevitably changing, and this process will continue, driven by the growing use of automation and artificial intelligence. The nature of work and the complexity of individual professions will change, entirely new positions will emerge, and some will simply disappear.
According to the World Economic Forum report on the future of jobs, by 2025 as many as 50% of all workers will require retraining. It is therefore worth developing key competencies that cannot be replaced by machines, such as: management, decision-making, coping with stress, and communication. Klaudia Aniśko, HR consultant at LeasingTeam Professional, shares her insights on future competencies.
Desirable Competencies of 21st-Century Employees
Desirable Competencies of 21st-Century Employees
The World Economic Forum report presented a list of the most important competencies desired in the changing realities of the market:
- Analytical thinking and innovation
- Active learning and learning strategies
- Complex problem-solving
- Critical thinking and analysis
- Creativity, originality, and initiative
- Leadership and social influence
- Technology use, monitoring, and control
- Technology design and programming
- Resilience, stress tolerance, flexibility
- Reasoning, problem-solving, and ideation.
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is currently one of the key competencies valued in the labor market, important in recruitment as well as in other fields. This ability is used in positions that will not be subject to automation. It can be defined as:
- rationally analyzing facts,
- skillfully drawing conclusions,
- cause-and-effect thinking,
- asking the right questions,
- questioning available knowledge,
- openness to knowledge and new developments,
- acceptance that there may be multiple points of view and solutions to a given situation,
- remaining in continuous development and with an open mind to what surrounds us.
Critical thinking helps gather and process information that we encounter daily, enabling us to make more sensible choices. It is a fundamental competency in all positions requiring operational decisions — that is, those concerning the strategy for performing a given job, the tools used for it — as well as managerial decisions, i.e., those related to managing a team or budget, which by definition carry risk.
Critical thinking is rarely a natural ability and habit. All the more so because it is not practiced, since technological conveniences and knowledge available on the Internet have accustomed us to reaching for ready-made solutions. Meanwhile, the benefits of critical thinking are truly numerous. Above all, it is a reliable assessment of available information forming the basis for problem-solving, as well as the ability to subject certain events or behaviors to cause-and-effect analysis. Furthermore, the advantage of critical thinking is that it helps in rational argumentation and defending one's position, as well as the effectiveness of our actions, thanks to the fact that we can choose priority tasks and are aware of our own limitations.
Industries with Growing Demand for Higher Competencies
Industries with Growing Demand for Higher Competencies
Beyond manufacturing, the industries that robotization will increasingly affect include logistics and transport, as well as office-based professions, the insurance market, sales, finance, and a certain portion of the HR industry. It is suspected that professions related to data collection and processing, as well as physical professions based on repetitive work, will be replaced first.
Physical workers who are displaced by automation will need to find their way in new realities and raise their competencies to manage such systems, using their existing experience to provide support in new processes. An alternative solution is to retrain toward professions that have not been as severely affected by automation and are related to their current work.
Recruitment — Artificial Intelligence or Professional Recruiter?
Recruitment — Artificial Intelligence or Professional Recruiter?
What Are Future Competencies in the Labor Market
What Are Future Competencies in the Labor Market
Robotization and the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence are significantly changing the requirements that employers place on job candidates. How will this affect recruitment processes? Will machines replace professional recruiters? This question cannot be answered unequivocally. As in other fields, new technologies are increasingly present in HR as well. Over time, some recruitment processes will no longer require human involvement, while others will remain the domain of humans.
Artificial intelligence already supports the organization and conduct of recruitment processes through online recruitment management (ATS), storing candidate applications in one place, performing initial CV screening, and streamlining contact with potential employees. Automated IT systems search for candidates on social media based on job titles and contact them by sending an email with a job offer. Chatbots and videobots can also be useful for providing basic information, reminding about recruitment deadlines, medical examinations, or health and safety training. AI systems that evaluate recorded statements during a recruitment interview are also becoming popular, as they are able to analyze the level of fit with the company's needs and organizational culture. However, this still constitutes only an initial selection and does not replace a conversation with a human.
Due to the growing use of AI in the initial CV screening processes, a candidate hoping to attract attention must remember to include as many keywords as possible in their application, referring to qualifications, strengths, certificates, or competencies. It is estimated that the average time a human spends reviewing a single CV is six seconds. When a recruiter is supported by AI, their efficiency increases nearly threefold.
Automation will be most noticeable in recruitment for positions where competency tests can be conducted. Where hard skills are required far more than soft skills — among others, in the IT sector — verification of individual candidates will be possible through automated competency tests that can unequivocally assess a given employee's level of proficiency.
However, further stages of recruitment require more complex thought processes, based on the recruiter's knowledge, experience, and sometimes intuition. Therefore, especially when verifying soft skills, real human contact remains and will remain irreplaceable. Machines are unable to form a subjective opinion that arises from analyzing a candidate's attitude, facial expressions, and gestures; they cannot assess a candidate's degree of fit for a given job profile or specific organization as well as a human can.
Summary
By 2025, as many as 50% of employees will require retraining, and automation and artificial intelligence will change the face of many industries, including logistics, transport, and office work. Competencies that are difficult for machines to replace will become key: analytical and critical thinking, complex problem-solving, and leadership.
In recruitment, artificial intelligence supports the initial selection of candidates — it shortens CV review time from six seconds thanks to threefold greater efficiency. However, the final assessment of soft skills and a candidate's fit for the organization still requires a human. It is precisely real human contact that will remain irreplaceable in the further stages of recruitment.
