As I continue to read about “Jobless Recovery” I have been coming across another term, “Job Evolution”. Based on what I am reading, this seems to be a bad thing initially and then becomes a good thing for both employers and employees. My understanding of this is that in a nutshell, it refers to the ways jobs are different during a jobless recovery and how that difference creates jobs that have never existed before. Yes, it means that certain jobs have disappeared and are not coming back, but the jobs that will be available are changing and there are some benefits to this.
Basically, there is a need by organizations to analyze resources and allocation of these resources. As this analysis takes place, the focus on the organizations is to restructure internally to operate more efficiently – a need for the company, technology, and industry to become more efficient. It seems to me that there is a trial and error aspect of this by the company, which is making the process take longer. This means the job opening are slower to arrive. Although it is taking longer for a company to define their needs in these new positions, once they do, they are seeing benefits to combining different responsibilities into one job. When they find the right person for the opening, they are seeing a more efficient allocation of resources, more efficient operations and a lower employee headcount – three things necessary for the company to thrive in the current economy.
For job seekers, this can be a very good thing as well. One change that results from this is that the search criteria changes for employers looking to bring in new talent. Now sourcing for new employees will not be constrained as much by industry background but more by experiences. It seems like it will be more of a big picture assessment of a candidate based on the skills they have acquired rather than a search for someone who has done the exact same job in the exact same industry. Employers will be unable to search for new hires that way because the jobs they are creating have never existed before. This opens up more opportunities to find a position, even though there are fewer jobs available. It sounds contradictory, but my sense is that if a job seeker is open-minded and flexible about a new role, they will actually have the ability to apply for more jobs than they would have in the past.
The challenge, I would think, would be for the hiring managers to define what they are looking for. Once they determine what skills the new hire will need, they have a larger pool to choose from and job seekers now have more opportunities to throw their hat in the ring.
Can anyone comment on their experience in defining these new roles? Or has anyone looking for work noticed the ability to apply for positions that wouldn’t have been available to them in the past? Is this actually a benefit all the way around? In theory, it seems very positive to me (although I am the kind of person who does not like to be constrained by whatever I’ve done in the past) but I don’t know if this is all conjecture.
