Finding and retaining qualified digital talent has been a long-standing challenge within our industry, and the on-going pandemic has certainly not made it easier. The in-office culture and perks that helped to identify the unique brand of organizations – used to attract and retain talent, are no longer available. So what do “remote perks” look like in the digitized marketing workforce?
At this week’s Business of Digital: Remote Talent in a Connected World, our line-up of industry thought leaders shared incredible insights on what they believed the future of talent attraction, development and office life would look like. In exploring important topics like thinking outside of current networks, to recruiting diverse talent, understanding what the next generation of workers are looking for, and how to keep a remote workforce engaged in a mentally healthy way, there was no shortage of material. According to LinkedIn, 85% of jobs will be disrupted by 2025, however new jobs are emerging; creativity, persuasion and collaboration ranked in the top ten soft skills in demand, while blockchain, cloud computing and analytical reasoning ranked in the top 10 hard skills that companies need most.
The seminar kicked off with IAB Canada’s 2021 Remote Talent in a Connected World Barometer Report. In this study, we examined how the pandemic affected (and continues to affect) staffing, what the future of remote/in-office work could look like, what skills are in demand and more. Later in the day, Anna Petosa, VP, People Ops, from Pelmorex pointed out that as organizations start preparing for the post-pandemic return to work, “one size does not necessarily fit all.” It therefore becomes very important to communicate with your teams to understand their preferred working arrangements but more importantly, the why behind it.
Although it has been a tough year and half, the resounding message is that that there are many reasons to be optimistic, as the future of our digital marketing workforce is bright.
In case you missed this discussion, you can catch the recording in the IAB Canada Knowledge Centre.