Utilising recruiters’ specialist skills

Anna Scott

A survey emerged this week suggesting that the average 10 hours a week that UK white collar professionals spend on activities outside the main remit of their jobs are threatening their specialist skills.

PageGroup – formerly known as Michael Page – which commissioned the research, has described the phenomenon as ‘responsibility creep’.

It says workers’ specialist skills are being diluted within two years of starting a new job. Just over half of its 2,000 respondents describe themselves as generalists yet nearly a third are worried that this will threaten their future job prospects. A third say these extra responsibilities will have a negative effect on their productivity, and 38% say their levels of work-life balance are compromised.

There are a number of issues arising here. The first is that respondents are clearly overworked. Taking on extra responsibilities which may not fall into their job description will obviously affect both productivity and how much overtime employees undertake.

The reality of the workplace is that at times business priorities take precedence over individuals’ skills needs. Highly skilled people may be required to undertake tasks that others could do if there were the resources.

Yet untold damage can be caused to an organisation if the specialist skills of their employees do not keep pace with advancements. However there is another paradox in that people become more generalist the more senior they become.

This leads to the second issue. Concerns individuals have that they may be less employable if their specialist skills are not kept up to date should be taken seriously by employers. That the UK suffers skills shortages is well known even if companies may reduce their training budgets at times.

There are no quick and easy answers to these quandaries. Companies could promote people on the basis of their ability to manage rather than their specialist skills. Training budgets may be increased. Workforces may be increased so the highly skilled do the jobs they were hired for.

Recruiters have a big role to play in addressing some of these challenges. Educating clients in what skills are prevalent and what are lacking in their candidates will enable companies to have a complete picture of their recruitment pool. Equally, educating candidates to understand the realities of the workforce and the necessity of keeping skills up-to-date can address their job expectations.

Getting across the message that constantly updating skills within individuals and organisations, and highlighting the importance of well-thought-out workforce planning will be where recruiters can show off their specialist skills.