There is an urgency for professionals and businesses to upskill and reskill as hiring preferences are now geared towards skills-first and workers are looking at value opportunities for growth and overall good company culture, according to the world’s leading professionals network LinkedIn.
Atul Harkisanka, LinkedIn head of emerging markets and country manager for the Philippines
Atul Harkisanka, LinkedIn head of emerging markets and country manager for the Philippines, told the Manila Bulletin in an email interview that the Philippines is not unique in shifting towards a skills-first world of work.
In the Philippines, Harkisanka said that LinkedIn data shows that the skills needed for a particular job have changed by about 30 percent since 2015, with the pace of change accelerated during the pandemic. “At this pace, we would likely see three new skills in the top skills needed for a job in the Philippines by 2025,” said Harkisanka.
He said this trend is “good news” because while businesses have traditionally hired based on educational qualifications, where someone went to school, or where they worked, and years of job experience, “more are now looking at skills.”
In Southeast Asian (SEA) markets, such as the Philippines, three-quarters of recruiting professionals say skills-first hiring will be a priority for their company in 2023, he said quoting its study. And since 2019, in SEA, the share of recruiter searches on LinkedIn that include a skills filter has grown by 25 percent.
LinkedIn’s Top Companies list in Southeast Asia (SEA) found that companies in the financial services industry all featured among the top 3 in Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, suggesting that this sector has been creating the most opportunities for professionals in the region.
Companies belonging to the IT services and consulting industry, as well as manufacturing, ranked high on the list in SEA.
“Organizations are adapting to a skills-first approach to hiring to build more diverse teams and expand their talent pools up to 10 times,” he noted.
He noted that LinkedIn members also add skills to their profiles at an accelerated rate. Globally, LinkedIn members added 446 million skills to their profiles over the last 12 months (as of March 2023), up almost 50 percent year-over-year.
Filipino learners were among the 7.3 million globally enrolled in the top 20 most popular LinkedIn Learning courses last year (June 2021 - June 2022), almost double the preceding year. This indicates that more are building skills to future-proof their careers, he said.
For the Philippines, he said, LinkedIn data revealed that the in-demand skills that the top companies in the country are looking in the IT services sector include Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Computer Security. Companies in the financial services sector are looking for skills such as Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, and Economics. Some of the largest job functions these Top Companies invest in include Engineering, Information Technology, Customer Success, and Support.
“We are excited that the Philippine government is putting skills-building initiatives on the national agenda. A concerted effort from public and private sectors, educational institutes, and individuals will be crucial in skills formation and bringing the skills-based model to a much larger scale to achieve a more equitable and efficient talent ecosystem,” he said.
LinkedIn has partnered in the Philippines with Asian Development Bank (ADB) on a joint report to help businesses and professionals better understand the emerging landscape of jobs and skills in an increasingly digital workplace. For example, the report’s key finding is that 64 percent of employers in the Philippines have an increasing demand for talent with digital skills, with six of the last ten employees they hired required to have basic digital skills.
In markets that LinkedIn studied, including the Philippines, the top reason talent leaves the company is the lack of opportunities to develop and learn new skills. “We work closely with some of the Philippines' top employers in their talent development strategies,” he added.
Its data shows that learning and development (L&D) is an essential retention strategy by organizations in SEA. Over eight in 10 (82%) businesses agree it is less expensive to reskill a current employee than to hire a new one. Six in 10 organizations are providing learning opportunities to improve employee retention, and the top programs L&D leaders across SEA plan for are mentorship, large-scale upskilling, employee well-being, and digital fluency or transformation.
The LinkedIn study also found that once a company has talent with the right skills in the right roles, it is also equally essential to provide them with L&D opportunities so that they do their best work and stay for the long haul. “Companies need to remember that their organization is only as strong as the collective talent of those working there,” said Harkisanka.
To attract top talent, Harkisanka said employers should know that beyond compensation, workers value learning and development (L&D) opportunities, work-life balance, flexible working, meaningful work, and overall good company culture.
He noted that besides learning, LinkedIn is where professionals come together and get value from their network. "People come to LinkedIn to find a job, advance their careers, learn a new skill, or share a work problem they’re trying to solve. It’s all about the professional context, which is the content that our members value,” said Harkisanka.
According to Harkisanka, for professionals to thrive in this era driven by rapid advances in automation and emerging technologies, a mindset of continuous learning is more important than ever.
Notably, he pointed to its data showing that globally, generative AI will be the fastest-growing AI-related skill among professionals in 2022.
To help professionals in their upskilling, LinkedIn has launched over 100 LinkedIn Learning courses on generative AI to help individuals and businesses develop the necessary skills to succeed in the new world of work that can be accessed for free until June 2023. They span different levels, languages, and topics. For example, there are beginner courses to courses relevant for those in the tech industry, HR professionals, marketing and sales professionals, and business leaders.
Disruptive tech skills, or hard skills, are in high demand across the board by employers. The rapid acceleration towards greater digitalization and jobs focused on business growth are powering some of the most robust opportunities for job seekers.
LinkedIn’s 2023 Jobs on the Rise list, which spotlights the top 15 fastest-growing job roles in the Philippines, reveals that jobs that require using data for translation to actionable insights to help business leaders and marketing communication professionals make more informed decisions, such as Insights Analyst and Media Analyst are in demand.
Tech specialists, such as Data Engineers, DevOps Engineers, and Cloud Engineers, are what employers seek. The need to drive business growth creates job opportunities focused on acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones, with the demand for Business Development Representatives and Customer Success Specialists rising.
However, he said, besides digital skills, the importance of soft skills cannot be overstated in today’s increasingly complex and fast-evolving business environment. The ability to think critically, collaborate across teams, handle ambiguity, and focus on customer centricity are some examples of soft skills that are valuable to employers. Soft skills are more transferable across jobs and industries.
In the Philippines, he said, “soft skills that navigate complex work situations, build relationships, and achieve results, such as customer service, management, and communications, are the ones companies need most right now.”
The Philippines is one of LinkedIn’s fastest-growing markets. In nine years, LinkedIn grew its membership base from 1M to over 11M, representing almost 25 percent of the total professional population in the Philippines. “We want to strengthen our commitment to helping the Philippines address its skills gaps and navigate the future of work,” he said.
This only shows that strong presence and professional brand are essential as employers look beyond degrees to consider skills, values, and networks, he said.
To thrive in the future of work, he encouraged professionals to always be in “permanent beta”. “We should always learn and adapt in today's fast-paced, ever-changing world. It is essential to stay informed about trends in their industry and/or to develop in-demand skills in growing areas of the economy to pursue and grow their careers, which may involve learning new hard and soft skills, exploring new areas of knowledge, or experimenting with new approaches to problem-solving,” he said.
LinkedIn created the first-ever job social network. It was the first professional network and is now the largest in the world, with over 930 million members, including over 11 million in the Philippines.
“We’re committed to building a diverse and equitable workforce and leading in creating a skills-first model in the world of work. And we are seeing that the relevance of a professional networking and learning platform is now more critical than ever in today’s fast-changing world of work,” he concluded.