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70% of Skills Used Will Change by 2030: What Else Must Change?

LinkedIn News reports that 70% of skills used in the workplace are set to change by 2030, rendering the traditional recruitment paradigm—focused primarily on specific skills and experience—increasingly obsolete. As technological advancement accelerates, organisations must fundamentally reimagine their approach to talent acquisition and development.

The Shifting Landscape of Work

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023 underscores that 44% of workers' skills will be disrupted in the next five years (World Economic Forum, 2023). Meanwhile, McKinsey's research indicates that demand for technological skills will rise by 55% by 2030, while the need for social and emotional skills will increase by 24% (McKinsey Global Institute, 2021).

The Need for a Fundamental Mindset Shift

Beyond changing methodologies, addressing the evolving skills landscape demands a fundamental mindset shift. A new way of working requires a new way of thinking.

Traditional hiring operates from a fixed, backwards-looking perspective—evaluating candidates based on what they've already done. As the pace of workplace evolution accelerates, this mindset becomes increasingly limiting. Instead, organisations must adopt a forward-looking, potential-focused mindset that asks not "What has this person done?" but rather "What could this person become?"

This mindset shift represents perhaps the most challenging yet essential transformation. It requires recruitment professionals and hiring managers to unlearn entrenched habits, challenge long-held assumptions, and embrace ambiguity. As management philosopher Peter Drucker noted, "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself, but to act with yesterday's logic."

The Limitations of Skills-Based Recruitment

Traditional recruitment methodologies prioritising established skill sets contain several critical flaws in today's dynamic environment:

Rapidly Depreciating Skills: Technical skills have increasingly shorter shelf lives, with some becoming outdated within 2-5 years.

Overlooked Potential: Strict skill requirements exclude candidates with exceptional learning capacity who lack specific qualifications.

Homogeneous Teams: Skills-focused hiring can inadvertently limit innovation by creating teams with similar backgrounds.

Missed Transferable Skills: The traditional paradigm often fails to recognise how skills from seemingly unrelated fields can transfer to new contexts.

As Josh Bersin notes, "In today's rapidly changing workplace, the ability to learn is becoming the currency of employment. Companies that focus on skills alone are missing the forest for the trees" (Bersin, 2021).

The Case for Holistic Hiring

Holistic hiring represents a fundamental shift—moving away from point-in-time skill assessment toward evaluating candidates' dynamic potential. Research consistently demonstrates the importance of:

Learning Agility: Korn Ferry identifies this as one of the most reliable predictors of long-term professional success (Korn Ferry, 2022).

Adaptability: Professionals rated high in adaptability are 24% more likely to outperform peers during organisational change (Harvard Business Review, 2021).

Values Alignment: Organisations with strong culture alignment experience 30% higher innovation levels and 40% higher employee retention (Deloitte, 2023).

Cognitive Diversity: Teams with diverse thinking patterns demonstrate 87% better decision-making outcomes (Reynolds & Lewis, 2017).

Growth Mindset: Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck's research shows individuals with a growth mindset achieve more than those with a fixed mindset (Dweck, 2016).

Ihon Holistic Hiring™: A Revolutionary Solution

As organisations wrestle with outdated hiring practices, Ihon Holistic Hiring™ has emerged as a game-changing solution. This innovative approach transforms hiring from a skills-focused exercise to a comprehensive evaluation of human potential.

A Paradigm Shift in Talent Acquisition

Ihon Holistic Hiring™ addresses fundamental limitations of traditional hiring by employing a multidimensional assessment framework examining candidates beyond current capabilities. The methodology assesses and evaluates learning agility, adaptability, values alignment, and growth mindset—the true predictors of long-term success.

Accessible Transformation

What sets Ihon Holistic Hiring™ apart is its unique combination of accessibility and impact. With a co-creative pricing model designed to make holistic hiring accessible to all, Ihon has democratised access to cutting-edge recruitment. This low-cost, high-value approach delivers transformative results without prohibitive investment.

Notably, Ihon Holistic Hiring™ makes holistic hiring accessible to mid-level positions, not just senior roles. When fully adopted by the recruitment industry, there is no reason why this approach cannot be rolled out across all levels of hiring, fundamentally transforming how organisations build their teams at every tier.

As research on holistic hiring approaches shows, "Organisations implementing comprehensive candidate evaluation frameworks report significantly better hiring outcomes while reducing overall recruitment costs" (Talent Management Review, 2023).

Developing Talent Holistically

Recruitment represents only the beginning. Organisations embracing the new hiring paradigm must support ongoing development through:

Personalised Development Pathways: IBM's research indicates personalised learning yields 40% higher skill development outcomes (IBM Institute for Business Value, 2021).

Rotation and Cross-Training: Exposing employees to diverse functions accelerates development while building organisational resilience.

Feedback-Rich Environments: Regular, constructive feedback accelerates development and reinforces learning agility.

The Business Case for Change

The transition to holistic hiring and development delivers measurable benefits:

👉 Enhanced Adaptability: Organisations comprising individuals selected for learning agility navigate market changes more effectively.

👉 Improved Innovation: Teams with diverse thinking patterns generate more creative solutions.

👉 Higher Retention & Performance: When you consider the person as a whole, it results in a happier workforce, having a direct impact on retention and performance.

👉 Reduced Hiring Costs: Improved selection quality reduces turnover and retraining expenses.

Conclusion: The Future of Recruitment

As we approach 2030, with its projected 70% skills transformation, the recruitment industry faces a pivotal choice: cling to outdated paradigms or embrace holistic approaches that unlock human potential.

Solutions like Ihon Holistic Hiring™ are leading this paradigm shift by making transformative hiring methodologies accessible to all. With its co-creative pricing model and focus on long-term value creation, Ihon Talent exemplifies how the recruitment industry can evolve to meet contemporary challenges.

The organisations that thrive will be those that recognise the fundamental truth: in a world where specific skills have increasingly shorter half-lives, the most valuable quality becomes the capacity to continuously learn, adapt, and grow.


References

Bersin, J. (2021). HR Predictions for 2022. Josh Bersin Academy. Deloitte. (2023). Global Human Capital Trends Report. Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books. Harvard Business Review. (2021). Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage. IBM Institute for Business Value. (2021). The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap. Korn Ferry. (2022). Learning Agility: A Key to Leader Success. McKinsey Global Institute. (2021). The Future of Work After COVID-19. Reynolds, A., & Lewis, D. (2017). Teams Solve Problems Faster When They're More Cognitively Diverse. Harvard Business Review. World Economic Forum. (2023). Future of Jobs Report 2023.arning Agility: A Key to Leader Success. McKinsey Global Institute. (2021). The Future of Work After COVID-19. Reynolds, A., & Lewis, D. (2017). Teams Solve Problems Faster When They're More Cognitively Diverse. Harvard Business Review. World Economic Forum. (2023). Future of Jobs Report 2023.

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