Employability: the condition necesessary for those seeking work

When you are looking for a job, the key value for those who must select talents is the employability.

The working life of people has become increasingly dynamic, so the career in senior positions, as in other job positions, no longer follows a defined path.

The technological revolution, which is investing the whole of society, has affected the traditional approach of work. This concerns employees and managers, workers and executives. Specifically, when evaluating an executive’s work path, it is noted that it includes various phases of transition, both within the company and outside. Managers and all the workers must be ready for change, they cannot be satisfied with a “sedentary” life, and to be prepared they need to work on their own employability: that set of characteristics that allow it to be suitable for new professional contexts.

In Italian, the term employability is translated as fitness or marketability. Actually,it also meant the ability to be attractive to play a certain role. Sumantra Ghoshal confirmed that it counts for those looking for a first job, for those who are halfway through their careers and for those who must relocate following a more or less voluntary interruption of their experience.

The employability is indeed a long journey that begins before entering the world of work. “Do not let someone else define your path, build a path, follow it, accept the challenge of the unknown and risk” (Sergio Marchionne at the Rimini Meeting in 2014). The knot to understand is what makes each person “employable”? Let’s listen to the pillars that support this value, explained by Sandro Sereni, Keystone’s head hunter and founder partner.

At the basis of personal branding there are certainly the skills that come from training and professional experience but there are also soft skills, which have a significant impact on the evaluation of the person to be selected for a new job. Just think that in 80% of cases the company hires a new manager basing its decision on one or more soft skills of the candidate.

The main soft skills in the evaluation of Human Resources, according to our customers, are:

the ability to manage a team,
the attitude to innovation (digital mindset),
leadership,
the ability to manage relationships,
the balance.

In the past the professional growth took place in a vertical logic, through increasing roles and responsibilities, but today the dynamic is horizontal. The manager “makes a career” moving from equivalent roles, even with equal economic treatment, sometimes even to a lower level, not only for market contractions, but because you want to assign a role to a candidate who has already held that position: you have already been successful in this role? I’ll give you something analogous. To this must be added the international experience, the diversification of business and markets, and the reskilling.

In front of this scenario there are some elements already codified that prevent the construction of individual employability and to be taken into account for the construction of their profile. Firstly, settle in a comfortable position. The American writer Neale Donald Walsch said that life begins at the end of his comfort zone, here this area must be abandoned in favor of the risk appetite, in favor of the predisposition to learn and welcome the new technological paradigms. Secondly, the contentment of being in a “golden cage”: (having always obtained excellent academic results), starting from privileged economic conditions, being part of long-term incentives plans, having worked in solid companies and thriving periods people (lower employability).

Thirdly, errors and obstinacy in pursuing them.

In the new career paths, the individual and his experiences are at the center of attention. Instead of progressive career advancement based on a task journey, organizations are moving towards a model that allows people to gain valuable experiences, explore new roles and reinvent themselves continuously (Global Human Capital Trends 2018, Deloitte 2018). In what can become a swing, rather than a linear work path, you need to be ready to face even critical situations. Putting forth express or unexpressed talents that will allow us to find satisfaction in the work. Making the balance of skills and defining new goals. Everyone must gain the awareness of their reference market, analyzing and choosing the most appropriate channels to make themselves known and among them evaluate the head hunting, (the employment agencies), the outplacement formula, their own network of knowledge, without neglecting the importance of social networks, which are increasingly important for personal branding.