Welcome to the 12th episode of the Talent Intelligence Collective Podcast!
Before I jump into this episode – I wanted to let you know about an extra special offer our sponsors Stratigens are offering to all our listeners.
If you go to Stratigens.com, book a demo, and enter the promotional code “TIC2021”, you’ll get a discount and a free proof of concept! How wonderful!
In this episode, me – Alan Walker – Alison Ettridge and Nick Brooks co-hosted an incredibly insightful conversation with Eric Moskowitz, Head of Talent Intelligence and Analytics at Modern Executive Solutions.
In Toby’s absence, the role of leading us through the news section – highlighting the compelling and thought-inducing hot topics about Talent Intelligence – fell upon me. So bare with me as we work out way through Toby’s list, which luckily he managed to collate and pull together for me.
The first interesting piece that I was eager to talk about was the increase in US Workforce volatility. As the unemployment rate was down nearly 50% and almost every job category showed a significant volatility increase in Q2.
What I found really fascinating about this report were the sectors that saw the most change. Categories like: Public Safety, Military and Skilled Trade. Which are not the typical sectors we would be seeing with these increases in volatility.
– Alison Ettridge
I think it’s because people have been sitting in their houses for the past 15ish months. And now that they have the opportunity to run away or go on that trip of a lifetime – they don’t want to wait any longer.
– Eric Moskowitz
With many of us reprioritising what is important, the lure of truly flexible working is causing a massive shift in the corporate world. Causing many employees to shift from their industries and sectors on the hunt for that flexibility and possibility higher quality of life.
With Alison being eager to discuss our next headline, dubbed her favourite article of the month, we moved on.
I’m really excited to talk about this. We waffle on quite a lot about this on this podcast about how labour markets affect everything and the impact that it has on your county as a whole. And it’s exciting that the Lagos State Government is looking into this.
– Alison Ettridge
Most governments will aggregate a lot of data and information about their workforce, but primarily focusing on blue-collar data and not necessarily on the skill availability of their workforce.
While the Lagos State Government has revealed their formulation of a data system will concentrate on scaling up skill development capacity with technical, vocational education and training. With their main objective being to reduce the rate of unemployment.
Transitioning our conversation smoothly onto our final piece of worldly news from the Future of Education, we discussed the fundamental disconnect between the UK’s modern education system and the job market requirements.
What is crazy to me is that the Common Entrance Exam I took 30ish years ago, is exactly the same today. And yet the skills you need now are completely different.
– Alison Ettridge
To add to your point Alison. What about emotional intelligence? Or soft skills? How do we prepare the next generation to operate and think in different ways so that they can hit the workforce with a different perspective. There is a fundamental redesign that needs to happen.
– Nick Brooks
At this point, we had heard everyone’s opinion about the world and its news, and we were eager to find out more about our guest, Eric. About his world and his background. So I virtually passed the mic onto our resident hard-hitting interview extraordinaires – Alison and Nick (while I took a see back and put my feet up).
As ex-reporter for Bloomberg, Alison and Nick were curious to know how Eric had transitioned into Talent Intelligence and his learnings from journalism into his role today.
What I learned while being a journalist was how to ask the right question and to somehow know what the right answer was before even asking it. It’s all about eliciting information.
– Eric Moskowitz
Being fundamentally nosy or that insatiable quest for knowledge is exactly what every Talent Intelligence research team really needs isn’t it?
– Alison Ettridge
In Talent Intelligence, there is such a large focus on data skills. However, a much bigger focus should be on a candidates possession of softer skills like listening, proactiveness and inquisitive nature.
Following Eric’s previous statement of building a team of mini journalists actively searching and locating data implies that Modern Executive Solutions works primarily proactively, rather than commission-based.
We do always try and have information half baked for sure. So when clients do approach us for information, we are prepared with the information they are after. Essentially trying to build a standalone ad-hoc reactive model
– Eric Moskowitz
We then discussed what are some of the best primary or human intelligence-gathering practices out there. What type of success could you experience with consistent collection practices. And how to help a client diagnose internal business opportunities versus external business landscapes and competition.
With enough time for one big final question, as we were approaching our 1hour cutoff mark, Nick asked what the future of Talent Intelligence looks like.
AI is definitely enticing and intriguing but I don’t see this as being the next big thing. I guess I am a little old school, but I really do think a phone call is going to illicit a much better data collection. So for me, the future of Talent Intelligence lies around ‘where’ we collect the data, not ‘how’.
– Eric Moskowitz
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. Please do leave a review and a rating for the podcast if you get a chance. Your support really does mean the world to us, and it is all we need to ensure this podcast continues to grow.
Till the next one – stay intelligent!
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Don’t forget to say hi to our wonderful sponsors → Stratigens from @Talent Intuition.
