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Hiring managers are looking for adaptable employees.
- Many hiring managers today are looking for adaptability in job candidates.
- Adaptability refers to a person's comfort with change, plus their willingness to develop new skills and try different work styles.
- As organizations across industries struggle to stay relevant amid digital disruption, leaders are placing greater value on adaptability in their employees.
- To assess a candidate's adaptability, hiring managers look for cross-functional work experience, excitement about learning, and the ability to work without hand-holding from their boss.
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Adaptability is a key trait in the workplace of the future.
If you want a job at a company like Microsoft, Mondelez, or Canada Goose, be prepared to show the hiring manager that you're excited about learning and experimenting, and that you can take a new idea and run with it.
Fast-paced work environments and constant experimentation are typically the province of tech companies. (Recall Facebook's one-time emphasis on "failing fast.") Now, more established organizations are using similar strategies in an effort to stay relevant amid digital disruption in their industries.
In a 2019 KPMG survey of CEOs in the US, 68% agreed that if their organization moved too slowly, it'd eventually be bankrupt. A 2019 report from staffing and recruiting firm ManpowerGroup cites "learnability," or "the ability and desire to quickly grow and adapt one's skillset to stay employable for the long term," as the key skill future employers will be looking for.
And at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, multiple executives shared their plans for "upskilling," or training their workforce on new technologies, Business Insider's Joe Ciolli reported.
Organizations' emphasis on learning and moving quickly translates directly to hiring practices: Execs are looking for people who thrive amid constant change. And while adaptability might seem like a vague buzzword, execs and HR experts have come up with some concrete strategies to measure it.
If you're looking for a job - or if you want to stay employed - here are three questions to ask yourself to assess your own adaptability.