Redeploy Gen Z
According to the jobs website Indeed, graduates are facing the worst job market since 2018. Cengage, a research firm, says that only 30% of graduates have found a suitable job. This is not just a UK phenomenon, but is the same across the developed world. City columnist Matthew Lynn said that consultancy firm PWC announced in September it would be hiring 200 fewer university graduates this year. This is a missed opportunity.
AI is blamed for this decline in the number of professionals recruited. Bots can now draft legal documents, check spreadsheets and write technical reports; this mundane work was formerly given to recruits. But there are jobs that new recruits can do which bots cannot.
The strengths of professional firms in the developed world, across whatever discipline, lie in their skill set, experience, and knowledge. Cutting down the number at the entry level will eventually erode this skill set and lead to a decline in the quality of the expertise serving their clients.
Some people say AI systems should not be allowed to take human jobs; I disagree.
What is needed is a SWOT. What are the industry’s Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities, and Threats (T)?
Clearly, the strength of the industry is the quality of its expertise; this is its backbone. This is under threat if firms like PWC take on fewer recruits to do the mundane work new recruits used to do. AI is not the threat, it is the failure to see how new recruits can be redeployed. Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, are the first generation to live their entire lives in the digital age, they are technically savvy and can easily adapt to working with the bots.
The opportunities are to be found in identifying the weaknesses in the professional services industry and redeploying new recruits to fill the gaps.
There are two major weaknesses in the industry - its non-strategic business development and its client care.
Many professional services organisations moan about their firm not being profitable without giving much thought as to why. Non-strategic business development leads to the 80:20 rule, namely, poor profitability. All the professionals are busy, but not necessarily doing profitable work. This is why EY sacked 30 partners in its consultancy division in March and firms like Simmons & Simmons consider its main challenge is to grow its profitability. If firms like these are serious about being more profitable they need to work on strategic business development not working longer hours. This may feel uncomfortable for many professionals addicted to being busy because it takes less time and money to work strategically than to do what they are already doing, attending conferences and hosting events.
To be strategic is about Client Mapping
Identify what work is most profitable and for which type of client
Identify some other concerns that the client may have
Identify what other professionals the client would need to help resolve these problems
Prepare a fictitious client situation which addresses all these issues, and
Record their responses
This groundwork could be done by graduates with the assistance of bots and takes much less time and money than attending events and conferences.
The graduates could work with the senior staff to invite six professionals to video record their solutions to a fictitious client situation. Once recorded the link can be stored in the digital libraries of Caroline’s Club, which is similar to LinkedIn, but with a focus on storing, accessing and sharing memorable case studies podcasts and profiles.
The link to this recording can then be used in multiple ways. For example
In-house meetings of professionals
Bespoke networking events,
Shared with clients to increase loyalty and generate repeat business, and
Attached to an email signature or QR code
The idea of recording the responses means that there is a permanent record of their story. An event is lost in time, a brochure is filed in the bin and a website is rarely visited other than for addresses and telephone numbers.
Sharing these recordings with clients regularly will build loyalty and trust. This will lead to repeat business and referrals from friends and family. It will also increase the knowledge of the recruit to the importance of their skills to their clients while learning how to use bots to generate the work.
Strategic business development will also create a bigger impact on the lives and businesses of clients, who often struggle to find the right professional for their concerns.
Graduates could easily be redeployed in this form of strategic business development and client engagement while learning from the senior professionals the skills of their profession but also a knowledge as to how their skills can be used to serve their clients in a more meaningful way.
Caring for the wider interests of their clients can be done by professionals and is much overdue.