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Rising numbers of Scots
graduates are far too addicted to their smartphone.
To such an extent they'd rather play "Angry Birds" in virtual gaming
arcades than monitor that vital early-bird call from a prospective
employer.
Harvard Business Review reports as many as four-out-of-five grads
UK-wide may be considered digitally-savvy but they're losing out on
career opportunities.
It represents a worsening trend especially noticeable when it comes to
landing a high-tech job.
HBR's website, with five million subscribers, claims they need to be
prevailed upon to rein back on a "unhealthy relationship" with their
cell.
It represents one of no less than six red flags raised making the
hard-hitting report a far from easy read.
They should also realise there's a ready-made number of companies eager
to engage and nurture such young talent.
To fulfil in-demand roles, significantly contribute to the individual's
career path, a firm's financial performance, and benefit the country's
skills gap.
It represents something of an irony that in today's highly-connected
"real time" digital age, employer's find it nie impossible to actually
get hold of a prospective employee.
Apparently the cell phone addict clicks, taps, swipes, scrolls or talks
to their mobile companion a staggering 2,500 times a day, reveals market
research from dscout.com.
Sound far-fetched?
Not really when one considers that's roughly equivalent to three checks
every couple of minutes. There are some grads who actually stack up
twice that number - 5000 hits daily.
That's one heck of a lot of angry bird murmurations.
Some students ARE trying to limit their smartphone usage
HBR highlights two-thirds of UK adults suffer from "nomophobia".
In other words, they fear being without their phone, and four-out-of-10
would rather lose their voice for a day than lose their cell for 24
hours.
This is described as a "loss of control" and the study asks: "Do you
feel a deep, persistent and uncontrollable urge to check your phone,
even when you're not waiting for anything in particular?"
Then there's "dependence" where one feels anxious or irritable when they
have to turn off their phone and are so preoccupied with the thought of
missing a call, text, notification.
"Emotional coping" is where one reflexively turns to a phone to cope
with negative emotions like boredom, frustration, stress, social
anxiety.
"Negative emotions" simply put is where a phone makes the user "feel
bad" leading to more stress anxiety or loneliness after using it.
"Harmed social relationships" comes when phone usage prevents one from
listening to others and engaging in uninterrupted, face-to-face
conversations.
Even to the point where important people you may need to impress feel
neglected.
Finally, "compromised performance" is when the mobile distracts the user
from getting important things done, limits ability to think clearly and
enables procrastination.
The report emphasizes the need for more "self-awareness" noting,
significantly, almost half surveyed have actually made attempts to limit
their phone usage.
Of course, when it comes to graduates their predicament is good news for
Big Tech whose marketing teams are employed to keep users permanently on
their line.
One way a company can develop young talent is by taking a digital
academy route, where an organisation involves its customer base to
ensure a collaborative learning programme.
Backed up by providing professional accreditations and coupled with
on-the-job experience, this enables the participants to practice and
hone newly-acquired skills.
A McKinsey Global Institute report indicates by 2030 the planet's total
workforce may need to switch jobs, as digitisation, automation and
artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts the world-of-work.
Helping solve that tech skills gap
Upskilling initiatives are, therefore, a major focus for many companies
to help retrain staff, giving them the skills required to move into new
roles.
A further option is to engage with a digital partner who can provide
both scale and flexibility by giving a company access to their talent
pool.
This works well if an organisation is looking to add niche expertise or
accelerate a programme but don't have the time or resource available to
do so themselves.
This route can be viewed as a lower risk model than recruiting, as
there's no headcount increase or a commitment to long-term overheads and
the likelihood of getting that vital hire "wrong" is also lessened.
None of the above options will necessarily solve the technology skills
gap on its own.
A strength of the with-partner strategy - combining all three - provides
the company with immediate support they might urgently need.
So, less endlessly talking to the digital birds whether they're angry or
just having an off day.
It's the bright young candidate who takes some redundant mobile time-out
who's more likely to land that offer setting them on their career
path... |
