The new reality

The unsettling effect of the pandemic on the job market is being felt as much in the US as in Ireland, as employers grapple to attract candidates with the skills they need to stay competitive, writes Dr Brian Keegan.

People are harder to manage. It’s a stark realisation, expressed by a very senior Irish Chartered Accountant at a Fortune 500 company.  

The pandemic may have been the great leveller across the world, but the process of recovery will not be as homogenised.  

Just as in Ireland, the US has been scarred socially and commercially by the misery of COVID-19.  Within some sectors of American industry, huge resources are being devoted to little else besides hiring.  

The unsettling effect of the pandemic on workers is prompting, not just career change, but location change. From the employer perspective, the traditional skill sets, which might once have automatically qualified people for well-paid employment, are changing.  

Anecdotally at least, from the many members I spoke to during the Institute’s St Patrick’s day delegation to the US, led by our President Paul Henry, the most sought-after skill is project management — with specialisation in finance or data analysis an added bonus.  
Educational establishments are already picking up on this shift. One Ivy League university is developing micro-certification, which is an accreditation for completing very short courses in high-demand skill sets like data mining. This isn’t merely reflecting the state of the job market, but changes in corporate strategies.

Progressive industries have had a digital strategy as a priority for several years. This is now morphing into a “mobile first” strategy. 

The pandemic has fostered recognition that consumer and brand loyalty is not merely built by online capability but by ease of access. This means getting your customer order capture and service delivery platforms onto mobile phones.  

There is less sense of urgency over resolving supply chain issues. The prevailing sentiment is that, if the pandemic proved anything from a commercial standpoint, it is that supply chain issues can be worked out no matter how severely they appear to have been disrupted in the first instance.  

Efficiencies in purchasing and supply need the clever use of data, and data usage brings risks and challenges all its own. There seems to be a view that systems don’t have to be 100 percent secure, just more secure than those of competitors.  

As one US-based member in a national leadership role in IT suggested, every system is breakable. The trick is to ensure that yours isn’t the easiest one to break.

Despite the staffing challenges, the common thread running through all these observations is relentless expansion. The ‘animal spirits’ which the great economist JM Keynes credited as the prime mover of economic activity are being boosted by an overwhelming sense of relief that the pandemic may now, in fact, be over.  

This sense of relief is dangerous. Tragically, we have jumped out of the frying pan of the pandemic into the fire of war in Europe.  

Not to diminish the horrible loss of life, the evil and unjustifiable attack by Russia on Ukraine may well cause even greater economic disruption across Europe than the pandemic. 

Grain will be scarcer because Ukraine was the breadbasket of central Europe. The worldwide shortage of microprocessors will be exacerbated because key elements in their manufacture, notably Neon, were major exports from a stable and increasingly prosperous pre-war Ukraine.  

The West has correctly chosen to punish Russia for its actions with sanctions, but effective sanctions cut both ways.

The commercial priorities we had planned as we recover from the pandemic will have to change to reflect the invasion of Ukraine. The only saving grace is that people, though they may well indeed be harder to manage, are adaptable.

Dr Brian Keegan is Director of Advocacy and Voice at Chartered Accountants Ireland.