Transferable skills: recruiting from compatible industries
In a changing job market, businesses hiring as a result of high demand can look to recruit people from outside of their current industry, by understanding which transferable skills are the most relevant. Totaljobs research has found the most compatible industries when it comes to skills, so employers can recruit staff with these in mind and find people who can hit the ground running.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the UK market has had to shift to quickly adapt to the ever-changing situation.
For some people, this has meant being displaced from their job and finding a new role in a different industry out of necessity – from former airline staff working in hospitals, to hospitality workers finding temporary work as delivery drivers.
Totaljobs research shows that of those who have started working in a different industry following Covid-19, 67% believe the skills they already had were of use. This is promising given that many employers are having to adapt or shorten their existing recruitment process and ensure staff can hit the ground running.
Other UK workers are using this time to re-assess their careers, with 70% now more likely to consider working in a different sector, while a quarter expect to change industries within the next year.
Opportunities for employers to maximise transferable skills
For employers, particularly those facing increased demand at this time, there’s opportunity to build talent pools of candidates who might not have previous experience within their sector but have picked up relevant transferable skills elsewhere.
These in-demand sectors include social care, logistics, retail, IT and engineering. Find out more about compatible industries employers in these sectors can recruit from.
Plugging skills gaps in the future
For businesses who have had to pause recruitment or furlough staff, they can consider what matters to their workforce and what can keep staff engaged once working life begins to move back to what we were used to before Covid-19.
According to Totaljobs research, 69% of workers want to see a greater focus on work life balance when work returns to ‘normal’.
With this, previous research from Totaljobs and the British Chambers of Commerce showed that 72% of firms face skills or labour shortages, even before Covid-19.
For this reason, employers recruiting in the future can overcome longstanding skills shortages and increase the chances of a long-term successful hire, by looking for candidates in different industries.
From a candidate perspective, 40% believe that potential employers will now be more open to hiring someone who has experience from a different industry.
Retaining talent
Businesses concerned about workers looking to make a change and leave their industry and their company, they can consider the following factors to retain talent.
Workers said they could be persuaded to stay put and not move industries (or employer) if they were offered:
- An increase in salary – 45%
- Better work-life balance – 34%
- Increased job security – 33%
- More training and development opportunities – 29%
- Clearer career progression – 22%
- Remote working opportunities – 14%
The most compatible industries
According to our research, the below are the top ten best matched industries in terms of transferable skills:
| Hiring industry | Compatible industry | % match | Key transferable skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Service | Consulting | 56% | IT Policy MS Excel |
| Social Care | Human Resources | 55% | People management Communication Coaching |
| Logistics | Social Care | 53% | Driving Recruiting Leadership |
| Construction | Design | 53% | Drawing Consulting Design |
| Property | Banking | 53% | Financial services Compliance Property management |
| Public Sector | Education | 53% | Interpersonal skills Patience Organisation |
| Advertising | Arts & Entertainment | 53% | Interpersonal skills Entertainment Event management |
| Engineering | Skilled Trades | 53% | Mechanical Fault finding Ability to understand technical plans |
| Insurance | Customer Service | 50% | Policy Numeracy IT |
| IT | Business Management | 50% | Mathematics Policy Financial planning |
- Totaljobs surveyed 5,364 respondents between 20th and 27th April 2020. Separately, Opinium surveyed 2,000 respondents on behalf of Totaljobs between 21st and 24th April 2020. Totaljobs also commissioned analysis of 273,000 job ads and over 1 million skills to obtain compatibility scores for key UK industries. The analysis identified the top skills associated with each industry and calculated compatibility by comparing the number of overlapping key skills between two industries as a percentage of the total number of skills listed in the primary industry (i.e. the industry in which an individual works).