FACILITIES MANAGEMENT JOURNAL JOBS
FM CAREERS - RECRUITMENT
The world of work has changed profoundly
over the past two years. The pandemic
has brought a seismic shi in attitudes
towards how and where we work, both from
the perspectives of employee expectations and
employer licence.
Hybrid working has become commonplace, with
employers seeing that it can work and employees
wanting to continue working in a more flexible way.
Also, people no longer see themselves confined to
living near where they work.
Technology has enabled people to relocate should
they choose to, with Teams and other remote
conferencing tools now the norm in workplaces and
negating the need for as many face-to-face meetings.
Portfolio careers are on the rise too. Recent research
from the Department for Education has revealed that
the appetite for having more than one job at a time
is growing.
Around 37 per cent are pursuing a portfolio career
– six per cent more than pre-pandemic, with a
further one in four employed adults revealing they
would consider doing the same.
But there was a change happening in careers long
before we all went into lockdown; one that both
companies and new entrants to professional life
need to pay attention to.
JOB DESCRIPTIONS
My role is Managing Partner & CEO of Wilson Fletcher,
a small, specialist business innovation consultancy
I co-founded almost 20 years ago. I’m mainly a
practitioner, spending most of my time helping
leaders of established companies figure out where to
go next, and how to get there. I also set the direction
for our own company and help to grow and develop
the people in our team.
I’m a weird hybrid; part designer, part business
strategist, part all sorts of things. I have little
formal training in any of the things I do (and some
would say it shows...). Originally, I trained to be an
architect. I don’t fit a standard box and I o en find
it hard to describe to people outside of our industry
what I actually do.
That’s a challenge, and, much more so, an
opportunity for young people joining companies
like ours at the start of their professional lives. As I
look across our team, we find it harder and harder to
come up with job titles for people because their roles
don’t have traditional limitations. And nor do the
people doing them.
Increasingly, as the digital economy rewrites the
rules of many aspects of everyday life and work, we
need people who haven’t followed traditional career
paths. We need diverse thinkers with varied interests
who are willing to build a unique body of experience
that makes them super-valuable.
In our team, I can give you two examples at
di ering ends of the scale. Emma is a Managing
Partner in our business. She basically runs the place,
but she’s also an expert programme designer, able to
shape projects to deliver solutions to really complex
challenges. There’s no course out there teaching that
skill and I’m not sure there can be.
Emma did an applied arts degree, specialising
in jewellery-making. She joined us 11 years ago to
manage our research facilities. We could tell she
was smart, but we couldn’t possibly have known
that she’d end up where she is, and she’s grown a
skill set that few, if any, others have by thinking in
her way and collecting a diverse range of on-project
experiences over many years.
Meanwhile, at the start of her professional career
is Lauren, who joined us on an internship at the
beginning of the year. Lauren wrote to us a er I’d
posted an article on LinkedIn saying that we were
looking to recruit and wanted people who didn’t fit
traditional boxes.
She did a fine art degree, then a Masters in
sustainable design, and is interested in design
research, which is what she’s currently doing with
us, already making an impressive contribution to the
work we do. I have no idea what she will be doing in
11 years time, but I will bet that she will also have
carved out a role that is equal parts hard to label and
incredibly valuable to the world we live in then: our
job is to help her gather the experiences she needs
to get there.
HYBRID PROFESSIONALS
So, as we shake o the imposed constraints from
the last two years and move into a world of hybrid
working, I’d urge all employers to open their minds
to recruiting interesting young people – tomorrow’s
hybrid professionals – whose CV is not obviously
vocational or ticking the boxes on a job spec. In
fact, in many cases, you can do away with those
traditional job specs. Instead put your needs out to
the market and listen to applications from people
who, while they may not fit in a neat box, could
prove to be the future of your business.
And to the new generation of people hitting the
workplace I’d say don’t be afraid to be honest about
not having a laser-sharp career path in your head,
and certainly don’t be afraid to feel your way for a
while, because all those experiences you collect in
areas that interest you will contribute to shaping a
career that’s all your own.
RETHINKING CAREERS Business leaders need to explore non-traditional hires if
they want to guarantee the best teams, says Mark Wilson,
CEO of Wilson Fletcher
LATEST JOBS ON FMJ
FACILITIES MANAGER
Salary: Competitive salary + company car
Location: South East
https://bit.ly/3nLEnVj
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR – PROPERTY STRATEGIC
Salary: £77,462 - £88,557 per annum
Location: West Midlands
https://bit.ly/3IdIjry
FACILITIES MANAGER
Salary: £40,000
Location: Liverpool
https://bit.ly/3R5eHAJ
jobs.fmj.co.uk
Over
250 jobs live
on site
48 JULY 2022
/3nLEnVj
/3IdIjry
/3R5eHAJ
