Did you notice the new names for courses in college these days? There are applied management courses, management engineering, communication management, multimedia management and many more names that did not exist about 20 years ago. And there are new job titles, careers and green jobs that we’ve never heard of before. What are green jobs?
We now have virtual assistants, not just executive assistants. We have digital creators, not just writers or artists. Multimedia and content creators have become all-in-one advertising agencies. Everyday, there seems to be a new development in the career field and managers should be a step ahead in managing human resources. Adding to this need to learn new things is the need to study how to entice people to join the workforce and make them stay.
I remember about 40 years ago, my friends and I did a job evaluation project for our manufacturing company. We set up job titles, career paths and salary levels so it would be easy for HR officers to promote someone, evaluate each person in the organization periodically and lay out a clear career path so people will stay and give us as managers good grades for employee retention. Is that still possible now?
I just gave an online lecture to more than 120 Africans and a few Middle Eastern startup owners, and they actively participated, wanting to start businesses of their own. This is why many employees now choose to work from home so they can also do a side hustle and try to be entrepreneurs. In addition to knowing new job titles and thinking of how to keep employees happy, we also must face the fact that many employees now want to try being entrepreneurs.
The pandemic gave a taste of entrepreneurship possibilities to many displaced workers — they sold stuff online, went into Facebook Live selling and even made TikTok their venue for selling anything. Many of our former staff members chose to go home to the provinces than pay rent in boarding houses and start their own small business.
This is why coffee shops also became the fashion. Anybody can order equipment from Alibaba, Lazada and Shopee. They can start their own coffee kiosk whether they are in Misamis or La Carlota City. Ordering online became the norm, and small businesspeople accessed equipment and supplies by ordering online. Anyone can be an entrepreneur. If it succeeds, maybe they can scale up. If they fail, they get up, brush their knees and put away their equipment and start looking for a regular job. I was ordering artisan bread from a neighbor, who I learned had closed his business when things normalized and returned to his 9-to-5 job.
This is what managers now have to contend with. Today’s youth are more carefree and do not want a set career path. They are more fluid in their decision-making and do not see anything wrong with resigning from a job to be able to take a trip somewhere because they found a “piso fare” — one-peso fares occasionally offered by airlines. Some resign when they are reprimanded by a superior. Some just stop reporting for work because it has become difficult to commute.
I have a nephew who finished a technology course and has worked only for foreign companies since he graduated — all from the comforts of his home. He has had three jobs, all with US companies and they have never ever met physically.
He is the typical Gen Z employee, who works from home but has a stable job with an overseas company. His written and spoken English has also improved because of his daily interaction with his employers. He is the new OFW — he works abroad but is physically home. Jobs, like his, may be the solution to the social cost of parents working abroad.
But for our physical offices, what does the future hold? In manufacturing companies, we still need workers because robots are expensive for our economy. In offices, many already work with a hybrid setup — two days in the office, three days from home. HR departments must double up on thinking of new ways to hire, retain and promote people along a career path.
Meanwhile, managers must face the new jobs the digital economy has created. Even a small company like ours has had to hire virtual staff for the past three years now. Our marketing department can discuss over Zoom, Messenger and hardly ever meet physically. Large companies may downsize and realize they can save on office space as well as utilities and employee benefits. We really need to take another look at hiring and keeping people, especially in air-conditioned offices in the central business district because rents have not come down despite these developments. Trim your need for physical offices because the internet has opened a lot of possibilities for managers to be able to manage remotely.
The future may be in hiring for a specific task or skill, and not the usual employee development along a career path. Employers must open their minds to new ways to keep millennials and Gen Z people in the workforce. They were born in a different scenario, and with the added complication of COVID closing offices for almost three years, anything is possible for this generation. They can work from home, become virtual assistants, tech assistants and be entrepreneurs on the side.
These may be the new green jobs we often aspire to include in our plantilla. They are green because they may use less energy to commute, saving lots of resources such as gasoline and human energy. They are green because we can save money and time and may be more sustainable in the long run. Imagine your office with nobody except one assistant.
Maybe it is time to convert our job titles and positions to green jobs.
This article reflects the opinion of the author and does not reflect the stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or MAP.
Chit U. Juan is a member of MAP’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Agribusiness Committee. She is chairwoman of the Philippine Coffee Board and councilor of Slow Food for Southeast Asia.