The enormous growth of Product Management

Australia is in the middle of a digital skills crisis. What practices are businesses putting in place to reinforce their talent funnel?

The shift to remote teams has opened the talent pool right up. We’re seeing clients more than willing to engage off-shore talent as roles become entirely remote. Another shift we’re seeing is that businesses are open to recruiting more junior talent and then being prepared to invest in their development. Tenure for Product Managers, like many in the digital fields, has typically been less than 2.5 years, but more and more, we’re seeing businesses re-evaluate their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) as a means of engaging talent longer.

On the issue of EVP, it’s evident that people’s priorities have shifted over the past 18 months. These days candidates aren’t simply avoiding the so-called black industries, they actively want to understand how a company is giving back or adding value to the customer. Not-for-profits, health tech and science driven organisations have a clear advantage here.

And finally, the importance of succession planning is highlighted as businesses face up to the likelihood of high turnover in the post-pandemic phase. This again reinforces the sense in a strategy that invests in developing a pool of emerging talent that can mature into leadership roles.