Personalized jobs: How tailored working can attract the best talent

May 10, 2021

In our previous Future of Work blog we looked at the concept of universal virtuality and how it will be both a driver and a result of digitization and automation in the future workplace. With a more virtual workforce, businesses will need to put greater effort into keeping their employees engaged.

The growing number of millennials and Generation Z in the workforce and the impact of COVID-19 has shifted perspectives and job definitions. Successful employers will create roles that are personalized to the requirements of individuals in order to attract and retain top talent. Tailored working is not just a generational issue, one size will no longer fit all and managing technology and different styles of working will become more important. Take for example the vital roles of the secretary in a law firm and a junior banker at an investment bank.

The secretarial role will refocus toward client relationship support

Leading law firms now rely on technology to support many of the administrative tasks that legal secretaries historically perform, including time and billing, word processing and other manual activities. These repetitive tasks are being transitioned away from traditional legal secretaries, with the goal of freeing them to focus on more strategic activities. However, not all tasks can be automated and some still require a human touch – whether it’s a one-off job, interacting with a client, or something that requires creativity.

As these administrative tasks change, firms will need to consider the varying needs of different practice areas – moving away from a one-size fits all job spec to roles that are more tailored to suit the needs of that specific department. This type of role evolution and job personalization is now being well documented in the legal sector but can easily apply to such roles in the financial and professional services industries.

This is a clear sign that the legal assistants of the future will not be assistants at all. Rather, they will be business development and client support professionals who will coexist with and complement automation technology rather than be threatened by it.

Winning in financial services: Focus on deal strategy and leave the creative to the experts

 In financial services, particularly investment banking, asset management and private equity, virtualization is driving a greater need for resonant and engaging digital content such as high-end PowerPoint presentations, videos, and creative marketing literature. There is also a need for more in-depth and real-time performance data and analysis to support deal activity. Traditionally, junior bankers and analysts have been tasked with building this collateral – but with increasing competition as bankers and clients interact more virtually, the need to stand-out becomes more critical.

Firms can create personalized jobs for associates and analysts by freeing up their time by allocating tasks they are not specialized in – such as creating pitchbooks, presentations and other marketing collateral – to teams that specialize in putting the creative touch in marketing assets. In doing so, these businesses are finding that they can bring a competitive edge to servicing their clients and pitching to prospects while helping their fee earners spend more time communicating to their clients with impact and less time laboring over creating visual assets that can be outsourced to centralized teams who can help.

Companies will attract and retain the best talent by making the job suit the individual

 Tailored working means that jobs will become more personalized to individual employee requirements. Businesses will need to change the way that they define jobs and how they connect with employees. Automating or outsourcing repetitive tasks or tasks that aren’t best suited to the individual will allow firms to personalize roles. In this way, administrative and secretarial roles can evolve while fee earners – from junior to senior – can focus on high-value client activity. Employees will feel that work is taking their personal needs into account, giving them a better sense of purpose. The outcome of personalized jobs will be employees are not only more productive, but more time-efficient.

To attract and retain top talent, employers should accelerate efforts to offer this type of personalization as an incentive.

Read our previous blog on the digital workplace and universal virtuality, or download our latest report on the future of work to find out more about the workplace of the future.