Change is in the air! Not just with our relationship with Europe but on a much grander, macro-economic scale. Forces that are shaping our economy and ultimately our place within it are creating huge challenges as to how we proceed in the workplace. A huge topic to tackle but GRN members were guided through this maelstrom by the excellent Tim Skeet and his presentation entitled: Brains for BREXIT: Graduate skillsets your company need for a post-BREXIT world.

In attendance to hear these insights were senior talent managers from forward-thinking recruiters such as UBS, IBM and Sage and many others kindly hosted at KCL in London. After an engaging Q&A session, GRN members were enlightened with practical advice to go back to their next board meeting. So, what were some of the key takeaways?

1. Break Your Habits. We were all advised to stop and think about the skillsets we actually need for 2019 and beyond and seek ways to reach a broader section of the graduate population. Improved computer power, automation, AI and Machine Learning can all make certain number-crunching roles redundant creating new roles requiring more creative thinking skillsets that can act on insights and information. Look beyond STEM graduates perhaps next time and seek a Humanities graduate with the brainpower to meet this challenge.

2. Change Your Assumptions. Not all graduates are born the same! Did you know that only 50% of Medical students actually have a clear career plan or that Postgraduate students saw their future outside of academia? We were encouraged to test for creative thinking and seek people with strong communication skills who have the potential to be managers of the future.

3. Make Stronger Connections. Email doesn’t give you the opportunity to really connect with the other person and can reduce the impact of your message. Re-discover the art of conversation and seek ways with your teams to speak on the phone or, ideally, face-to-face before we lose the skill of communicating as human beings.

Tim’s speech was recorded for our second release in the GRN Podcast series. This will give members who attended (and those based outside of London) an opportunity to benefit from these learnings. Do you have something to add to the debate? I’d love to hear examples of best practice to share with GRN members so do send me an email at d.hawes@grb.uk.com.

This is just a flavour of the topics covered during a typical GRN event. To join please apply for membership and receive invites for future events. Our 2019 events calendar is as follows;

• March 7th 8.45am-11am. ICAEW, London

• June 14th 8.45am-11am. ICAEW, London

• September 11th 8.45am-11am. ICAEW, London

• December 10th 8.45am-11am. ICAEW, London

It’s free and a fantastic opportunity to develop as a professional graduate recruiter in your sector with a diverse range of graduate recruiters facing the same challenges.