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New collar jobs are roles that emphasize skills and practical knowledge over standard four-year college degrees. The term “new collar,” popularized by IBM’s former CEO Ginni Rometty, describes positions that require specialized technical training, certification programs, on-the-job training, and other non-traditional paths to acquiring the skills needed for success.
Read on for insight on the topic from established publications.
Rebecca Hall delves into what matters most about new-collar jobs. What is it, why the shift, and its projection? The highlight of the article: the business impact.
“New collar jobs represent one of the most significant shifts in how organizations hire, develop, and reward talent… And for talent leaders, it opens a massive opportunity to expand talent pools, reduce recruiting costs, and build more resilient internal pipelines.”
Continuing the list of benefits of incorporating new-collar positions, aligning growth opportunities with business needs helps maintain an intentional hiring practice rather than a reactive one. Companies can meet their urgent needs while preparing teams for potential technological growth that will demand new skills down the line.
New collar jobs seem like the perfect response to the skills gap companies face. In addition to growing teams through upskilling and team-building practices to address incompetence, business leaders can hire workers specialized in a core skill their teams lack. And with the four-year limitation lifted, talent pools for those needs are expanding.
“A report by Accenture found that more than 60% of employers rejected otherwise qualified candidates in terms of skills or experience simply because they did not have a college diploma.”
Maeve Ginsberg lays out a plan for how to integrate new-collar hires into teams that first starts with reevaluating job descriptions and seeing which roles can forego the seemingly universal credential of a bachelor’s degree. Also in the plan is becoming familiar with credentials and courses that supplement the skills coveted for the role, and developing a training program to strengthen retention efforts.
Arianna Reardon writes on the trending topic with optimism. From the term’s founding in 2016 and the AI boom since then, job positions for this in-between candidate market have more than doubled.
Reardon states that, “a Cengage group survey revealed 59 percent of employers have hired new-collar talent over the last year, with three in five planning to develop skills-based hiring strategies.”
In these positions, employers are developing a pool of candidates who possess strong interpersonal skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication, as well as an eagerness to learn and grow. Technical skills and experience are still a huge part of qualifications, but can be an investment for both the employee and the employer.
New collar jobs bridge the gap between blue-collar and white-collar roles, opening opportunities for people to enter high-demand fields without the need for a traditional four-year degree, but with valuable, job-specific skills. A strategic hiring advantage, a flexible job seeker option, and also a risk in terms of longevity and stability. That is, of course, if not intentional and prepared to put in the work to make new collar opportunities sustainable.
