Do employers know what they want from their MBA hires, or are their true requirements hidden behind bland and generic terms? David Woods-Hale talks to Business Schools and recruiters about an ongoing challenge for the management education sector
MBAs may face growing competition to secure the roles they want in a market categorised by unprecedented uncertainty, but the international war for talent among employers remains. To push businesses and economies through challenging times, you need great recruits.
One might expect, therefore, that employers would be more forthcoming with what they want and need, when they form strategic partnerships with Business Schools to help build their talent pipelines. But mutterings within the recruitment community often suggest that employers are being too transactional in their approach.
Chris Brenchley is CEO of Surehand – a California-based company that connects industrial professionals looking for jobs with recruiters – and has significant experience with hiring MBAs. He says: ‘Some companies do not care what kind of an individual they get, as long as they are from one of the top Business Schools. This helps the companies reach stardom. Every time a top-class MBA joins a firm, they are asked to forget everything they’ve learned because it is practically useless.
‘A company spends money and hours on training so that [recruits] can adapt. This entire faux relationship between companies and Business Schools depends on give and take: Schools provide talent (or the assumption of talent) and companies provide incentives such as donations. It’s time that companies stopped looking at degrees but rather looked at what skills an individual actually brings to the workplace. Most of what these Schools teach is non-practical theory. We are living in the digital age and it’s time our recruitment practices reflected this.’
If this line of thinking is to be believed, the question is: are employers looking to recruit X amount of MBAs from what they deem to be quality Business Schools without considering the skills they need to meet their specific challenges and grow and develop their businesses?
AMBA’s study of employer recruitment behaviours from a global sample of more than 1,000, points to the value of an MBA from a reputable Business School, among those looking for senior managers. But responding employers did say that a ‘lack of soft skills’ and a ‘lack of creativity’ among MBAs applying for roles are the two biggest issues facing the current recruitment market.
These are areas that Business Schools and their cohorts will want to address collectively to ensure graduates are prepared for the roles they want – and that they are enabled and empowered to demonstrate their skills in creativity, innovation and emotional intelligence – from day one.
In saying that, the rhetoric always seems to be focused on Business Schools sourcing vacancies for their cohorts and putting the work in with employers to forge strong relationships that allow companies to build and develop their talent pipelines.
Plugging skills gaps
Jane Clark, Global Head of Emerging Talent Consulting at international recruitment firm Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), explains: ‘Skills gaps, transferable attributes, and employability are common themes that have been rumbling on for a long time between employers and Business Schools, with calls for the two parties to increase their links and bridge the gap that exists in terms of what employers want – and what Schools think they want. Part of the challenge stems from the fact that employers encounter a range of skill problems and challenges, ranging from talent gaps and technical shortages to the under-or-over supply of specific skills which lead to a mismatch in graduate attributes.
‘It also seems that little consensus has been reached in the research on employability skills, which creates a perfect storm with higher training and development costs for organisations.’
Brenchley adds: ‘Companies are vague about what they want from Business Schools. They do this in order to stay politically correct.
Are employers being too generic? If Brenchley is to be believed, generic terms are in use because – at least from an employer’s perspective – they’re inoffensive and they resonate with everyone.
In short, it’s easy for employers to say they’re looking for ‘trustworthiness’, ‘collaboration’, ‘innovation’, ‘creativity’, or ‘a good work ethic’, for example. But, if employers really are being too vague when formally stating what they expect from MBA graduates, it’s worth asking what they actually want to see from recruits at this level. AMBITION put this question to Jeff Zhou, Co-Founder of Fig, a fintech company that builds risk models and lending software for non-profit organisations. Zhou started the company in 2015, with a fellow MBA graduate from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
He explains: ‘Businesses are still using the same generic terms for MBA students because the most consistent value add of an MBA programme is generalist soft skills, and they’re inherently hard to describe.
‘Beyond soft skills, the MBA curriculum has become so diverse that it’s highly unlikely two MBA graduates will have the same experience and resulting skills. As an example, maturation of topic areas like data analytics and product management have added entire families of courses and majors that didn’t exist in MBA programmes 10 years ago.’
But he adds: ‘As an employer, the top skills I want an MBA graduate to have are structuring problems and communication. An MBA graduate should be able to improve the chemistry and efficiency of any team they join immediately. My requirements for MBA graduates are purposely generic because the value comes from their ability to fit into many different situations.’
Zhou’s ‘generic’ recruitment strategy does not appear to represent an exception to the rule, at least according to Clark: ‘In what they are seeking from MBA graduates, it’s impossible to speak on behalf of all employers’, she says. ‘It will vary significantly from sector to sector and business needs are always evolving. However, a recent survey in the Financial Times on what employers want from MBA graduates cited a top five for most important skills, and these included: the ability to solve complex problems; build, sustain and expand a network of people; and the ability to work with a wide variety of people. It seems that the softer skills were more important than the core MBA subjects, such as finance and marketing.’
So far, so generic… Some rudimentary internet browsing around this issue will show, in seconds, that most of the content, published in the area of MBA recruitment, puts the onus on Business Schools to interpret and translate what employers need.
Denise McBride, Career Development Manager at Trinity Business School, explains: ‘Terms such as “creativity”, “innovation” and “trustworthiness”, though generic, can still be a useful guide to students when
they are crafting their post-MBA professional identity. From a practical standpoint, Trinity Business School can instil such traits through, for example, seminars on design thinking
for innovation/creativity, and then the dedicated MBA careers
team can work with students on an individual basis to help
them decide on, then voice, their unique brand in combining these skills.’
Ian Kelly is VP of Operations for NuLeaf Naturals, one of the US’s fastest-growing hemp CBD oil companies. Kelly heads the organisation’s recruitment team when it comes to hiring MBA graduates. He believes that ‘wishy-washy’ terms are usually used by recruiters who ‘just find a template online and copy-paste the entire [job] description’.
He adds: ‘How can anybody measure things like “trustworthiness”? It is downright disrespectful if these are the actual metrics recruiters use in the hiring process. Students should avoid such companies and go for companies that have a clear vision as to what kind of individual they want to hire. These companies will be specific and will use terms like “data analytics enthusiast” or “interested in CBD initiatives” for example.
With that in mind, we’re forced to return to the original conundrum here: Do employers really know what they want
from Business Schools?
A tick-box exercise?
Kelly explains: ‘I’ve worked in big corporate companies, mid-sized companies, and even a few startups. In my experience, HR teams in huge corporate companies make the mistake of using a tick-box [format] for all roles.
‘This is because of a lack of awareness of exact requirements. Their goal will be in hiring numbers and not in hiring quality. Smaller companies tend to be more aware of what they need as the team is much more tight knit. They also won’t have a lot of openings and so the focus will be much more specific.’
However, in the MBA context, Trinity Business School’s McBride says: ‘HR teams are often those on any recruitment panel who are looking for the person/company culture “fit”. So, when they interview MBAs, they eschew a tick-box approach and are interested in, and appreciative of, how that MBA candidate can add value to their business through their unique leadership profile.’
In either case, the answer to the question of whether employers know how to communicate what they want in terms of specific skills appears to be a resounding ‘no’.
But Olivier Lefaivre, Director of the Global Executive MBA at NEOMA Business School, throws a cat among the pigeons by arguing that employers are not expecting graduates with specific skills or knowledge. ‘In our real time and globalised digital era, the key [strength] for executives today is no longer to accumulate knowledge, but rather to expand their mindsets globally and holistically,’ he says.
‘This means learning from shared experiences and developing applicable knowhow and behavioural skills conducive to reinforcing their “ability to do” (in other words, to respond, adapt, change and decide) – rather than just adding to a static set of knowledge and competencies.
‘Leaders are asked to be respectful of the aspirations of numerous stakeholders and need to reconnect and cultivate their deep human competencies, otherwise known as soft skills, more than ever.’ Lefaivre adds that, in his experience, the key leadership skills requested by employers are ‘agility’, ‘flexibility’, ‘sustainability’, ‘listening skills’, ‘innovation’, and ‘resilience’, before going on to highlight the importance of the latter:
‘“Resilience” is a set of key competencies to help people to live and work with higher engagement, health, happiness and, ultimately, reach their full potential. Resilience enables a person to cultivate mental fitness, and to boost innovation, intuition and creativity. It reinforces presence and self-confidence, which increases courage and entrepreneurial skills.
‘The best MBA programmes balance conceptual learning, field-oriented experiences and stimulate both hard and soft skills, redefining the way participants think and lead, and transforming their mindset.’
Delivering the goods to the customer
Taking all of the above into consideration, the expectation still seems to be on Business Schools to ‘deliver the goods’ to their employer customers.
To a certain extent at least, employers are the customers of Business Schools – in executive education and customised programmes in particular – but the primary customers of the School are ultimately its students and the evidence suggests that the employer perspective will not always deliver what’s best for them.
Business Schools should therefore look to be the driving force in resolving this talent conundrum. ‘Business Schools need to specialise in understanding their own talent pool, in terms of their interests and passions,’ says NuLeaf Naturals’s Kelly. ‘The potential of a person depends on the environment that drives them.
‘Right now, Schools are only aware of [students’ assessment] scores which is not a metric that helps them understand the individual capabilities. In many cases, MBA graduates with low [assessment or exam] scores turn out to have exemplary careers because they were lucky enough to find jobs to which they were suited.
‘Schools should focus on methods to identify and nurture talent just like youth academies of sports teams. For example, [American] football youth academies don’t just manufacture players. They’ll be manufacturing quarterbacks and kick-off specialists. Business Schools need to think the same way.’
McBride adds: ‘Employers expect MBAs to “hit the ground running” and to be useful to the business almost from arrival, which is understandable. What could be useful to clarify around MBA needs is to dispel the potentially dated concept of what a “traditional” MBA graduate is. These days, MBAs are often agile thinkers, who like to leverage their softer skills to lead people and solve macro problems for their new employer beginning at a micro level.’
Nurturing skills at every level
AMS’s Clark takes this line of thinking further in considering how Business Schools can set the agenda: ‘Soft skills need to be nurtured at every educational level and I believe it is one of the most significant components of the overall education and learning experience,’ she says. ‘Greater collaboration between Business Schools and organisations could help demystify some of these skills. It is fair to say that industry context for some of these skills will differ and bringing them to life with real-life examples will help to set expectations and further understanding.’
In saying that, she adds: ‘There needs to be a clearer and evolving two-way conversation between the corporate world and higher education institutions regarding the skills that organisations now need and how these can be embedded into curricula going forward.
‘The world of work is changing rapidly, which in turn means that skill demands are also evolving swiftly. There needs to be open and honest communication both ways to future- proof the skills of tomorrow.’
Demonstrating Business School relevance
These comments move the conversation back to the age-old conversation around the fine balance between academic theory and business practice. Business Schools need to feel empowered to influence practice, and therefore it follows that they should also be able to set the tone of skills that are being sought after.
Gabriela Whitehead, Head of Digital Transformation and Process Management at GISMA Business School in Germany, explains: ‘The worlds of work and education are constantly changing, and this means that the relationship between theory and practice should remain fluid, with open communication channels to consider new developments and transformations on the market demands.’
NEOMA Business School’s Lefaivre agrees, adding that ‘cross-fertilisation’ between Business Schools and companies is a key success factor: ‘It is critical that Business Schools and HR senior executives within companies keep sharing their challenges, in terms of skills development and recruitment, so that synergies can be raised. The main goal of a strategic partnership between a Business School and a company is to develop a mutual understanding of expectations, practices, constraints, culture, and values; and agree on the development of key sustainable actions in terms of student recruitment, executive education and corporate development.
‘Over the past few years, customised corporate executive MBA programmes have been co-developed by large companies and top Business Schools to train their best managers and develop their leadership skills. Typically, these programmes are part of a talent development strategy and aim at boosting the career of their high potentials. Business Schools play a key role in helping companies to select the best talent for these demanding executive education programmes.’
The way forward: leading the charge
AMS’s Clark believes the Business School community has the opportunity to lead the charge and tell employers what they need, rather than the other way round.
‘It seems that the present pandemic has given Schools a platform and opportunity to demonstrate their relevance as many institutions are finding themselves offering advice with regards to Covid-19. The pandemic could lead to an overhaul, in terms of curricula meeting the demands for new skills that a post-Covid world necessitates, including management and leadership. Business Schools should be working with employers to explore case studies and seek out the acceleration of existing trends, both on hard and soft skills to ensure that curricula stay relevant and forward thinking.’
McBride insists this is already being done: ‘Business Schools are playing their part as a driving force in readying talent,’ she asserts. ‘An example here in Trinity Business School was our programme’s reaction to the current Covid-19 crisis, where we introduced a new ‘Leadership in Crisis’ module, aimed at surfacing and then embedding the exact skills, at the right time, for our MBAs to leave as useful citizens as well as appropriate leaders. Business Schools have a role to inform and influence employers with regards to emerging and future skills needs and it’s always useful for us in Business School career teams to understand any current skills gap or pipeline needs clearly. It’s about quality engagement between the two stakeholders.’
In summing up, GISMA’s Gabriela Whitehead explains that Business School careers teams would be wise to remember that, while the terms employers use might be generic, it does not mean that every future employee has these skills. She explains: ‘Soft skills are acquired and enhanced during postgraduate programmes, such as the MBA. They should, however, be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure changes in the market are reflected.
‘Trend and market analyses can support the understanding of gaps in the talent pool. Business Schools that drive the need for strategic relations proactively and highlight the skills required have more chances to influence decisions made in the business world. In the same manner, employers who are open to review and take these analyses on board as well as any resources offered to them are more likely to find the right candidates in the talent pool.
‘It is not that employers do not know what they are looking for. MBA skills are a mix of what they learn and the unique setting of the School. Employers can provide a list of skills to meet corporate values and the requirements of the position, but they also expect the Business Schools to offer a list of additional skills their students acquire at their institution. To establish and maintain a network of relations on both sides, dedicated resources and time are required, which not all employers and Business Schools have or can afford. At the same time, employers and Business Schools can achieve better results with a leaner and more focused recruitment process.’
As Whitehead concludes – and in a viewpoint supported by all the commentators – more work needs to be done on both the employer and Business School sides, to perfect the robust talent pipeline needed to guide business through the complexity that is to come, and into a vibrant and growth-focused ‘new normal’.
