'뉴칼라(New Collar)'란 '블루칼라(Blue Collar·육체 노동직)'도, '화이트칼라(White Collar·전문 사무직)'도 아닌 4차 산업혁명 시대에 새롭게 등장할 노동 계급을 의미한다.
'뉴칼라'는 대학을 졸업하는 등의 학력과 상관없이 4차 산업혁명과 인공지능에 적응한 노동 계급이다. 인공지능과 빅데이터, 크라우트컴퓨팅, 사물인터넷 등 4차 산업혁명이 가져올 변화 속에서 탄생할 직업을 통칭하는 것이다.
이 용어를 처음으로 사용한 사람은 IBM의 최고경영자(CEO)인 지니 로메티이다.
그는 지난 1월 다보스 포럼에 참석해 "4차 산업혁명 시대에 인공지능이 발전하게 되면 일부 일자리는 사라지게 될 것이지만 새로운 일자리가 생길 것"이라며 "인공지능 시대에는 뉴칼라의 수요가 많아질 것"이라고 강조했다.
로메티 CEO는 "앞으로 다가올 뉴칼라 시대에는 노동력이 아닌 데이터가 중심이 될 것이며, 새로운 것을 창조하고 연구, 개발하는 뉴칼라가 미래를 이끌 주역이 될 것"이라고 전망했다.
전문가들은 '뉴칼라' 인재는 전통적인 교육 방식이 아닌 전혀 새로운 커리큘럼으로 길러내야 한다고 설명한다.
Artificial Intelligence is changing jobs today and creating an increasing demand of skilled workers. The US Department of Labor is predicting a shortfall of over 2 million skilled workers by 2020. What does this mean for employers? It means that companies are considering employing a new set of workers referred to as “new- collar workers”.
What is a new-collar worker?
A new-collar worker is an individual who develops the technical and soft skills needed to work in technology jobs through nontraditional education paths. These workers do not have a four-year degree from college. Instead, the new-collar worker is trained through community colleges, vocational schools, software boot camps, technical certification programs, high school technical education and on-the job apprentices and internships.
The term, new-collar worker originated by IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty. This classification of employee evolved when faced with the challenge of hiring technical jobs including cloud computing technicians, database managers, cybersecurity, user interface designers and other IT roles. But IBM is not the only employer faced with the economy’s War for Talent.
How do you hire for a new-collar job?
Hiring for a new-collar job means shifting your strategy from the traditional methods of seeking college education degrees and former job experience. The hiring strategies for selecting new collar workers involves looking beyond the information on the resume and seeking potential over experience.
Hiring managers should make a list of traits and skills necessary for success on the job and develop interview questions to assess these traits and skills. In addition to the interview, hiring managers need to look for previous school and work experience that utilized these traits in a different role. For example, work experience that required learning a new software system or technical skill is important. Other essential considerations are selecting applicants that demonstrate the ability to learn and process new information, a growth mindset, a technical aptitude, initiative and problem solving.
Where do you find new-collar job applicants?
Begin by contacting the local community colleges, vocation programs, high schools and other training programs in your community. Collaborate with these programs to create training programs within your company such as internships and apprenticeships where job candidates can develop their skills and demonstrate their abilities. Contact your state workforce development board to inquire about training programs. Some states are offering grant programs to subsidize the cost of training funded by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or WIOA. The federal government provides significant funding to states for workforce system programs covered by WIOA. You can collect applicants and build a pipeline for future applicants from all of these resources.
Develop training programs.
Training has always been good for business but in today’s labor market, it is vital to attracting and developing your employees. Therefore, you need to develop training programs for new employees, internships and existing employees to move into the new-collar jobs. This training should align with the actual job functions. Look within your company for subject matter experts who can help you develop a program that consist of on-the job training, on-line training, webinars, videos and classroom training. If this seems overwhelming, hire an outside training consultant to help you develop the program and train a team to deliver the training.
Although companies are facing the challenge of finding skilled workers, there is a solution. This solution involves a collaboration with the community, schools and your current workforce to develop training programs and new sources to collect potential job candidates for these new-collar jobs. It also means that HR and management must shift job requirements away from college degrees and experience and adopt a new method of hiring.