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Getting it right – It might not be what you think it is...

Recently we asked the question: Is working in waste still considered a dirty job? Thirty years ago, jobs in waste were almost exclusively about collecting rubbish bins and dumping them in landfill. It was dirty, smelly, hard labour, no matter the role. Today, managing resources can be one of the most challenging and technically advanced of any sector.

Add to that its current growth trajectory and estimated value at £24 billion and it’s not hard to see why the incoming president of CIWM is asking the waste and resource sector to support the THINK AGAIN pledge.

The sector needs an estimated 68 000 employees over the next decade, and almost none of those jobs will involve collecting and emptying bins. They’re analysts, sales people, chemists, engineers, operators, traders, administrators…similar to many other sectors, yet the default assumption remains that experience in waste is essential. Maybe it’s not just the perception outside of the sector that needs adjustment, but also within.

Evolving roles and the impact on skills

Currently, across all sectors, there’s a big focus on how AI is impacting the workplace. In waste management AI is about innovation, improving productivity, improving outputs, creating materials that can function effectively as part of a circular economy. While other sectors are still figuring out what sustainability looks like, the waste sector has seen first hand all the failed attempts.

Take packaging and it’s a percentage which can be recycled, and there are materials that claim to be sustainably sourced and come from half way around the globe, without any verification of the supply chain. Companies use paper instead of plastic just because it’s paper, without thinking through the packaging purpose, and recycling processes that end up needing vast amounts of water or energy.

Much of the innovation in packaging has come from feedback in waste management. It’s help change the structure, design and choice of materials. The sector is expanding into water treatment and restoration projects, soil analysis and consulting to help companies reduce their environmental impact.

The resource sector is much more than just operations, although that’s a big part of it. It’s increasingly at the forefront of technological advancement and re-engineering and the opportunities to apply skills and expertise in new ways is immense.

What’s next in waste management?

The pressure on waste management to increase productivity and profitability means there’s a tendency to recruit people with high levels of past performance in the sector. The challenge is that roles are evolving. Some are becoming more automated, using AI for identifying potential problem materials within batches. This is proving to be much more efficient than manual labour. It’s also changing the skills needed within operations.

While many people across most other sectors are feeling threatened by AI, in waste management many applications are already getting started. This creates an opportunity to build on knowledge to identify the best use cases for AI, identifying where it can help to maximise productivity or accuracy.

Supporting this, resource management could benefit from expertise from other sectors. The question remains whether these people would consider working in “waste” a good career move. Perhaps that’s at the heart of the CIWM president’s call to action. The resource sector has massive potential and it needs skilled people. Those skills don’t need to be waste management specific. To attract them, how does the industry showcase the real potential that it holds?

Prediction, potential and the confidence problem

Hiring managers are already cautious when hiring people from within the sector. They’ve sifted through the CV’s, completed interviews and made decisions, yet performance outcomes still vary. This traditional approach can be hit and miss, and when thinking about recruiting from outside of the sector, it’s understandable that those hiring are hesitant.

Now, with AI being increasingly used to write CV’s, it’s even harder to know if people have the skills they list. Often those who look most impressive on paper, fail to provide evidence of their expertise when assessed. This impacts the entire process, with more candidates being interviewed and often less confidence in the recruitment decision. It takes longer and there is a cost in both time and money.

The margins for error in hiring are always small because the cost of getting it wrong are always high. The research evidence shows that CVs are not a good predictor of future performance and, due to AI, the relationship between the two may well become increasingly weakened.

The technological changes throughout the industry bring a need for the skills and an approach that might already exist in other industries. The challenge is two-fold: Firstly, attraction and secondly identifying potential. The industry needs to market itself more positively, less smelly waste being put in the ground and more process engineering, advanced technology, and data driven decision making. As the circular economy grows and develops, so new opportunities will arise, that require skills which currently might not exist in the sector.

The growth and development of the sector bring challenges that the traditional CV alone simply cannot meet. To better understand role requirements, assess candidate potential and alignment, and develop people, there is a huge opportunity to utilise the power of skills-based assessments.

Additionally, legacy ways of working – especially in an industry which is innovating and evolving – can sometimes be a major stumbling block. The transfer of skills from other industries brings fresh perspectives, identifying areas of improvement and new ways of working that increase productivity. Sector specific skills can be learnt, whereas a positive attitude and behaviour are harder to acquire.

What is rethinking waste really about?

Structured job analysis enables you to identify the key drivers of success within a role, beyond technical knowledge, and that means skills. The drivers of success are not about previous experience, they are about skills. Widening your candidate pool beyond the industry and taking a skills-based assessment approach enables the industry to ditch the CV and focus instead on transferable skills and potential.

This creates a separate challenge, which is training and development. Growth creates employment opportunities, and success is achieved when staff are trained and developed effectively. The benefit of an assessment driven approach is that those with high potential who perform well on assessments typically develop more quickly. They intrinsically understand the challenges of the role and, from a skills and behavioural perspective, how to approach those challenges. The right skills leads to reduced time to achieve role competence and greater levels of overall performance.

In addition, the information generated from job analysis and the assessments themselves can be used to guide the development of training. This results in better alignment between recruitment and training and development.

Rethinking waste may start with thinking about how to attract skills into the sector, and that’s really just the start. It’s the development of potential that has the greatest potential to really grow the sector. Assessing skills, behaviours and attitude is the one approach that consistently delivers people who perform in roles, regardless of background or experience.