Fears around the job market are mounting right now and for those actively searching after a layoff, recent graduation or life transition, the questions are urgent. Will I find work? Which majors are AI-proof? Which roles are already disappearing?

For those who aren’t searching, there’s an underlying version of the same fear. The loudest one—AI is coming for my job—has faded as AI adoption continues to drive increased, not decreased, workloads. What’s replaced it is a pervasive discomfort about having to adopt AI to stay relevant, and a real question about whether anyone can advance in their career without AI expertise.

The individual question is: “Is my career safe?” The team question is: Is my team built for what’s coming? The good news is that it’s answerable with data most organizations already have. Preparing for AI isn’t just about adopting new tools, but about making better decisions about hiring, team design, role definition and governance.

Here are five recommendations for building future-ready teams.

Treat hiring freezes as a diagnostic window

Here’s the reality of the current low-hire, low-fire labor market: 18 months of frozen hiring, suppressed quit rates and unfilled vacancies, with employers reaching their lowest hiring rate since 2013.

Most leaders pause on workforce decisions during hiring freezes, but what if leaders used this time as a diagnostic window instead?

During normal hiring churn, it’s harder to see how a team actually functions. Onboarding and backfill noise muddies the signal. Strip the noise out, and examine how the work moves through the organization. Focus on areas of inefficiency and workload distribution, dentify patterns and trends around productivity, efficiency, capacity and utilization, and then use these indicators to guide AI investment and where future roles should be added.

The current labor market creates a rare opportunity to see how work moves across an organization. Leaders who use that visibility to redesign teams will be better positioned when hiring resumes.

Read the full article here: