Marketing, education, and finance among top careers for hybrid jobs
According to a recent survey, 39% of workers say their ideal work arrangement post-pandemic would be hybrid—a combination of both in-office and remote work. Sixty-six percent of employers globally are considering redesigning their workplaces to accommodate a hybrid work arrangement, and it’s estimated that the hybrid workforce will boost productivity by 4.6%. Given the transition to and interest in the hybrid workplace,  FlexJobs analyzed tens of thousands of hybrid job postings across 50 career categories to identify the top 10 career categories for hybrid jobs in 2021. PAIRIN  then identified the most critical skills for jobs in those categories by utilizing a combination of their essential skills survey results mapping to O*NET skills and occupation data. These ten career categories have had the most hybrid job postings in the FlexJobs database between January 1, 2021, and October 31, 2021. A hybrid job is one that allows for partial remote working and can have various setups, such as:
Each week is split between remote and in-office work
Work is usually done remotely with occasional in-office days
Work is mostly in-office with occasional remote days
In order to better prepare candidates interested in pursuing a hybrid career, FlexJobs teamed with PAIRIN, the trusted technology partner to today’s leading workforce programs, governments, and education systems, to identify the skills job seekers need to succeed in these top ten careers. PAIRIN’s science-based skill development tools measure essential skills, also known as soft skills, because they are proven to have the most impact on someone’s ability to be successful in a career and in life. Below, Dr. Dan Hawthorne, Director of IO Psychology at PAIRIN, offers advice on skills that are important in a hybrid work environment in general. “Because hybrid models involve employees working in both remote and office environments, the skills necessary to be successful will bridge both,” said Dr. Dan Hawthorne , Director of IO Psychology at PAIRIN. “Skills such as compliance and service orientation will help people to self-manage and engage in good time management. We also see skills that help employees work alongside other people in an office environment like relationship, assertiveness, and supportiveness. And finally, skills like conflict management and stress tolerance bridge both environments by helping people manage the general stress of work and working out disagreements between others both in-person and virtually.”
FlexJobs recommends learning more about what hybrid means for the companies job seekers are applying to, specifically asking:
1. Are people at all levels of the organization allowed to have a hybrid schedule? 2. What are the expectations for coming into the office vs working at home? 3. Is the company setting these guidelines or letting individual teams decide what works best? 4. How is information distributed for employees to access whether they are working in the office or at home? 5. What new programs or initiatives is your company working on to ensure everyone is having a fair and equitable experience in a hybrid environment? Below each career category are the most important soft skills, as identified through PAIRIN’s personalized, science-based research, that professionals need in order to thrive in that respective career. These 10 career categories have had the most hybrid job postings in the FlexJobs database so far in 2021. 1. Sales
Influential Leadership: The ability to positively persuade others’ choices by focusing on what is important to them and building consensus. Conflict Management: The ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements. Social Awareness: To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes empathy, organizational awareness, and service orientation.) 2. Project Management
Relationship Management: To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. (Includes inspiration, influence, enriching others, cooperation, change, and conflict management.) Collaboration & Teamwork: To combine efforts and resources with others toward a common goal. To work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams. Dynamism: Global tendencies to generate results through intentional, resourceful, energetic mindsets and behaviors. 3. Computer & IT
Creativity: The desire to think, do, and express in ways that are different from the norm. This includes personal elaborations or variations on known or existing techniques. Originality: The ability to invent or independently conceive of ideas, methods, or products of the first order (underived), regardless of their usefulness. Objective-Analytical: The emphasis of logic and fact-based evaluating over feelings, suggesting clarity, thoroughness, and productivity. 4. Medical & Health
Service Orientation: The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Supportiveness: The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need. Social Awareness: To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes empathy, organizational awareness, and service orientation.) 5. Accounting & Finance
Social Awareness: To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes empathy, organizational awareness, and service orientation.) Compliance: Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction. Relationship: The drive to draw close and remain loyal to another person or people—to truly connect and enjoyably engage with them. Flamboyance: The drive to impress or excite; to stir others through words or actions. Influential Leadership: The ability to positively persuade others’ choices by focusing on what is important to them and building consensus. Assertiveness: Global tendencies to express and interact with boldness, enthusiasm, and confidence. 7. Education & Training
Cooperative-Practical: The moderation of reason and feeling resulting in calm, commonsense thinking—upbeat, attentive, and realistic. Creativity: The desire to think, do, and express in ways that are different from the norm. This includes personal elaborations or variations on known or existing techniques. Social Awareness: To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes empathy, organizational awareness, and service orientation.) 8. Customer Service
Supportiveness: The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need. Service Orientation: The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Conflict Management: The ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements. 9. Administrative
Service Orientation: The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance products or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Supportiveness: The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need. Flamboyance: The drive to impress or excite; to stir others through words or actions. 10. HR & Recruiting

New Research from FlexJobs and PAIRIN Identifies the Top 10 Careers & Soft Skills for Hybrid Jobs

How to create a new work environment that gets everyone on the same page. Credit: Getty Images
Since March 2020 and the pandemic , life as we knew it was put on pause. We suddenly and unexpectedly packed up our desks and started working at home, where we met new colleagues through a screen and were quickly fatigued by virtual meetings . Virtual happy hours and trivia aside, it's been a challenge to maintain workplace culture during these times. As we transition back to a new "normal", business leaders must consider how the reimagined workplace will look for employees, including those who haven't met. For many companies, this strategy includes a hybrid model of working both remotely and in the office. Looking for a fresh executive perspective, I connected with Michael Simpson , Chairman and CEO of workforce journey company PAIRIN, to get his outlook on creating a culture that reunifies everyone after the past year-plus of remote work. Create company values
The guiding principles and beliefs for every business, company values establish common goals for employees and are the bedrock for company culture. While many leaders create values based on their personal vision, Simpson believes employees should create them. "Having employees lead the process of formulating the company values ensures they feel heard, appreciated and considered. Without buy-in from the entire staff, company values are just words on a page," Simpson shared. Reintroduce the office
Some employees want to return to the office and some don't. However, the pandemic has taught us that we can still collaborate, be productive, and achieve common goals even if we're not in the same physical space. Deciding when and how employees should return to the office is a complex issue with multiple perspectives and considerations. For this decision, Simpson recommends employee surveys to inform the strategy. "We sent out a survey where we asked our employees many things to help us understand their needs and desires, how that influenced their preferred working style, and when they'd like to return to the office," said Simpson. As a result, PAIRIN implemented a hybrid work structure that allows for fully remote team members as well as hybrid employees to come into the office two to three days per week, or "whatever helps them be most productive, most supported and most connected," said Simpson. Team bonding
Once everyone is back in the office, what happens next? At PAIRIN, and in most organizations at this phase of transition, it's important to remember that team members haven't seen each other in more than a year or may have never met. In this situation, it's important to prioritize rebuilding team morale through various exercises. When PAIRIN returned to the office, they held a three-day onsite event to reintroduce the entire team to the office and each other, celebrate recent company and personal wins and of course, reestablish the company values. "Fifteen months of separation and a pause on work relationships didn't pause anyone's life. Our team has grieved cancer diagnoses, illness, deaths of five family members and loneliness; they've also celebrated several engagements, purchasing first homes and many other exciting life milestones, but they did it without the celebration of community. Before we move forward, we need to recognize and embrace what has changed in order to create a new reality as a company and a team," shared Simpson. Personal development
No matter if your employees are in the office or working remotely, Simpson urges personal and professional development to remain a top priority. Growth goals outside of the office should also be a priority, and that's why all PAIRIN managers are trained as coaches and all employees are offered free professional coaching services through the company to develop toward their personal and professional goals. This initiative makes employees feel valued and supported, and shows the company cares about the "whole" employee, not just "part". "Our job is to help every team member become the best version of themselves and to help them prepare for their next job, whether at PAIRIN or elsewhere, but make leaving the hardest thing they've ever done. Everyone will eventually leave. I want every employee, and their families, to appreciate their time here," said Simpson. In conclusion, recognize that your company is unique and that your people are also unique. An open and honest dialogue is essential to authentically reconnect with each other and refresh your workplace culture. Don't just reestablish the same approaches you used before -- take the time to reset and reestablish your "why", "what" and "for whom". Digging deeply into the values that define "how" people and the company act, while also allowing the team to redefine "where" and "when" that work is done, is vital to reestablishing a strong company culture. Inc. helps entrepreneurs change the world. Get the advice you need to start, grow, and lead your business today. Subscribe here for unlimited access. Jul 13, 2021

4 Leadership Rules to Follow if You Want a Successful Hybrid Workplace

Flexjobs: Top 10 freelance career fields and the soft skills needed for them
on May 12, 2021, 12:13 PM PST
Here are the skills freelance job seekers need to succeed in the career categories that have grown at least 10% since Jan. 1. IMAGE: Getty Images/iStockphoto
While the perception of freelancers is one of having less responsibility than staff employees, freelancers are the more proactive, according to a new report from Flexjobs . The pandemic pushed 89% of freelancers into skills and professional development activities (compared with 81% of non-freelancers). Those freelancers took actionable steps toward boosting their careers. Flexjobs reports:
52% learned new professional skills (versus 37% of non-freelancers)
50% learned new remote working tools (versus 37% of non-freelancers)
41% attended virtual professional development events (versus 35% of non-freelancers)
35% studied for or earned a new certification (versus 26% of non-freelancers)
30% did volunteer work, internships, projects or side jobs to strengthen skills and experience (versus 21% of non-freelancers)
9% studied for or earned a new degree (versus 7% of non-freelancers)
More about Innovation
"Our recent survey shows that freelancers are certainly committed to wanting to build their skill set and grow professionally and did so at a much higher rate during the pandemic than even non-freelancers," said Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs. "Because the overall job marketplace remains extremely competitive, knowing which soft skills to focus on can help put freelancers in the best position possible to secure their next job." Flexjobs top 10 freelance career categories have each grown 10% from Jan. 1 to April 1 and are listed from highest to least growth. Therapy
Image: PAIRIN
Flexjobs designed the survey executed by PAIRIN, which conducted the research and analysis to identify the critical skills for each category. "A major overarching theme in this group of jobs is that they are relationship-based and service-oriented," said Dan Hawthorne, director of I/O psychology and head researcher at PAIRIN in his blog on the PAIRIN website. "Essentially, in order to be a freelancer, you need to be able to focus on serving others and being interested in working with the idiosyncrasies of people's needs while resolving their conflicts and problems. Another common theme is that people working in freelancing careers need to be intrinsically driven to be productive and engaged. They also have a tendency to want to employ originality and creativity in their work." Behavioral skills often get short shrift and are considered secondary to hard skills, but those soft skills inform each person's drive. "At PAIRIN, our science-based skill development tools focus on measuring essential behavioral skills, also known as soft skills, because they are proven to have the most impact on someone's ability to be successful in a career and in life," said Hawthorne on the Flexjobs blog. "For this research, we collected jobs that are representative of the career paths identified by FlexJobs as high-growth and examined the common top behavioral skills that 65% of employers say are necessary for success in those career paths and that 73% of employers say applicants are lacking. " 
Flexjobs' survey, via Survey Monkey's platform, ran from March 17 to April 5. It had 3,545 respondents, and 640 of those identified as full- or part-time freelancers. Top Story of the Day Newsletter
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Flexjobs: Top 10 freelance career fields and the soft skills needed for them

Class Technologies, Inc., previously known as ClassEDU , recently raised $12.25 million to accelerate the rollout of software that adds teaching and learning tools to Zoom. In an announcement Wednesday, the company said its investors in this round of financing include Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, as well as Salesforce Ventures , Sound Ventures , and veteran talent executive Guy Oseary. Class Technologies said it is now valued at over $58 million. “As most parents experienced firsthand, the pandemic highlighted the need for better online teaching and learning technology,” Brady said in a statement. “I am pleased to partner with [Class Technologies CEO] Michael Chasen, a proven education and technology pioneer and fellow father of three, to bring the promise, potential, and power of the digital classroom to people around the world.”
Since Class launched seven months ago, over 7,500 K-12 and higher-ed institutions, as well as global corporations, have expressed interest in using the program, the company said. This latest round saw continuing investments in Class by previous Zoom investors, including Zoom board member and Emergence Capital General Partner Santi Subotovsky, independent investor Bill Tai, and Maven Partners Founding Managing Partner Jim Scheinman. How U.S. School Districts Can Spend Stimulus Funding
EdWeek Market Brief is hosted a webinar on April 27 about the $130 billion in federal stimulus funding flowing to education, and how districts are likely to use that funding. The webinar, which included survey data collected from U.S. school systems, is free. You can view it on demand after registering here . Leading ed-tech investment firms also continued their previous investments in Class Technologies, including GSV Ventures partner Deborah Quazzo, Owl Ventures managing director Ian Chiu, Reach Capital , and Insight Partners managing director Jeff Lieberman. Indian Online Higher Ed. Provider upGrad Raises $120 Million. Mumbai-based upGrad , which bills itself as South Asia’s largest online higher education company, this week announced it has raised $120 million from Singapore-based global investment company Temasek , in the first external funding round raised by the company. UpGrad intends to use the funding to “further strengthen its team,” globally scale its operations in the U.S. and other growth markets, boost its technology and product capabilities, and pursue merger-and-acquisition opportunities. It also intends to expand its graduate and post-graduate degree portfolio in India, and scale up operations to reach a $2 billion annual revenue goal by 2026, the company said. “We welcome Temasek in our mission to power career success for each and every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner and drive meaningful career outcomes,” upGrad co-founders Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli said in a statement. “This capital will further fuel our commitment towards global expansion as well as deeper India penetration, as we march forward with our goal of making India the teaching capital of the world.”
Area9 Lyceum Receives Strategic Investment From Lego Ventures. Area9 Lyceum , a developer of adaptive learning platforms, announced this month it received a strategic investment from Lego Ventures , the Lego brand’s venture capital arm. The investment will enable Area9 Lyceum to accelerate development of and market expansion for the company’s next-generation infrastructure for 21st century learning, Area9 Rhapsode . The company develops adaptive learning platforms for K-12, higher education, and workforce education, and says its products are used by “millions of learners” of all ages and leading global organizations and companies. “Enabling platforms are key in the transition towards more progressive, project-based pedagogies, and Area9 Lyceum has built market leading technologies that support truly adaptive learning and capture all these aspects of learner development,” Lego Ventures managing director Jamie Beaumont said in a statement. “We are very excited to see the potential of Area9 Lyceum, particularly in supporting learning for schoolchildren across K-12.”
Beaumont is also joining Area9 Lyceum’s board of directors, bringing expertise in finance and operations, as well as Lego Ventures’ commitment to the future of learning, creativity, and play, Area9 Lyceum said. Degree Raises $153 Million in Series D round. Upskilling platform Degreed has received a $153 million Series D funding round. Sapphire Ventures and Riverwood Capital co-led the investment, which now puts the company’s value at $1.4 billion. Funds will be used to accelerate product development, enhance data infrastructure, fuel global expansion, and pursue strategic acquisitions, Degreed said in an announcement. Technology enhancements will be geared toward upgrading the company’s reporting and analytics, ensuring cybersecurity, and enhancing integrations that take Degreed deeper into users’ daily workflow, the company said. Dan Levin, former COO of cloud content management and file sharing service Box , will succeed Chris McCarthy as CEO of Degreed, while McCarthy will remain in a strategic advisory capacity and sit on Degreed’s board of directors. “Investing in skills, culture, and career growth has become a critical differentiator for employers,” Riverwood Capital co-founder and managing partner Jeff Parks said in a statement. The company is “focused on the next phase of [the] scalability journey and supporting their mission to equip people with the skills they need to redefine their careers, their companies, their fields, and the world.”
Finalsite Makes Acquisition. Finalsite , a global digital communications, website development, and online marketing company for private and public schools, has acquired SchoolAdmin , a K-12 enrollment management system and developer of tools to help schools manage admissions, enrollment, and tuition billion processes, Finalsite announced. With the acquisition, Finalsite intends to offer schools several tools specifically designed for education, including a strategic enrollment management platform comprising modules such as automated student/parent communications, appointment scheduling, contracts, and tuition billing. The combined entity will make it “significantly easier” for schools to manage communications and personalize the entire family journey, from attracting prospective students to retaining families as supportive alumni and lifetime donors, the company said. “For more than a decade, the SchoolAdmin team has been dedicated to helping schools grow and thrive,” SchoolAdmin CEO and co-founder Nate Little said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be joining forces with Finalsite, a company that shares our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences for customers. We also enjoy similar cultures centered on caring and innovation, with a shared dedication to the communities, families, and educators we serve.”
Social Enterprise Cmpany PAIRIN Snaps Up Case Management/Referral System. PAIRIN , which provides career planning tools for students, private companies, and government employees, has acquired CommunityPro Suite , a multi-agency case management and referral system that integrates data from various source systems, PAIRIN announced. With the acquisition, PAIRIN says it will be able to accelerate delivery of high-quality technology solutions for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act compliance, service referrals and case management, and foster meaningful collaboration across agencies. The goal is to better support people through multi-agency referrals, case management, common intake processes, and a “robust set of reports,” PAIRIN said. “The PAIRIN and the CommunityPro Suite teams share a commitment to using data integration and user-centric workflow management to improve how all citizens are connected to education, support and career services,” PAIRIN Chairman and CEO Michael Simpson said in a statement. “The expanded functionality of our combined systems will further our mission to make everyone’s career journey relevant and equitable, as well as arm workforce, education and government systems with a holistic view of their ecosystem to provide the best career and education resources available.”
PAIRIN’s My Journey and CommunityPro Suite will work as an integrated solution to enable community collective impact coalitions, the company said. The aim is to create the most user-friendly, data-integrated workforce management system available for states and municipalities, a functionality that will allow facilitation of interagency case management and referrals management in support of at-risk, underserved, and under-resourced populations. See also:

K-12 Dealmaking: Class Technologies Raises $12 Million From Investors — Including Tom Brady

PAIRIN Raises $4.36M to Help Workforce Agencies Serve the Workforce Impacted by COVID-19
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PAIRIN announced a $4.36 million Series A for its solution that aims to support American governments, workforce agencies, and educational institutions to better serve the workforce in need. PAIRIN offers career planning and management, skills development, and training these agencies. They also offer help for displaced workers to navigate career and unemployment services offered by states, education, and workforce programs. This brings PAIRIN’s total funding to $5.5 million . While we’ve noted the trend of merging skills training and education into the job board marketplace category as a good use of tech, this deal focused on helping the public sector serve their constituents with services reported to help them find a path to a job and stability is encouraging. These additional funds will be used to deliver new functionality for PAIRIN’s  My Journey  platform to help governments, workforce agencies and education institutions support those looking to reskill, find a new career and get connected to helpful information and services. From the PaIRIN Announcement

PAIRIN Raises $4.36M to Help Workforce Agencies Serve the Workforce Impacted by COVID-19

Innovate+Educate is a provider in implementing research-based strategies that address the national skills gap. The time-honored pathway from school to career no longer works for most, including students, opportunity youth, job seekers, business and industry. Innovate+Educate exists to create solutions that build multiple, validated pathways from education to employment, thereby closing the skills gap.

Innovate+Educate

Denver , CO -- October 17 , 2018 > -- Today at the Close It Summit , Innovate + Educate and PAIRIN announced a new partnership to advance the future of workforce development in the western United States .

Innovate+Educate and PAIRIN Announce Partnership to Create Meaningful Work Opportunities for Underserved Populations.

Credly is an end-to-end solution for creating, issuing and managing digital credentials that allows organizations to officially verify skills and competencies and distribute portable and secure digital credentials.On January 31st, 2022, Credly was acquired by Pearson at a valuation of $200 million.

Credly

PlayerLync is a modern learning software that integrates mobility, digital forms, content distribution, and daily performance management into a single solution that helps operational teams deliver better customer experiences.

PlayerLync

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LivingSocial

McKinsey & Company

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 HR tech startups are helping companies manage critical pain points in HR processes such as recruitment, automation, career development, compensation, and benefits management, through a mix of software and services.

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Pairin develops a platform designed to pair the right people to the right jobs with predictable results. The company scientifically models existing top performers to identify the highest potential and most compatible applicants before a first interview.

Name	Work History	Title	Status
Rick Forbus		Founder	Current
Michael Simpson	Micro Focus	Founder, Chief Executive Officer	Current
Ron Young		Founder	Current
Frank Bonanno	Giant, and Arthur Andersen	Chief Financial Officer	Current
Allison Phillips	Shift Technologies, Learning Objects, LivingSocial, McKinsey & Company, Allscripts, and SunTrust Banks	Chief Operating Officer	Current

Name	Rick Forbus	Michael Simpson	Ron Young	Frank Bonanno	Allison Phillips
Work History		Micro Focus		Giant, and Arthur Andersen	Shift Technologies, Learning Objects, LivingSocial, McKinsey & Company, Allscripts, and SunTrust Banks
Title	Founder	Founder, Chief Executive Officer	Founder	Chief Financial Officer	Chief Operating Officer
Status	Current	Current	Current	Current	Current

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