“No longer (just) a nice-to-have, internal mobility will be a must-have.” This is one of the predictions in the latest “Future of Recruiting” report by the professional networking site LinkedIn. Companies will build on employees’ strengths and offer career development.

In an effort to help companies navigate the change in recruitment landscape brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn surveyed over 1,500 professionals globally and over 500 in Asia-Pacific (Australia, India, Singapore, and rest of Southeast Asia (SEA), including the Philippines) who self-identified as working, or recently working in, a human resources or talent acquisition role or at a search and staffing agency.

“Partnering with learning and development (L&D) and broader HR, recruiting will have the opportunity to lead/build a rigorous internal mobility program rather than leaving it to hiring managers or ad hoc practices,” writes Gregory Lewis, content marketing manager at LinkedIn, in a blog post. “Companies will aim to catalog employees’ current skills and clearly tie internal job opportunities to relevant L&D resources that will help employees fill any qualification gaps.”

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The report also finds that this year, countries Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia and the Philippines saw higher IM rates than the global rate of 19.5%, a positive indicator that companies in these countries are leading the way in driving IM. In SEA, 64% prioritizes IM just slightly higher than in the Asia Pacific which stands at 62%.

However, 42% of those surveyed cited building and retaining a strong workplace culture as among the top challenges in today’s work environment. The second biggest challenge is creating a positive employee experience, according to 40% from SEA.

Recruiters find the following as the most important skills potential employees must possess: adaptability (61%), oral communication (61%) and time management (61%).

The workplace is changing and roles are expanding. Employers would want employees to possess hard and soft skills in order to thrive in the eternally pivoting business operations. With that, the most important skills for recruiters to have in the next five years: business acumen/ understanding (71%), analytical thinking (67%), and collaboration (67%)

IM is just one of LinkedIn’s six predictions in terms of future recruitment. Here is the complete list:

1. Recruiting will hire less, build and borrow more
2. Recruiting will help keep the business accountable on diversity
3. Virtual recruiting is here to stay
4. Recruiters will lead the transition to remote work
5. Your employer brand will hinge on empathy and actions
6. Recruiters will build new skills to align with the business

The survey was conducted in English, with respondents from over 25 countries. These survey respondents are LinkedIn members who were selected based on information in their LinkedIn profile and contacted via email between June 30 and July 31, 2020.