ManpowerGroup’s Jonas Prising Helps Employers Help Their Workers

While employers for the past two decades have been consuming labor and not growing talent, now they need to think differently about attracting and growing talent internally, ManpowerGroup’s chairman and CEO Jonas Prising said in an October interview with McKinsey.

“We need to move away from a model of ‘come to us and we will employ you for the next 40 years’ to ‘come to us and after three to five years we promise you will have acquired skills,’” he said. “Organizations need to develop skills in employees that make them more marketable and employable inside the organization but that also make them more marketable and employable outside of the organization. And that is really the shift in employer brand promise that we see occurring.”

The next evolution of assessments capability is going to be in what Manpower calls “LQ — the learnability quotient,” Prising said.

“Your future employability is not going to be based on your hard skills and soft skills but on your ability to acquire new knowledge as you evolve in your career,” he said. “You don’t get to a finish line when you’ve completed a degree — it’s truly a journey of lifelong learning that’s going to make you more employable and more marketable.”

Manpower plans to fit into this new world by capitalizing on “the promise of predictable performance based on data analytics,” Prising said.

“That’s the assessment that ManpowerGroup has been working on — predicting performance based on somebody’s ability to acquire new knowledge and their innate curiosity as they move forward in their career,” he said. “That’s what’s going to drive their future career prospects.”

Prising leads the Milwaukee, Wis.-based staffing firm’s $21 billion business in 80 countries and territories worldwide. ManpowerGroup serves both large and small organizations across all industry sectors via three brands: ManpowerGroup Solutions, including RPO, MSP and strategic workforce consulting; Experis, professional resourcing and project solutions in information technology, engineering and finance; Manpower, talent resourcing staffing solutions; and Right Management, tailored individual development and career management solutions “that help companies and individuals succeed.”

Prior to being elected CEO in 2014, Prising served as ManpowerGroup’s president from 2012 to 2014, leading the company’s operations in the Americas and Southern Europe, and overseeing the global Right Management and ManpowerGroup Solutions businesses.

Prising joined ManpowerGroup in 1999 and has also served as managing director of Manpower Italy; director of Manpower Global Accounts — Europe, Middle East and Africa; president of North America; and president of the Americas.

Prising is actively engaged in the World Economic Forum, including as a steward of the group’s Future of Education, Gender and Work initiative, co-chair of the group’s Regional Business Council on Europe and CEO Champion of the group’s Digital Transformation Initiative.

Prising is also vice chairman of Junior Achievement Worldwide, and a current board member of Junior Achievement USA, where he formerly served as chairman.

He’s No. 143 on Chief Executive and RHR International’s CEO1000 Tracker, a ranking of the top 1,000 public/private companies.

Jonas Prising, CEO & Chairman, ManpowerGroup

Headquarters: Milwaulkee, WI

Age: 53

Education: Stockholm School of Economics

First joined company: 1999

Positions prior to being named CEO: Managing director of Manpower Italy; director of Manpower Global Accounts — Europe, Middle East and Africa; President of North America; and President of the Americas.

Named CEO: 2014