You don’t have to be a labor economist to see what’s going on here. Too many job openings are chasing too few candidates. Researchers at the New American Economy found that for every science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) worker looking for a job, seven computer- or math-related jobs go unfilled. And this challenge isn’t localized to one sector of the economy either. Low-skilled workers are gaining leverage, too, as employers struggle to hire and keep talent.
Smart organizations are beginning to realize that simply increasing salaries and total rewards is not sustainable and, by itself, it’s not enough to ensure you have the talent you need to succeed in the future. Sustainable success requires new approaches to attracting, hiring, developing, and retaining talent.
The past two years have been instructive, to say the least. Practically overnight, remote and hybrid learning was no longer just another option for employees, it became THE option. Similarly, we learned that our people could function well in remote or hybrid environments all over the world. We are at the beginning of a truly global talent marketplace. This change has major implications for your talent strategy.
With the right tools and execution, Human Resources (HR) leaders can recruit and develop talent anywhere. But which tools are right for the job? At a high level, the right tools are the technology investments best positioned to get the right people in the right roles at the right time. And once you have that talent, you also will need the ability to deliver relevant, user-friendly, engaging learning experiences. All too often, I hear about organizations using a set of loosely connected systems to make recruiting and development happen. Typically, this is a recipe for unnecessarily complex, confusing experiences that are far from user-friendly.
In an increasingly competitive talent marketplace, recruiting needs to be faster, not slower. Keeping your candidate pipeline filled with qualified applicants is already a tall order, but if you’re forcing them through disjointed, awkward, time-consuming steps when other organizations are eager to hire them, too, you will lose a lot of high-quality candidates along the way.
The longer jobs go unfilled, the more your recruiting costs pile up. And there’s the cost of lost productivity and burnout among your current employees who are forced to pick up the slack. These downstream impacts can easily create a vicious cycle where you are unable to keep a team fully staffed, causing the employee experience to suffer, which, in turn, increases the likelihood of attrition. Our methods of hiring and developing people must align with the new realities of work.
Prioritize Flexibility, Relevance, and Simplicity
Most candidates and employees have more choices about where they work and how they learn than ever before. What does this mean to HR leaders?
People don’t need to sit through irrelevant training modules and they certainly don’t need to battle tedious hiring processes. If you really want to close your talent gaps, start by rethinking how the processes and technology you use affect the end-user. Do they add or remove friction? Is this job easy to search and apply for? Is our onboarding content optimized for employees who need quick answers to specific questions?
The world of work is becoming more flexible, not less. Our tech, structures, and processes must follow suit or we risk being left behind by those who invest in adapting to the change.
Remove Unnecessary Barriers to Talent
Attrition is rising and talent once again has the upper hand. The employee/candidate experience is too pivotal, too important for us to continue hiring and developing talent the way we always have.
Regarding talent acquisition, smart organizations are loosening job requirements in an effort to grow their talent pools. Think about a particularly hard-to-fill role in your organization and ask yourself, which of these requirements are actually predictive of success in the role? Does the candidate’s experience matter more than their educational pedigree? Does this role have to be located in San Francisco? Or could it be done from Mumbai just as easily? Top talent doesn’t always live near your corporate headquarters, and their resume may look a little different than you expect. Be willing to challenge your preferences and assumptions.
Consolidate and Optimize Your Technology
Technology is designed to speed up work, not slow it down. Look for opportunities to automate or eliminate steps in your recruiting process. The end-user experience (whether it be the candidate, the recruiter, or the hiring manager) must be faster, easier, and friction-free. Look for opportunities to integrate or consolidate systems and ensure candidates move swiftly through the hiring process.
Track, Analyze, and Improve
As the world keeps changing, so, too, must your approach to talent. As you implement new ideas and solutions, it’s essential that you measure progress against key metrics and (where applicable) adjust and iterate until you find the right process to close talent gaps efficiently and effectively.
As talent markets broaden, your ability to attract, engage, and retain talent will determine your ability to deliver on business strategy. Think through how adapting your talent strategy, process, and technology can make you more competitive as an attractor and steward of talent.
