Organizations have been decrying the shortage of talent available in the labor market for some time now, but the scale of the shortage was emphasized by the latest Talent Shortage Survey, produced by recruitment company Manpower.
It revealed that nearly half of the 40,000 organizations surveyed were struggling to fill vacancies, with the likes of engineers and skilled trades workers the hardest to fill. The situation seems to be getting worse, with the shortage worse than it has been in over a decade. The authors believe that this is largely due to the rapid pace of technological change, and subsequently the relatively short shelf-life of skills in the modern world.
As such, there is a growing emphasis on soft skills that are more transferable as roles change, rather than hard skills that may become obsolete. Of these soft skills, over half of employers rate written and verbal communication skills as most important, with collaboration and problem solving close behind.
“With record talent shortages around the world, it’s no longer a question of simply finding talent; we need to build it,” Manpower say. “New assessments, big data and predictive performance mean employers have the best tools to identify adjacent skills, help people shift into emerging roles and create clear career paths. We know talent shortages are not going to fix themselves. Organizations need to accelerate efforts to upskill and reskill employees for the new world of work so companies succeed and people have employment security for the long term.”
Overcoming the shortage
The report advocates a four pronged strategy for dealing with the talent shortage:
- Build – Organizations should invest more in learning and development so that their existing employees are upskilled.
- Buy – If you identify shortages that cannot be addressed internally, then make your proposition as attractive as possible to external candidates.
- Borrow – You should also consider the gig economy, with a growing number of talented individuals available on a freelance, contract or temporary basis.
- Bridge – Help people move on and move up to new roles inside or outside the organization.
The advice is nothing too groundbreaking, but given that organizations continue to struggle with it, it’s perhaps not a bad thing for it to be repeated yet again.
