John Eades* says that with all the statistics pointing to a growing global shortage of quality employees, leaders need to have a strategic hiring plan.
There is no shortage of challenges facing leaders today.
Leading remote teams, communicating a return-to-the-office policy, navigating a rapidly changing market, and handling a constricted supply chain, just to name a few.
While these are all legitimate constraints, there is one challenge rising above the rest — acquiring talented professionals.
Don’t take my word for it; the stats regarding acquiring talent in the short term are staggering.
According to the Allegis Group’s Global Workforce Trends Survey, 79 per cent of respondents are experiencing challenges acquiring critical talent.
In addition, Randstad Sourceright’s 2021 Talent Trends Report found, 40 per cent of human capital leaders report that talent scarcity has negatively impacted their organisation.
As jaw-dropping as these statistics are, the talent shortfall appears to be here to stay.
A recent Korn Ferry study found that by 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people, resulting in $8.5 trillion in unrealised annual revenues.
The talent shortage isn’t just forcing some teams or businesses to have to close or pause operations; it’s also contributing to the rising employee burnout problem.
When a team is short on staff, it causes team members to work longer and harder to pick up the slack.
The managers of teams in this situation might not recognise it, but leaders certainly do.
Managers care about short-term productivity regardless of the price. Leaders care about the long-term price of productivity.
Most people in management positions focus solely on results, but that’s not only what leaders focus on.
They recognise results matter, but they see a world beyond just the outcome.
Since the talent shortfall is here to stay and the problem isn’t isolated, what can you do to thrive in this challenging environment?
Founder and President at HireLevel, Mark Wojcik told me the basic need for leaders was to be consistent and flexible.
“Be consistent in your interview process and your communication. Be flexible with requirements and with candidate qualifications,” Mr Wojcik said.
At the end of the day, great leaders can harness great potential.”
Instead of waiting until the need is extreme, every single team member, from the chief executive to the front-line employee, should feel responsible for attracting talented people to the organisation consistently.
In the middle of talent crunches, it’s easy to forget about hiring for a good culture fit and settle for the thinking that “any warm body will do”.
While it might help you in the short-term, this will no doubt hurt your team in the long run.
Chief Executive of Workday, Annel Bhusri talks about personally interviewing its first 500 employees for what he called “cultural co-founders”.
“If we hired the right first 500, it would give us the next 5,000 because they would be with the company for 10 plus years to uphold the culture and attract the people that fit our culture well,” he said.
While this might seem extreme, if you are going to create a development and people-first culture, you better be sure to hire the right people who fit your culture and desire to progress.
- Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne coined the terms red and blue oceans to denote the market universe in their book, Blue Ocean Shift.
The idea being that cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody red.
Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today — the unknown market space, unexplored and untainted by competition.
While seeking talent isn’t a perfect fit to their idea, there is excellent value in seeking talent in professionals outside your traditional vertical.
For example, I have been helping a start-up in the automotive industry seek talented customer service and salespeople.
Instead of looking for people with experience in the automotive industry, we are looking for people who have hospitality service experience.
Technical knowledge is easier to teach than a servant’s heart.
Find an alternative industry where talented people have developed great leadership skills and be proactive in getting them to make the switch.
It might be precisely what they are looking for, and no one is reaching out to them.
There is nothing easy about the current talent shortfall, especially in specific industries like hospitality and manufacturing.
However, if you recruit year-round, look for cultural co-founders, and focus on the untapped people outside your vertical, you will be on your way to a more talented team.
Lastly, as I tell my team all the time: “If it were easy, everyone would do it well.”
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft a leadership development company. He is also the host of the Follow My Lead podcast. He can be contacted at johneades.com.
This article first appeared on John’s LearnLoft blog.
