The struggle to find the right talent with the skills needed for business success has been building over the last several years. Unfortunately, this struggle shows no signs of ending. So what do we do? We certainly can’t accept unfilled positions and lost productivity as normal.
The people that you employ are what drive your business success and give you a competitive edge. We need to prepare for the future by anticipating talent shortages, and being aware of skills gaps and other human resources issues. Human resources executives can lead their companies to success by aligning workforce strategies with their organization’s business strategies. This alignment will separate companies that survive from companies that win and grow.
What is a workforce strategy? It’s a complete assessment of your company’s business plan, the long-term talent needs of the organization and an approach toward managing the supply and demand of talent. A good workforce strategy does more than fill positions – it drives a business forward. There are three steps to creating a workforce strategy:
- Determine the current and future talent needs of the business, making sure to consider changing business conditions and emerging technologies.
- Assess the available supply of talent whether it is in the immediate area, or stretches outside the area you would typically recruit.
- Develop solutions to fill the potential gaps between needs and the available talent.
You’ll begin to see that when you anticipate a talent shortage you can address it more easily. As a result, you can move from relying on what talent comes your way to manufacturing the talent you need when you need it. Examples of these solutions can include:
- Apply the Teachable Fit. Expand your talent pool by recruiting for certain skills that are hard to train. Then train for the skills that are easy to learn. You can find people willing to change careers (they may even already be in your company) and new graduates with basic degrees. You’ll end up investing in valuable individuals and build loyal employees.
- Hyperspecialization. Remove tasks that workers end up performing as part of daily duties. Free up your workers to focus on what they’re best at it, resulting in improved final products. This can save you money in the long run.
- Explore Untapped Talent Markets. Youth is a largely untapped talent market. Consider supporting career guidance programs. Developing a pipeline of inexpensive and energetic young labor can be a great window of opportunity. It can also have the added benefit of injecting fresh thinking into an organization. Some of the most innovative companies have workforces with high concentration of young talent.
- Expand Talent Markets. Take a second look at candidates that you once thought were unsuitable. Consider using job success profiles to describe a role within the company instead of a conventional job description. Job descriptions explain responsibilities and requirements. A job success profile focuses on the core competencies to deliver the required outcomes.
According to the most recent Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, Austin area employers expect to hire at an active pace during the second quarter of 2013. From April to June, 23% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees. This means your race to find good talent won’t be getting any easier. How do you plan to prepare? Join us on May 23rd to discuss the importance of strong talent pipelines.
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Our many thanks to Sunny Ackerman for her contribution to AHRMA and "We Are Austin HR."
If you want to learn more about the importance of building a strong talent pipeline within our businesses and communities, please come hear Sunny Ackerman speak live on May 23 at 9:00am during AHRMA's Workforce Readiness Day.
Click HERE to register.
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