Why Is Talent In Such Short Supply?
16 / Jun / 2022
Are you wondering why it is hard to find talent for your business?
By: Craig Elvin
Are you wondering why it is hard to find talent for your business?
There has been a lot of talk recently about the scarcity of “available talent” and I wanted to shed some light on why that is.
Back in 2014, Rainer Strack, a Senior Partner with Boston consulting group gave a TED talk describing that by 2030 every major economy in the world would be facing a labour force deficit.
Essentially, there will be more jobs than there are people to fill them.
At the time this was predominantly due to an ageing population retiring.
Our baby boomers and that inflated demographic were coming to the end of their careers.
Recently, world events have sped up Rainer’s prediction.
First Brexit.
An estimated 1.3m overseas workers have left the UK since Brexit.
Then the pandemic.
One of the significant statistics we have seen is that there has been an estimated 500,000 early retirements in people aged between 55-65.
In some cases, the remote working situation has caused issues with knowledge transfer, skills and experiences have not been passed down before those senior members of staff have left their organisations.
We also have 1.8m fewer 18–24-year-olds entering the workplace than we have 55–65-year-olds in the UK.
And to compound the situation, when Boston Consulting Group looked at the skill levels what they found was higher shortfalls for higher-skilled categories.
So, the senior leaders and highly skilled managers that you need in the business are going to continue to be difficult to uncover and it’s unlikely to be a situation that changes over the next few years.
And I don’t think AI and automation are going to be the magic bullet that many people think they are going to be.
The advances aren’t quick enough, the cost is often too high and there haven’t been anywhere near enough advances in the ability to recreate the people interactions and soft skills required of senior leaders.
All of this has meant that UK vacancies are continuing to reach record highs while unemployment and available talent is declining.
So, now is the time to ensure you have the building blocks in place to attract the best talent. That you are developing talent communities and pipelines. To ensure your Employer Value Proposition is compelling, that your recruitment process is efficient and effective and that you have the right plans in place to retain the talent that you are investing in.
If you have any questions or queries about how you can do this in your business, then please feel free to reach out to me for a confidential conversation.
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