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May 19, 2022 | Report
Our research yielded 11 strategies for finding the right talent in a global talent shortage. This study draws on a series of five focus groups conducted with more than 70 TA and talent management executives across Asia, North America, Europe, and Middle East/Africa; key insights generated from surveys conducted by The Conference Board since the onset of the pandemic; and a literature review.
A confluence of events including the COVID-19 global pandemic, social unrest, and economic volatility has created a tsunami of challenges around human capital, driving talent concerns, which have been on the ascendency for some time, to the top of the priority list for leaders. One specific challenge currently occupying the attention of many CEOs and chief human officers (CHROs) is finding the right talent amidst a growing talent shortage, a shortage that The Conference Board predicts will last for some time.
We know that in the US, talent has been increasingly difficult to find for many years, perhaps exacerbated by the recent trend of workers resigning in droves—voluntary turnover is at a 20-year high. But we were surprised to also find talent shortages in other mature economies around the globe. Employers in Europe and Asia are having already severe or growing difficulty filling positions as unemployment is decreasing, even in countries with historically high unemployment. When we informally polled focus group participants about the degree of difficulty or pain they were experiencing with hiring, the responses were remarkably consistent across regions, conveying severe to very severe pain on a 10-point scale (Asia, 6.9; Europe, 6.6; the US, 6.8).
CEOs, CHROs, and human capital (HC) leaders recognize that simply doing talent acquisition (TA) better and faster will yield only marginal gains—it will not solve the current challenge of finding the right talent amidst a global talent shortage. Instead, leaders need to encourage their teams to fundamentally rethink some long-held assumptions about who can do the work; where, when, and how the work gets done; and the TA function itself. Rethinking sourcing strategies will yield more candidates in the short term and more agile and diverse talent pools, and organizations, in the long term.
