Recruiters around the world are facing a labor shortage unlike anything they’ve experienced in the last decade. 63% of recruiters say talent shortage is their number one problem. The good news? There’s a solution that not only benefits businesses but society. By tapping into the wide non-traditional talent pool–from veterans and military spouses, to caregivers and people in their 60s and older, to those with disabilities or who were formerly incarcerated–organizations can bridge the labor shortage gap and build a robust pipeline of talent.
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3 STEPS TO TAKE TODAY TO RECESSION-PROOF YOUR TALENT — AND YOUR BUSINESS — FOR TOMORROW
2022 has been a year for the history books for business leaders–and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Amidst an ever-growing talent shortage and seemingly indomitable virus, leaders are juggling a wholesale re-envisioning of the workplace (do we go hybrid? Full-remote?) while trying to attract and retain talent who are still in the mindset of the Great Resignation.
Now, a looming recession threatens to strike just two years after the last one, leading many to fear sweeping layoffs of the global workforce.
This presents a catch-22 for already-overworked HR leaders. How can companies cut back to survive a shrinking economy when they’re short-staffed to begin with? The tech skills required to stay afloat — let alone competitive — are on the rise without talent to fill them. By 2030, there will be a global talent shortage of more than 85 million tech workers, representing a loss of $8.5 trillion in annual revenue for the economy. This begs the question, can companies afford to downsize?
We know this complex problem just piles up competing priorities for business leaders to process. You’re already busy, with constant pressure to show immediate results. However, in a landscape where recessions typically last about ten months on average, it’s necessary to act in the long-term interest of your business and, more importantly, your people to come out stronger on the other side. To help you make a plan, we’ve outlined 3 steps you can take right now to start recession-proofing your talent.
Continue readingNow Available: The Employer’s Roadmap to Harnessing the Great Resignation
Between a looming recession and record-high job openings, it’s no wonder that employers are struggling to recover from the Great Resignation. In 2021, after the shock of COVID-19 upended life as we knew it, talent around the world reprioritized how they spend their valuable time — and employees left work in droves, leaving business leaders to tackle a shrinking economy without the manpower to succeed.
Today, despite businesses’ best efforts, the Great Resignation shows many signs that it will continue through 2022. This global movement signals that major changes to the working world are necessary to create a value proposition strong enough to win talent back. This task can be overwhelming at a time when leaders are struggling to stay afloat, so we’ve created a downloadable guide to help you through.
Available now, The Employer’s Roadmap to Harnessing the Great Resignation shares a streamlined, step-by-step guide to transforming your workplace into a space where talent wants to stay, grow and thrive.
Continue readingBuilding a Future Ready Workforce: How Employer and Community Partnerships are Leading The Way
With the technology industry changing faster than ever, companies need a workforce that can evolve just as quickly. But how can these companies develop a pipeline as agile and versatile as the workers they hope to employ one day? And how can private and public sector partnerships build future-proof workforce development programs by tapping into their communities?
Our VP of Government & Workforce Partnerships, Priya Ramanathan sat down to discuss this problem with Kelly Martin (Head of Strategy & Operations at M&T Bank) and Sarah Tanbakuchi (President & CEO of TechBuffalo). They fleshed out lessons they’ve learned, particularly from the hard-working graduates that made up their first Data Analytics cohort. Keep reading to get crucial tips for rethinking your candidate pipeline.
Continue readingWhat is upskilling and what are the benefits?
Digital transformation has created opportunities and challenges for corporate leaders. Ways of doing business have changed dramatically. Today, consumers want to engage and transact with brands digitally, which has led to massive investment in technology. Yet the workforce’s skills have not kept up at the same pace, leaving businesses playing catch up as they race to hire the right talent to meet consumers’ demand for modern experiences.
According to Statista, global investment in digital transformation is expected to nearly double from $1.8 trillion in 2022 to $2.8 trillion in 2025, which will only serve to widen this skills gap. As companies continue to struggle to find the right technical talent from external sources, they are increasingly turning to upskilling their existing workforces to fill needed roles.
What is upskilling?
Upskilling is when an employee learns new skills that enable them to advance in their career. For example, an individual contributor might learn data skills so they can be promoted into a management role. Upskilling shouldn’t be confused with reskilling, in which an employee learns new skills that enable them to transition into an entirely different role.
Continue readingHow to Build a Successful Talent Development Strategy in 5 Easy Steps
A successful talent development strategy is critical for businesses to remain competitive and bridge the skills gaps within their workforces. Today, the rapid pace of technology development and digital transformation has forced companies to be more nimble and creative with talent development. Gone are the days where learning and development consisted primarily of soft skills training, like people management and conflict resolution. Today, talent development teams must also ensure their workforce has the skills needed to compete in the digital economy.
In the US alone, corporations spend nearly $180 billion annually on formal training programs. Yet, somehow, businesses still face a global talent shortage. Talent development programs can help address this by unleashing the full potential of a company’s existing workforce.
This isn’t something businesses can think about in a silo. According to IBM, 120 million workers in the world’s largest economies may need to be retrained due to automation. If companies don’t plan for the future with innovative approaches to talent development, mass displacement of workers could occur—with serious economic ramifications.
Continue readingOne Way to Recession-Proof Education Investment? Work-based Learning
Despite budget cutbacks and headlines warning of Big Tech’s hiring slowdown, overall employer demand for technical skills is still on the rise and projected to grow, with job postings across technical sectors still twice as high than any other fields.
But many workers are struggling to access the opportunities that put these in-demand jobs within reach. COVID-19 has driven the skills gap even wider, with nearly six in 10 U.S. workers expressing that a lack of skills prevented them from applying for a job they wanted in the last two years and countless employers complaining of a labor shortage. Automation and digitization are accelerating, and millions of low wage workers are at risk for displacement.
Resolving the global training deficit is a massive and complex undertaking – and while significant, meaningful work is underway, it cannot be accomplished without wide-scale public and private sector collaboration. As rising inflation wears away personal disposable income, and the college debt crisis reaches new heights, it’s clear the onus cannot be on individual workers to bankroll solutions. Instead, for an industry known for cutting edge innovation, a tried and true model is emerging as an effective tool: apprenticeships.
Continue reading3 mistakes you’re making when setting DEI goals…and how to avoid them
When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), top global businesses are struggling to bridge the gap between aspirations and actions. They know building a truly inclusive work culture is essential when it comes to social expectations, political trends, and board and shareholder demands. But business leaders also understand the direct correlation between a strong DEI program and attracting–to retain–top diverse talent. So, many businesses have stated their goals and started working toward them. They have established employee resource groups. They have appointed an array of DEI executives. They have made public pledges to elevate diverse employees to the C-Suite level. They have set a timeline for building a more diverse workforce. In short, they have taken the first–and very necessary–steps.
While society is committed to advancing DEI in the workplace, logic and statistics show there is still much work to do–from ensuring better diverse representation to more equitable compensation. Only 4% of companies employ a female chair and a meager 3.2% of executive or senior-level managers at Fortune 500 companies are Black. When you dig into pay disparities, the statistics are even more disconcerting. For every dollar a white male employee makes, Black employees make 62 cents, and Latina employees just 54 cents. The facts, while stark, are hardly surprising. Businesses have been talking about building a more diverse workforce for years, but–for the most part–they have been stuck in neutral, spinning their well-intentioned wheels.
Continue reading4 Ways to Evolve Your Hiring that Pay Dividends – Even During the Great Resignation
Across this series, we’ve examined the opportunities that the Great Resignation opens up for businesses — from sustainable cultures to value-aligned employee loyalty, this Great Realignment enables a variety of corrections to the old, flawed ways in which we’ve worked.
Recruiting is no different. In this post, we’ll discuss how leaders can take a fresh approach to talent to fill their open headcount with skilled and loyal new talent.
Competition for Talent is Fierce. And broken.
The world of work has evolved dramatically in recent years, but recruiting practices have not kept up. As resignations outpace hiring, leaders continue to scratch their heads, wondering why they can’t fill their open roles. The answer is simple: they insist on fighting over a pool of talent that is too small.
Continue readingThe Evolution Of Marketing Skills Ebook: Why Marketing Has Always Been About Change and Learning
Marketing is moving at a blistering pace. In the past two decades, digital technologies have supercharged the industry’s evolution and propelled it into a moment as rife with challenges as it is with opportunity.
Today, businesses and marketers are in a never-ending race to catch up with a flood of new channels and a growing set of tools. All while fielding a crowded market and swaying consumer needs. The dizzying pace of change in an industry that’s becoming increasingly digitized and data-driven is swelling skills gaps and leaving many on the verge of falling behind.
The good news? Change is not new to marketing. It’s what defines it. Marketing’s evolution can be chronicled through disruptions and innovations. And marketers have long thrived on their ability to adapt on the fly and leverage new mediums, trends, and technologies to move forward and push the envelope.
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