One would be forgiven for thinking that the Covid-19 pandemic would mean that people would stay with their jobs due to the uncertain economy. 2021 has proved us wrong by ushering in a massive talent crisis of mind-boggling proportions, leaving no business sector untouched.
Sign’s of this talent crisis were already beginning to appear before the onset of the pandemic, but the weight of Covid-19 proved too much. As a result, thousands upon thousands of positions were left empty, along with store shelves, while also driving up retention bonuses. The talent shortage was made even worse by the talent exodus of the ‘Great Resignation’.
According to a Labour Force survey, up to 391,000 Brits had quit their jobs between the months of July and September 2021 alone. Despite this influx of talent into the workforce, employers are still struggling to fill vacant roles. The reality is that both the market and expectations have changed, and companies will have to continuously review their recruitment and retention strategies if they wish to attract and keep the best talent.
While many forecasters believe the job market will stabilize somewhat in 2022, no one can really tell when this ongoing talent crisis will come to an end, and the complex and innumerable factors affecting talent shortages will likely become a career-long project for some HR leaders to tackle.
There is one solution that HR can take immediately in order to avoid this issue. That is to widen the net of where they look for new candidates, both geographically and otherwise.
KPMG, for example has been espousing the value of employee skills for years now. They argue that the skill sets of individuals should also be a huge factor in determining a candidates suitability for a job, rather than just sector specific experience and qualifications. While this form of recruitment has not taken over just yet, the past year has seen a shift towards skill considerations, opening up opportunities to hire from sectors outside the obvious choices.
