Hiding in Plain Sight? Missing Pieces to the “Labor Shortage” Puzzle

While many companies struggle to re-assemble their pre-pandemic employment practices, the smartest employers are piecing together forward-looking talent models, more innovative AND more inclusive. Above all, these employers are recruiting for skills, however acquired: in college or military service, in community colleges or job training programs, through work experience and on-the-job learning. Tapping into the often under-valued talent pool of 70 million U.S. workers skilled through alternative routes (STARs), these employers are figuring out how to put the much-discussed “labor shortage” in their rear-view mirrors.?

Recently, in Opportunity@Work’s Opportunity Wrap, Cheston McGuire shares insights into how - as we recover - programs that connect STARs with jobs will create a better and more inclusive labor market, how hiring STARs is a “promising start” to addressing "labor shortages" and opening up opportunities, and how some employers are dedicating efforts to hire STARs.

• Citing the latest research on STARs, Opportunity@Work’s Shad Ahmed and Angela N. Briggs-Paige, CMBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CDR, share in SHRM’s People + Strategy Journal that, “As the country navigates the road to economic recovery, now is our opportunity to build a world of work that truly values the skills of all workers and is more equitable than the one we had before the pandemic.” https://buff.ly/3tZhiCx
• The Washington Post’s Editorial Board lauds Maryland removing degree requirements and hiring STARs on Opportunity@Work’s skills-based talent platform, saying college is “not the only way to acquire skills and experience.” https://buff.ly/3J3ugDA
• Vanessa Fuhrmans and Kathryn Dill report in The Wall Street Journal that “the pandemic has helped catapult Americans in low-paying roles into more upwardly mobile careers.” Employers, like Okta, are taking notice and are dedicating efforts to hire those STARs. “We’re moving more to looking at motivation and skills and experience, not ‘What college did you go to?’” says Okta’s Rachele Zamani. https://buff.ly/3joostS?

Work is solving problems, and U.S. employers need a wider range of talent than ever to solve the problems ahead.? If the post-pandemic labor market is a puzzle to solve, the missing pieces have been hiding in plain sight, doing essential work, and delivering every day. #HireSTARs.

All the best,

Byron