In the Race for Talent, Speed isn’t the Only Answer

The competition for talent continues to heat up as employees across the globe look for opportunities with greater flexibility, increased pay, and a better overall culture at work. According to a 2021 study by EY, 43% of workers say they’re likely to leave their employer in the next year while another study found that 45% of companies currently do not have enough skilled workers.?

Taken together, these two statistics tell a story that is all too familiar: many companies are losing talent, and in many cases these same companies are having a difficult time in attracting the right talent to fill skills gaps. These glaring gaps have created a race for talent that is being run by almost every organization across the globe. And if I know anything about racing, the competition is not always won by the fastest sprinter. ?

You may not know this about me, but I used to be a superstar runner in high school cross country. And when I say superstar, I mean I was on the team for about a month (but I only quit because the coach was awful!) What I do know from my one month of glory is the runner?who most often wins is not the one that simply has the top speed, but rather they are the one who?has done the best job in planning every aspect of the race from start to finish – from the equipment they use to the food they put in their body, everything must be planned.?

The same can be said about our current race for talent. The organizations who will come out of this race successfully will be the ones with a holistic approach, considering every experience from start to finish. ?

The first step in recruiting is job design?

As digitalization increases demand for specialized skills and demographics shrink the relative size of the labor pool, there is far more competition among companies to find and hire qualified candidates. As a result, the most important staffing decision is often not which candidates the company decides to hire. It is which company the candidates decide to work for.? As my colleague Steve Hunt wrote in his new book Talent Tectonics , “The reasons people join organizations are not the same reasons organizations hire people. Organizations employ people to achieve business outcomes. People join organizations to improve the quality of their lives.” Candidates do not apply to jobs to fill positions. They apply to jobs to fulfill career goals and obtain resources that support their needs outside of work.??

Selecting good candidates still matters, but increasingly the main challenge is finding qualified candidates and getting them to apply. This includes viewing existing employees and contractors as potential sources of talent, and staffing positions using short-term assignments and ad hoc teams. It is also about designing jobs to be inclusive to all people.? For example, one of the positive outcomes of the move to hybrid work is a massive increase in the employment of people with disabilities for whom the outdated requirement that people must always commute every day often put jobs out of their reach that they were otherwise well-suited to perform (check out this article from Forbes for more).?

A Best-in-Class Recruitment and Onboarding Process Will Help Fill Roles?

Two of the most important moments that matter in the new hire journey are the recruiting process and the new hire onboarding experience. Standard recruiting processes enable companies to efficiently post jobs, source and qualify candidates, and manage and engage applicants through the hiring process. But settling for standard simply is not enough in this great race for talent.?

When I applied for my first job, I typed up my resume on my typewriter (I didn’t get my first word processor until much later) and faxed it in the same day. Of course, the interview was done in-person in the dimly lit office of the intimidating hiring manager. The idea of having a virtual interview over something like Zoom was something out of a science fiction book at that point.?To say that this experience has drastically changed since then is an obvious understatement. The most successful recruiting tools today allow candidates to go through the screening process using cutting edge AI.??

I remember it used to take weeks to hear back from an employer. Top companies today understand that candidates value their time and want feedback in real time. In a recent conversation with Paradox, I was told that the time taken for them to respond to a qualified candidate went from nearly 2 weeks to under 2 minutes using chatbot AI technology and instant messaging.?

Just as candidates want feedback in real time, so should your organization. The SAP Qualtrics Candidate Experience allows you to collect feedback at every moment that matters during the candidate journey, and identify which actions drive the biggest improvements in the talent acquisition and hiring process.?

The new hire onboarding experience is just as pivotal as the recruiting process. A ‘good’ onboarding experience will provide process automation tools to quickly get your newly hired employees engaged and productive in their roles including tools to help them build connections with co-workers, get necessary equipment, and complete job relevant training. However, an excellent onboarding experience is one that makes your new hire feel supported, cared for, and part of the team. To deliver this, your onboarding tool should offer a seamless and unified experience, allow your new hires to provide instant feedback, and provide a simplified, responsive UI. And it just so happens that SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding checks all these boxes! ?

A Focus on Internal Mobility is Just as Pivotal as the New Hire Process?

Of course, looking for excellent external talent is not the only tried and true method to fill the open roles within your organization. Most of the time, the right person for the job comes from within – but how do we ensure we have a steady pool of internal talent??

Having the right tools in place to?upskill and reskill your workforce is a non-negotiable. Organizations need to offer opportunities to empower their employees to create a career that is truly their own and match the right learning opportunities to the right people. This should include a central hub that gives access to multiple opportunity types, including learning courses and activities, roles, assignments, gig work, mentor programs and role recommendations so employees can pursue development opportunities they value most. This helps foster curiosity and action to uplift skills and drive high impact and high contribution careers.??

People?have to?learn to fulfill their job requirements.?But when learners identify a?job?they want, or a new project that requires a new skill or level of mastery, these are skills they want to learn.?Skills-driven learning is an important part of matching the right learning opportunities to the right people.???

Development and Succession Planning are just as important for bolstering internal talent as your learning tools. Solutions like SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace provide access to internal opportunities across the organization. It supports internal mobility, which leads to increased employee retention – helping you avoid replacement and recruitment costs that are incurred when people leave. Opportunity Marketplace?even has a search feature that allows employees to explore personalized recommendations for new learning courses, assignments, or open roles. It helps to create a culture focused on development and growth while gaining deep insight into your workers’ skills and capabilities.??

What’s the Takeaway??

As Dr. Hunt says, the most important decision companies make about people is the decision to hire them. However, growing demands for skilled employees caused by digitalization, combined with shrinking labor markets caused by declining birth rates, are making it increasingly difficult to find and keep talent. Like almost all things in life, the most important thing your organization can have in this talent crisis is a plan. Start with job design as this is the very first step in getting your organization ready to attract the talent you need today and in the future. Delivering best-in-class recruiting and onboarding experiences for your new hires should be a top priority, not a nice to have. And finally, remember that in most cases the right talent was under your nose the whole time. Take another look at the tools and solutions you have in place that help develop and upskill your people while identifying and matching them to the right roles for them internally. ?

The competition?for talent is continuing to heat up. Having the right plan in place, with a little help from some excellent HXM solutions, I know you can win the race!?