The Looming Talent Gap: What You Can Do to Mitigate Its Impact On Your Company
Posted May 10th, 2010
Yes, it’s a sweet time to be a business owner or human resources manager right now when it comes to getting to pick and choose from the wealth of talent looking for work . With so many great people out of work as a result of cutbacks at their employers during the Great Recession, finding a talented, committed, skillful employee is almost as easy as just dipping a fishing line into small, well-stocked fishing pond.
But that will change. And sooner than you may think.
Talent Management reported in March the results of a survey conducted by StepStone Solutions. In the article, Talent Management stated that “[c]companies must put their people first in the recovery or risk experiencing deep talent erosion and sustained underperformance, StepStone Solutions warns businesses in a new report, titled Companies at the Crossroads.”
The article continues:
“According to a worldwide survey of senior managers, sponsored by StepStone, two years of cutbacks have undermined workplace trust. Combined with increasing demand for executive talent and a sharp drop in graduate recruitment, the survey found that companies without the right talent strategies risk developing a major skills shortage just when they need employees’ energy and commitment the most. The survey, undertaken in December 2009, covered more than 400 senior managers primarily in major corporations in the US, Europe and Asia- Pacific.
“Matthew Parker, group managing director at StepStone Solutions, said: ‘Right now, businesses are at a crossroads when it comes to their talent. They can either take steps to create, maintain and develop global talent pools, or ignore the warning signs from this survey and suffer a gradual talent erosion at all levels that will inevitably lead to underperformance.'”
So what can and should a business owner/HR manager do now to avoid a dearth of talent in the coming years? Here are some tips:
- Be prepared to pony up in increased salaries to attract and retain the best and the brightest. Know this going in, increase payrates quickly and you can keep and find the best first. If you wait to increase wages too long, you run the risk of having your candidate pool be filled with less-than-stellar candidates.
- Create a brand around your organization. A company that has the reputation of a great organization — think Microsoft, Google, Southwest Airlines, etc. — will have a much easier job attracting and keeping top talent
- Think about improving other aspects of your employees’ day-to-day working lives. Can you automate the tedious, hard or dangerous tasks on the job. Can you increase fringe benefits (go from two weeks of vacation a year to three or even four weeks). Make sure you offer employees great learning opportunities, whether it’s tuition reimbursement for college, on-site classes in net technology, or even management training for promising colleagues. Can you offer telecommuting options or become more flexible in your scheduling (worried less that employees clock in at certain hours and instead letting them do the work as they see fit, on their own schedule, so long as the work gets done by deadline)?
Finally, look to personnel firms such as Bayside Solutions for help in sourcing exceptional employees. As one of San Francisco’s premier staffing agencies, we know how to source and screen top employees for your firm. Contact us today; we look forward to serving you.
