How employers are adapting to the 'new normal' of talent recruitment
Employers are having the hardest time finding skilled trade workers, sales representatives and drivers.
It’s not just employees who are navigating a changed employment market. Employers are too, with three different challenges demanding their attention: high shortages in talent, low unemployment and a rising demand for hard and soft skills.
That’s according to the ManpowerGroup 2018 Talent Shortage Survey, which finds that 46 percent of U.S. employers say they’re having a tough time filling vacancies. They have the hardest time finding skilled trade workers, sales representatives and drivers.
Related: Talent shortage has employers rethinking recruitment tactics
Among the jobs that require training but not necessarily a four-year degree, mid-skilled positions dominate: electricians, for instance, as well as welders and mechanics. Among respondent companies, more than half indicate that they’re investing in learning platforms and development tools to build their talent pipeline. That’s an increase of 7 percent from 2016.
In addition, 19 percent of employers are also changing their existing work models, including offering flexible work arrangements.
Despite low unemployment, the fringes of the market are filled with millions of workers. And employers are turning to those fringes after lack of success in finding people with the mix of skills and experience they’re looking for. They’re not just hiring from among them, but 40 percent are also seeking out different talent pools to find some of the skills they need;: some of those pools are made up of boomerang retirees or the long-term unemployed, as well as returning parents and part-timers.
“We continue to see increasing demand for skilled workers across all sectors of the U.S. economy from transport and trade to manufacturing and sales,” Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup North America, is quoted saying.
Frankiewicz adds, “Employers cannot find the people they need with the right blend of technical skills and human strengths and the problem won’t fix itself. It’s time for a new approach to attract, recruit and retain talent. Employers need to buy skills where necessary, borrow from external sources and help people with adjacent skills bridge from one role to another. Above all, we need to be builders of talent, rather than consumers of work to create a workforce with the skills companies and individuals need to thrive today and tomorrow.”
To combat talent shortages that ManpowerGroup says are the highest in 12 years, it recommends that four-step approach: build (invest in talent and training), buy (offer sufficient cash to bring in good candidates from outside the company when there’s no time to train), borrow (look at part-time, freelance, contract and temporary workers to fill vacancies) and bridge (support worker mobility within and outside of the organization).