Talent shortages are the new normal, so what can you do about it?

As the struggle to find right-fit job candidates continues for employers, a new report indicates that companies in the past year have increased compensation, added employee recognition programs, and invested in learning and development allowances in order to attract top talent.

The third annual Global Trends Report from HireVue — a global leader in video interviewing, assessments, and text-enabled recruiting tools — reveals these and other findings based on a survey of more than 4,000 “talent leaders” in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia across such industries as software, finance, and retail regarding how they’ve adjusted their hiring strategies.

Respondents also reported increasing technology budgets to improve hiring efficiency (30%) and a greater emphasis on internal mobility (50%), especially in sectors that experienced more hiring freezes (finance) or layoffs (software). Additionally, half of all respondents indicated that resignations at their company are higher than they were last year.

“The biggest change for talent teams today … is that many are faced with either too few candidates or too few resources to meet candidate demand — or in some cases, both,” notes the report’s authors, adding that “lack of quality candidates” was the No. 1 hiring challenges for respondents across all industries.

“This year’s survey confirms that we’re at an inflection point in global workforce trends, where demand for new skills is colliding with changing candidate demographics and expectations,” Anthony Reynolds, HireVue’s CEO, says in a statement. “The good news is that many job seekers are pausing searches to stay longer-term in careers at companies that will help them upskill, re-skill, and grow. Equally, employers are willing to fill new roles by retaining and investing in their current team members.”

Priority shifts

According to the 20-page report, employers faced with ongoing staffing shortages also are exploring alternatives to traditional hiring approaches — eschewing an over-reliance on resumes and adopting a skills-first approach to talent acquisition that forgoes education requirements and past work experience. To efficiently validate candidate skills, organizations are prioritizing hiring technology that can analyze a candidate’s profile beyond traditional criteria. Of the survey respondents, 58% leveraged standardized assessments, 32% implemented game-based assessments, and 40% added chatbots or text recruiting to their processes.

As a result, these changes have widened the talent pool and raised the quality of that pool by attracting a more diverse workforce; companies report targeting more diverse candidates (45%) and older workers (41%).

Read more: Skills-based hiring: The key to HR’s recruiting woes

“As we re-evaluate the trajectory talent teams are taking, there seems to be one overall consensus,” the report concludes. “In today’s world of continued uncertainty, the most successful hiring teams are the ones taking an agile hiring approach that focuses on skills and potential vs. just experience. … To move forward in an uncertain, constantly changing hiring environment, traditional practices must be pushed, challenged, and changed.”