Employers worldwide report severe qualified talent shortage

Businesses worldwide are continuing to struggle to find qualified talent despite millions of candidates looking to re-enter the workforce, according to a new talent trends report. 

In fact, Randstad Sourceright’s 2021 Talent Trends Report reveals that 40% of human capital leaders report talent scarcity has negatively impacted their organisation, highlighting a desperate need for reskilling. The survey of 850 C-suite and human capital leaders in 17 markets across the world found that 40% of HR leaders continue to experience talent scarcity in IT, while 28% say they can’t find enough qualified candidates for HR roles. Additionally, nearly one in five need more finance and accounting specialists. 

GROWING SKILLS GAP

“2020 was certainly a tumultuous year, resulting in a global economic decline that led to millions of individuals losing their jobs. Yet despite this large talent pool of available workers, employers continue to face a growing skills gap – especially for digital skills – that has been exacerbated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mike Smith, Global CEO of Randstad Sourceright. “Employers will need to focus their attention on building a more robust talent pipeline and implementing reskilling programmes to gain a competitive edge as they recover from the pandemic.” 

To successfully build reskilling programmes and maximise their talent pipeline, Randstad Sourceright’s Talent Trends research found that many businesses are turning to talent analytics to better understand what is being spent on talent, how these resources are utilised and the availability of specific skills within their own organisation. Nearly one in five human capital leaders say they have started investing in talent analytics due to the pandemic; and 90% say they will continue to budget for talent analytics platforms even after the pandemic ends. 

TALENT ANALYTICS

According to Smith, talent analytics have always been of the utmost importance to talent leaders and will now play “an even more integral role in companies’ recovery efforts”. “As the global economy recovers and hiring increases to meet business demand, human capital leaders will play an essential role in providing their organisations with the in-depth data needed to build a robust talent acquisition strategy and help them compete for the best talent in an uncertain labour market,” he added.

Another critical component of post-pandemic recovery cited by human capital leaders is the creation of increasingly flexible workforces. Around 70% of employers said their workforce was just as productive or more productive while working from home. A further 64% of talent leaders said that offering flexible working arrangements will continue to be key to attracting top talent. 

KEY FINDINGS

Other key findings from the 2021 Talent Trends Report, include:

• Flexibility is key to talent attraction: In fact, 80% of employers say their business will consider some sort of permanent work-from-home policy.
• Productivity remains high: Nearly 70% of employers believe their workforce was just as productive or more productive working from home than prior to the pandemic. 
• Employers should play a role in reskilling: The majority of human capital leaders (92%) say companies should be responsible for reskilling employees, but a majority also believe the government (68%) and universities (65%) have to do more.
• Talent experience is more important now: Around 63% of employers believe the talent experience is now more important in a post-outbreak environment, and 75% of human capital leaders believe workers’ expectations of employers are continually increasing.
• Shift to more contingent talent: In 2017, 29% of businesses reported they had shifted permanent roles to temporary ones, but that number fell each subsequent year to 21% in 2020. In fact, 2021’s research shows expected conversions to temporary roles rose slightly to 22%.  

TALENT REIGNS SUPREME IN 2021

It’s no surprise then that talent reigns supreme this year, with recruiting and retaining the best and brightest remains the top priority for CEOs globally in 2021, according to the latest survey from The Conference Board, as reported. Check out the findings here.