With worker shortages continuing to be as hot a topic as ever, particularly for skilled technical roles, we’re taking a look at talent acquisition after a year of navigating what LinkedIn has dubbed the #GreatReshuffle. 

 Rising Demand and Limited Supply 

 In a world where talent acquisition specialists themselves are sought-after, if we take a look at LinkedIn’s 2022 review (also linked above) of what roles are the most in demand, it certainly reflects what we’ve seen in practice when working with clients.  

• Technical resources are listed repeatedly, with Salesforce specialists alone being mentioned several times, under several roles.  

 It’s clear with the continued push for organizations, particularly service organizations, to digitize and expand their customer facing service options—and the fact that we’re still riding a wave of continual disruption—that the need for technical resources will certainly be an issue that keeps trending upwards:  

• And highly skilled technical resources will be even more difficult to obtain. 

With more open positions for talent comes more opportunities for those with marketable skills, and more competition for organizations needing to fill those skill gaps.  

Addressing Talent Acquisition Road Blocks  

We’ve put out a lot of thought leadership when it comes to talent acquisition, but from a hiring perspective, 2 of the major issues organizations face when it comes to acquiring and retaining talent are: 

1. Not putting the right candidate, with the right skills, in the right position for your specific organization. 

In a recent article by Inc. Magazine, the top reasons listed for the rise in talent shortages and turnover rates all reflect the high desirability of the right-fit, skilled worker. Organizations all have salary caps and limitations when it comes to hiring, so how do we deal with the issues listed? 

• Assess whether or not you need a skilled resource full time, long-term, short-term, or on an as needed basis—due to the cost of role ownership. 

• Technically skilled resources can be costly, so ask yourself how critical it is that you own this skill set. 

• If this is a skill your organization needs in the long term, bringing in talent short-term or as needed to assist in training, mentorship, knowledge transfer, etc. for existing staff—can cut long term costs while filling a long-term need.

• Most, if not all organizations have existing talent with untapped potential, that’s already a great fit for your company;  
• And aside from the organizational benefits, learning new skills is high on the list of what employees are looking for. 

• Getting help identifying and skilling up those resources—as well as the actual skill gaps you should be focusing on, will help with spend in both the short and long-term.

1. The people doing the hiring do not have the proper technical experience and knowledge to assess whether or not the candidate knows what they’re doing, and is a good fit for the role. 

Wanting a skilled resource and ending up with someone who is very good at pretending to be one is a nightmare scenario that is becoming more and more common.  

Online hiring, and remote work and management is incredibly common place now, which makes it very difficult to properly vet skilled candidates. Moreover, making sure what they’re delivering is up to standards is nearly impossible if you don’t have the experience and knowledge of doing it yourself.  

• Again, in this situation we always urge clients to either let us do the screening and management for them with our own skilled resources; 

• Or invest in their people with training; it raises job satisfaction and retention rates, while mitigating the expenditure of hiring and onboarding resources that may not be a good fit.  

Still Feeling Stressed? 

 We’re here with advice to give your organization some direction. Contact us.