How L&D Can Help Employers Win The Talent War

Unless you have been hiding out on another planet for the last few years, you as a HR or training professional will be well aware of the global talent war.  The Manpower group surveys tells us that 34% of employers are having difficulty hiring qualified staff with the correct skills to fill open positions. In the US, talent shortages are more severe with 49% of employers facing skills shortages and worse still in Brazil, with 71% of employers facing talent shortages.
As well as this, we are seeing world-wide talent shortages in the STEM disciplines (Science Technology Engineering and Manufacturing), and we are seeing the return of apprenticeships in many countries as they look to train their talent, since they can’t hire them.

This brings us nicely to the subject of this blog which is that in the current climate where there is a shortage of qualified talent in the marketplace, employers may need to relax their job requirements and hire under-qualified staff on the understanding that they be groomed and developed into superstars of the future. It seems that employers who can hire and develop high potential, learning agile staff may have an edge over the competition in the talent war.

This strategy of hiring under-qualified, but high potential learning agile staff and grooming them into stars can only really work effectively in a ‘learning organization’, that is, an employment environment which actively supports the development of staff.

This means that training and HR professionals have a huge part to play in making this strategy work. This starts with making sure that an effective on-boarding program is in place which correctly orientates the new hire and makes sure that the under-qualified staff are provided with well formed developmental goals which can help to guide the employees progress into a fully competent, value added superstar. The on-boarding program may need to be extended to 6 or even 12 months in order to more effectively manage the intense development activity that needs to occur to turn the under-qualified recruit into a star.

And within this development period, HR and training need to provide opportunities for both self directed and tutor led learning to help the under-qualified employees transition into a superstar.

As we can see the talent shortages provide a massive opportunity for the training and development profession to step in and take high potential, but under-qualified talent from the market place and develop them into a great talent.