Take Control of the Skilled Talent Shortage

Global talent shortages already threaten organizations’ ability to execute strategies, but current demographic trends suggest the problem is only going to get worse. According to the 2012 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, 49% of U.S employers currently have difficulty filling mission-critical positions. Why? Employers say the primary cause is a lack of qualified candidates with the right expertise and skills. Based on current trends in population, education and labor demand, the McKinsey Global Institute projected that, by the year 2020, the labor market will be able to supply only 13% of global demand for workers with college or post-graduate education and only 15% of the developing world’s demand for workers with secondary education.

If talent acquisition leaders aren't frightened now, they should be

Without a steady supply of the right talent, organizations will be unable to grow and innovate as they have in the past. The C-Suite is interested in a stable, secure and skilled workforce, not excuses. Meanwhile, the challenges you face on your team and in your organization are growing every day. In the past, strategic but less than urgent improvements could be ignored or put on the back burner while you worked on the task at hand –recruiting exceptional candidates. However, these chinks in your armor will wait no longer. In addition to the growing talent shortages, many recruiting functions are hamstrung by under-performing team structures, failed social media efforts, subjective selection processes, rudimentary workforce planning and, perhaps worst of all, most lack the ability to collect and analyze data that would enable them to improve any of these other areas.

A vicious cycle

All of these factors have conspired to create a vicious cycle where talent acquisition leaders struggle to recruit top talent because they lack a strategic approach, but they are unable to focus on strategic issues because they spend so much time struggling to fill requisitions. Even though strategies like strategic workforce planning, social media campaigns and employer branding can greatly improve talent acquisition performance, starting them blind is time consuming and counter-productive.
Talent acquisition leaders cannot expect to overcome these internal and external challenges with minor adjustments to the traditional recruiting model.

Organizations must learn how to “look around the corners” and identify the talent segments that will be crucial to their future. Then talent acquisition leaders must find unconventional, aggressive methods of sourcing, branding, and screening to surgically target and hire that talent. Candidates are behaving like consumers and recruiters need to start behaving like sales and marketing professionals by understanding their audience and finding them proactively. For work that is less crucial or where talent is incredibly scarce, talent acquisition must strategically leverage internal candidates and non-traditional talent pools such as corporate partners, open-source networks, consultants, and contingent labor to fulfill their organizations’ talent needs on time.

Find and keep the right talent

However, surviving massive talent shortages is not only about finding creative ways of bringing the right talent into the organization; it’s also about keeping the right talent. Though employee retention may not seem like talent acquisition’s forte, assessing candidates’ cultural fit and their performance potential before extending an offer will prevent much unwanted attrition later. Additionally, recruiters can bolster retention by actively sourcing internal candidates to fill open positions. To take on this active role in talent retention, talent acquisition leaders must collaborate with line management and the organizational development function to identify which employees to consider for open positions and analyze talent data to create profiles of measurable characteristics that predict long term performance.

Repeating the same recruiting strategies again and again won’t solve these issues. Leaders must strategically select and apply a limited number of methods, technologies, and branding strategies while expanding the scope of traditional sourcing operations. They must accept and embrace the fact that the talent acquisition function must become more than just recruiting.

This conference will focus on the following key areas:

Upgrade Your Recruiting Arsenal

•     mSite Versus App: Which is Right for Your Organization?
•     Use the Physical World to Drive Candidates into Your Virtual World
•     Understand the Audience Before Developing Your Employer Brand
•     Stay True to Your Brand While Aggressively Recruiting Passive Candidates
•     Torn Between Candidates? Conduct Candidate Psychological and Behavioral Assessments and Predict Performance

Next level Sourcing: Build, Borrow and Beyond

•     The Internal Talent Pool: Is Hard to Find Talent Already Under Your Nose?
•     Eliminate the Guesswork: When to Outsource or Use Contingent Labor
•     DIY: Partner With OD to Build Your Own Talent

Talent Acquisition Driven Analytics and Function Design

•     Gain Insightful Candidate Data From Social Media
•     Design and Implement Systems to Improve TA Performance
•     Measure Potential Top Performers by Their EI Competency
•     How Talent Acquisition Can Drive Workforce Planning
•     The Unspoken Link Between Quality of Hire and Retention

Join us for three days of extreme thought leadership from speakers who have experienced the same challenges as you, and conquered them. Cutting edge, yet actionable case studies, peer to peer networking, and going home with a collection of strategies and new partnerships is what our event attendees expect from HCI – This event will not only deliver on these promises but go beyond expectations.

To reserve your seat please contact Shane Lennon anytime at 866.538.1909 x1904. For speaker submissions and inquiries please contact Amanda Lewis. For sponsorship questions or opportunities, please contact Barry Upbin at 954.530.2747.