Management opportunities report: Right Management
A new approach for easing the talent mismatch is required, one that aligns skills with a strong business strategy, writes Lillian Bissett.
This recession has cast a new light on talent supply and management around the world. Unemployment is persistently high in developed and even in many developing countries, yet organisations worldwide report difficulty filling key positions. The immediate problem is not the number of potential candidates, rather it's a talent mismatch and there are not enough skilled people in the right places at the right times.
The 2010 Talent Shortage Survey reveals that the top 10 jobs employers have difficulty filling worldwide include: skilled trades, sales reps, technicians, engineers, accounting and finance, production operators, administrative staff, executives, drivers and labourers. Simultaneously, employers are seeking ever more specific skillsets and combinations of skills - not just technical capabilities alone, but perhaps in combination with critical thinking skills or other qualities that will help drive the organisation forward. As a result, the right person for a particular job is becoming much harder to find.
Furthermore, employers facing ongoing systemic talent shortages - such as those in the healthcare and energy industries - are not going to fill the gaps one hire at a time.
Instead, they must recalibrate their mindsets to consider candidates who may not meet all of the job specifications but whose capability gaps can be filled in a timely and cost effective way. Training is vital. A commitment to reskilling and up-skilling will enable organisations to expand the available pools of talent, ensure that their workforces continue to be appropriately skilled and keep employees engaged in their work.
The key to success with this mindset is the ability to identify a "developable fit" which is a concept that focuses on four questions: What capabilities are essential to performing the job? Which of these are teachable in an efficient way? Are there adequate time and money to develop these capabilities? Does the candidate have the capacity to develop them?
Smart organisations are already adopting this approach but, typically, in a limited and non-systematic way. As economies recover and more baby boomers retire, the challenges of building a sustainable talent pipeline are only going to increase.
The global unemployment rate rose to 6.6% in 2009, jumping to 8.4% in the developed economies and the European Union, and 12.5% in Ireland. Despite recent positive economic signals, many labour markets around the globe have yet to gain real traction. Right Management and Manpower's 2010 Talent Shortage Survey shows that 31% of employers worldwide report difficulty filling key positions, slightly up from 2009.
Employers having the most difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs are those in Japan (76%), Brazil (64%), Argentina and Singapore (53%) and Poland (51%). At the same time, millions of jobs are currently unfilled across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. Indeed, the global demand for highly skilled labour continues to grow, and the skills distribution of available workers can't easily match that demand.
Developable fit
Individuals respond differently to training, depending not only on their existing skills but on their ability and desire to learn. How can employers efficiently and effectively close the gap between their needs and the abilities of candidates and employees?
This is where the concept of developable fit comes in. When employers can't find candidates with the full range of skills needed for particular positions, they can recruit candidates, perhaps from outside their industries, who possess adjacent skills with an eye toward filling the gaps in their capabilities. The important point here is to understand how fillable those gaps are - both in terms of technical skills and candidate mindsets - and at what cost.
Developable fit is a practical framework that can predict how successfully a candidate's skills gaps can be filled. It can help employers understand their talent needs better and make training and development investments that are more likely to pay off.
The framework is an analytical tool that maps the capabilities needed for a role against an individual's likelihood of meeting those needs. The capabilities are divided into four groups:
Knowledge: Formal or explicit knowledge comes through study and is confirmed by academic degrees and business certifications. Informal knowledge comes through experience and association with knowledgeable colleagues. The key is to recognise the importance of tacit knowledge and the means of attaining it.
Skills: Including both hard skills (technical or administrative skills) and soft skills (conflict resolution or strategic thinking). Hard skills can be confirmed by certification or apprenticeship. It is vital to recognise the importance of soft skills, rather than only focusing on assessments on easy-to-measure hard skills.
Values and mindset: Represent what an individual seeks in life and on the job. These are revealed through both conversation and behaviour and are relatively difficult to shape. Some jobs require more day-in-day-out initiative and self-management than others. Some jobs depend on more continuous learning and adaptation. The key is to recognise these traits when defining the job requirements.
Personality and intelligence: Some people are naturally outgoing and thus natural fits for customer service roles. Some roles rely heavily on analytical intelligence, others on synthesis or creativity, others on emotional intelligence and many on combinations of the above. Again, the idea is to be as precise as possible about what a job or role calls for, in terms of these traits.
Lillian Bissett is managing director of Right Management, www.right.com
