Demographic projections show that we’ll be facing a significant talent gap of workers with specialized knowledge this decade. We are no longer talking about emerging trends, we’re talking about the issues that are beginning to impact organizations here and now.

By 2020, countries such as the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, France and Italy will see the largest reductions in their workforce, and the shortage of highly educated professionals in technical roles will be part of a shrinking supply globally. These shortages are occurring globally for two simple reasons—decreased procreation and increased skill gaps.

People are having fewer babies causing the population shrinkage, and there are fewer people with the necessary education and training to meet increasing skill demands.

These converging global trends provide the single most compelling reason for each and every business leader to have a robust and measurable diversity and inclusion business strategy: no business will have the necessary talent to meet demand without it.

The business realities of what these shortages mean will even overshadow existing cultural dynamics within organizations. Previous cultural norms that may have created barriers for women, immigrants and others will begin to break down out of necessity.

In fact, many external factors—including demographic change, globalization, technology, and the rise of the knowledge worker—are already taking their toll and forcing organizations to be proactive about talent supply issues.

All large organizations, no matter where they operate across the world, will need to learn how to attract and retain workers from more diverse backgrounds if they are to obtain enough of the skills and talent they need to survive, let alone thrive. Of course, this means tapping into ethnically diverse groups from all over the world and improving the gender balance at senior levels, but it also means attracting those employees who:

- want flexible, project-based work;
- located away from the ‘work’ and cannot commute/relocate;
- either older or younger than the ‘typical’ profile for a role;
- reflect different religious, lifestyle or other cultural traditions;
- display the desired attributes and potential, but not necessarily the desired experience; or
- may be members of the disabled community but have the necessary skills for the roles.

Attracting diverse workforces requires us to think about diverse ways of working, and this means leadership practices must adapt to accommodate and embrace them. First, leaders must begin to understand just how competitive the shrinking talent market is. Second, leadership teams must embrace different work-styles in innovative and intelligent ways that improve (rather than hinder) productivity.

Diversity is about survival, but it’s also about new employment practices, not just new kinds of employees.

This post is part of the white paper, Talent in the 21st Century. You can download a free copy here.