There’s No Magic Solution or Silver Bullet to Solve The Talent Shortage

Dear Recruiters:

For all the attention (and resources) recruiting and hiring leaders have dedicated these past few years towards eliminating bias, a disproportionate amount of the content and conversation in our industry so far this year suffers from one of the most pernicious, and pervasive, of all cognitive biases: the availability heuristic.
 

This basically means that we are overly reliant on immediate examples in framing our perceptions and influencing our decisions, which might be one of the reasons that so many of us in the talent acquisition industry view the current labor market with a mix of cynicism and existential dread.

This makes sense, since news of mass layoffs, hiring freezes and headcount reductions have largely dominated the headlines these past few weeks; from Meta to Amazon, from Google to Microsoft, it seems not a day goes by without another high-profile, blue chip brand announcing another round of RIFs or reorgs.

But the fact of the matter is that, despite the 106,000 layoffs in the tech industry so far in 2023, and the disproportionate number of recruiters impacted as a result (about half of all internal tech recruiters have been laid off in 2023, according to a recent report), we’re still in the midst of a historically robust labor economy, with unemployment at near record lows, and job creation - against all expectations - continuing to grow month after month.

In February, for instance, the US economy added 311,000 new jobs, and 87% of HR leaders reported having a positive outlook on hiring, despite layoffs and economic uncertainty, according to another recent study. This may be largely due to the fact that, even as the recessionary headwinds continue to swirl, American employers still have a staggering 10 million (that’s million, with an “m”) open jobs they’re unable to fill according to recent BLS estimates.

The truth is, FAANG companies and Silicon Valley scaleups aside, recruiters and employers are still struggling to fill open positions, and it’s no secret that a shortage of available talent remains the chief culprit, an endemic problem that’s gotten increasingly acute in the post-pandemic recovery.

Even as economic growth seems to be slowing, and companies become more and more cautious with their cash, job seekers continue to have the upper hand - an imbalance of power that a recent LinkedIn poll showed recruiting leaders expect to last for a minimum of 5 years, or about twice as long as the average US worker tenure today.

Solving the talent shortage, then, remains one of the most critical, and crucial, challenges facing talent acquisition today.

Which is why this special issue of Talent Acquisition Excellence is all about what real companies, and real recruiters, can really do to help bridge the skills gap and survive - and thrive - despite the dramatic imbalance between available talent and mission critical work. The future of both the TA profession, and, more importantly, the entire global economy, depends on finding sustainable, scalable solutions to this most pressing and pervasive of people problems.

So, what's the answer to the talent shortage? Honestly, like everything else in recruiting, there’s no magic solution nor silver bullet. But as this month’s issue of TA Excellence shows, we do know that companies need to start thinking creatively and holistically about their hiring practices.

We need a fundamental shift in how we think about and approach talent, which is why in these pages, some of the industry’s most influential thinkers and impactful leaders lay out some of the ways that companies can roll up their sleeves, get to work and finally solve the talent shortage - and, optimally, reinvent recruiting in the process. Or, at least, make filling reqs just a little easier, and building pipelines and talent pools suck just a little less.

After all, in recruiting these days, that’s about all you can ask for.

Happy hiring!

Matt Charney
Editor in Chief