To Close Global Talent Gaps, Look Beyond Traditional HR Solutions

Report Reveals Alternative Approaches to Meeting Shortfalls in Talent Supply

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Feb 11, 2015, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time in modern history, the working-age populations of mature economies are shrinking. As a result, employers will need to grapple with increasing talent gaps—instances when the number, quality, skills, or cost of available workers falls short of a company's needs. More importantly, according to a new report by The Conference Board, companies must expand their repertoire of responses to such gaps.

Buy, Build, Borrow, or None of the Above? New Options for Closing Global Talent Gaps examines Innovative approaches to overcoming talent gaps. Three corporate icons—General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and Southern California Edison—opened their doors to The Conference Board and provided concrete examples of challenges, solutions, and innovations engendered by the tightening supply of talent. Synthesizing these case studies, the report develops a conceptual framework that firms of all sizes, in all industries, can draw on.

"Faced with gaps between talent supply and demand, companies may have traditionally defaulted to a 'people' strategy," said Mary Young, author of the report and principal researcher of human capital at The Conference Board. "Human resource departments' solution set has been limited: to buy (hire), build (train and develop), borrow (use temps or consultants), or redeploy (move talent around). This HR tool kit may have been adequate at a time when talent was plentiful, but today's challenges demand new options, including some that don't involve talent."

The report identifies eight recommendations for addressing talent gaps. According to Young, HR executives and strategists must:

1. Engage a broad group of stakeholders to ensure that talent strategy is aligned with changes in the operating environment and business priorities. Leaping directly to talent solutions is unproductive if business leaders haven't agreed on what the organization must be able to do or deliver.

2. Continuously evaluate capabilities and talent—in that order. Focusing on capabilities broadens the range of potential solutions—acquiring another company or redesigning a work process could be more optimal than adding, training, or redeploying talent.

3. Tailor resourcing strategies to specific talent segments, jobs, and locations. HR strategists can't make truly optimal decisions without domain expertise, enterprise-level perspective, and knowledge of local markets.

4. Blend solutions. Industry leaders like GE blend the traditional strategies—buy, build, borrow, or deploy—into hybrids much more successful than any one approach on its own.

5. Invent new ones. Lockheed Martin, for instance, built an online talent community for US military members transitioning into civilian life. Future talent communities aimed at professionals with critical skills will help the company build relationships with external talent even before they're ready to look for a new job.

6. Use data and analytics to model the impacts of various options for closing talent gaps. Southern California Edison, for example, used industry-level data and analytics to corroborate its own workforce data and gain business leaders' support for its talent strategy.

7. Think about the entire talent ecosystem, rather than simply the talent the company owns today or wants to in the future. Joint ventures, crowdsourcing, and public contests with cash prizes may be better alternatives than "owning" talent.

8. Recognize when the best option isn't to buy, build, borrow, or redeploy talent, but "none of the above." Rather than acting as "order fillers" who dutifully deliver talent on demand, HR leaders can help shape business strategy by evaluating the demand and considering a full range of options, including those that don't involve talent. The "none of the above" solution isn't about HR 's failure to deliver; it's about HR acting as a business leader whose functional expertise is HR.

Join the conversation on social media: #TalentGaps

For complete details:
https://www.conference-board.org/closing-talent-gaps

Report: Buy, Build, Borrow, or None of the Above? New Options for Closing Global Talent Gaps

(Research Report R-1572-15-RR)
By Mary Young

About the Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

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