Fight skills shortages by tapping into different talent markets

Organisations can get through ongoing skills and talent shortages by broadening their horizons and tapping into previously overlooked talent markets.

One business leader who has seen the potential of unconventional talent pools is Lauren Karan, director at Karan and Co.

“My recruitment coordinator has been with us a year, ran a cleaning business, nothing at all to do with recruitment. But the fundamental skills around customer service, multitasking various clients at the same time, and also understanding commerciality and that foundations of the operations that are involved in a business and bloody working hard, she had that right,” said Ms Karan.

“She just needed someone to train her. So, it’s about when you’re going through the role, having a look at different markets that you can tap into.”

There are plenty of workers out there who are skilled, yet require a job with flexibility and shorter hours. These workers are a great addition, said Ms Karan, as you’re still able to access skilled workers who can bring expertise to a role, even if only for a few days a week.

“One of our team members works two days a week from home. She had been looking for a role for a year, couldn’t find a role, but just wanted to work remotely two days a week. And you’ll have a lot of mums out there that want school hours, that want remote work, that want that sort of flexibility,” said Ms Karan.

“The other is freelancers. Sometimes freelancers want two or three days a week to supplement an income so that they’ve got a regular income coming in.”

An often-overlooked group that can bring years of experience to a position are retirees. As recently discussed by HR Leader, 58 per cent of Australian organisations have hired a retiree in the past year.

Ms Karan continued: “We also know for a fact that we’ve got an ageing population. So, looking at people gearing towards retirement, can you again offer the role on two or three days a week and split the role? Maybe you get someone up and coming that’s 80 per cent of the time and have them for a couple of days.”

“Or hire somebody who is heading towards retirement but wants to do three days and mentor them. Really thinking outside the box in the way that you can fill these roles is what’s going to be the difference between organisations that thrive during a skill shortage.”

Being smart about hiring decisions and thinking outside the box can pull companies through tough times. Ms Karan believes skills shortages could be reduced dramatically if more organisations thought this way.

“I don’t think it’s just that we can’t find people. I think it’s that companies need to adapt,” she explained.

“The only thing we know that is constant is change. So, if you’re not changing the way you hire and you’re not hiring smarter, then you’re going to get left behind.”