untapped talent sources

Oct 31

What’s on tap?

These days, organizations are continually thinking through new ways to find high-quality talent. Everyone is feeling the heat of being in a talent bidding war with competitors. And even if you attract the talent, retaining it is another challenge, as competitors will try to hire it away at their first opportunity. Poaching talent from competitors is not a talent strategy, but too many organizations are relying on it as their sole means to build teams. It’s time for this to change. In my post “it’s time for a revolution,” I talk about how HR has an opportunity to design new work models to address the growing skills gap. Organizations that successfully design and embrace these new work models can open up a number of new talent sources. Allow me to explain.

Obstacle course

According to a survey of 9,700 full-time employees in eight of the world’s largest economies, flexibility is one of the top things employees are looking for in a potential job, after competitive pay and benefits (EY, 2015). While companies are embracing more flexible options (like Amazon’s 30 hour work week), we are still just scratching the surface in this area. Another recent study by Deloitte concluded that millennials believe flexible working conditions and improved work/life integration are the key changes organizations need to make to improve retention.

The lack of flexibility has impact. Many talented people have no choice but to leave the regular workforce to take care of other important things in their lives— children, parents, or even other interests that they want to pursue. A 2014 poll of nonworking adults ages 25 to 54 found that 61% of women and 37% of men said that family responsibilities were keeping them home (New York Times, CBS News, and the Kaiser Family Foundation).

Honestly, this is the organization’s fault for creating an environment that forces people to choose between their personal lives and their careers. How can we accommodate this talent while still allowing them to be present in their personal lives?

I have met a few companies trying to address this issue in unique ways. They have identified highly skilled talent who left the traditional workforce because of other circumstances. These are talented people with valuable skillsets and experience. They want to find a permanent solution that helps them achieve the balance they need to take care of all of their commitments. Organizations that can create an environment for this talent to succeed will gain a competitive advantage.

Plot a return

But let’s be realistic. People who have been out of the workforce for more than a few years are likely to be a bit rusty and may not have the confidence to jump back in. What can be done to ensure that this high-quality talent will re-adapt quickly to the workforce?

I recently came across a non-profit organization called Path Forward that helps organizations create 18-week paid “returnships” to help mid-career professionals return to the workplace after being caregivers. This program gives employees time to adapt to returning to work and gives the organization time to assess talent which helps mitigate risk on both sides. While this is still in its early stages, thus far the metrics are encouraging, with nearly 80% of participants continuing on with the organization after the 18-week returnship. (Fortune, 2016) But even if the returning professional ends up taking an opportunity at another organization eventually, he or she won’t forget the organization that provided a helping hand. An organization that makes this initial investment will likely find a great source of talent and will create tremendous goodwill in the talent marketplace.

No two people are the same

An estimated 80% of people on the Autism spectrum are unemployed. A large number of these people are fully capable of holding down full-time jobs. In addition, many people on the spectrum have outstanding technology and science skills that are in high demand. Yet these candidates get passed over at the initial screening because their social skills are a bit different from what we traditionally expect. Again, this is our loss.

Fortunately, savvy organizations are starting to realize that this is a missed opportunity. Managers adjust their styles to accommodate a variety of different personalities. Why would talent on the autism spectrum be any different? Organizations that make the time to train managers and teams so that those diagnosed with autism can also be successful in their environments will have a huge advantage.

Microsoft and SAP are two organizations tapping into this talent source. They’ve adjusted their candidate assessment techniques to create environments in which they can truly determine the skillsets of these unique individuals. While the numbers hired have been kept low to ensure these candidates can be successful over the long-term, thus far the results have been very positive. So this is another great talent source that has a lot of potential in the long run while helping to achieve an inclusive workforce.

A homerun

For firms to truly embrace these new sources of talent, they will have to re-think their talent assessment process and invest money and time to ensure they have the right environment for these individuals to succeed. Clear guidelines and expectations need to be established to ensure that these programs are successful. Given the statistics and the skills gap, this can’t be a “somewhere down the road” idea. It must be a focused initiative with the goal of quickly supporting these new sources of talent.