beating the talent shortage

As economies restructure themselves in the face of disruption, and the ageing population thins out the labour market, talent shortages will only become more severe. But there’s plenty you can do to put your business ahead of the game.

Only those businesses with an outstanding employer brand, strategically aligned talent management systems and highly-functional web advertising strategies and technologies will thrive in the new labour market environment.

Unemployment in Australia is as low as it has ever been. The massive wave of retirement of baby boomers has already begun and will gather pace for the next 15 years. Other territories, such as the UK, USA, Singapore and Hong Kong, are suffering the same fate, and as a result, are looking to our market to fill their talent requirements. HR professionals will need to be on the ball to supply their organisation with the talent needed to thrive.

How do you gain a competitive advantage in such an environment?
1) Encourage people to work longer
Mature workers, research shows us, are happy to continue to work. But the ageism they suffer in organisations and the policies and processes developed for a younger generation mean they find it difficult to work on their own terms.

2) Reach out to young people
Look beyond a lack of experience and consider the well-developed technological, networking and collaboration skills of the younger generation. Then train, train and train some more.

3) Broaden the talent pool by introducing flexibility
Female work participation in Australia is still lagging behind territories such as Canada and New Zealand. Flexible work practices are all that is required to dramatically broaden your talent pool. The more than two million Australians (aged 16 to 64) who have disabilities are another regularly overlooked talent pool.

4) Develop sophisticated offshoring approaches
A lot of the initial offshore movement of talent focused on low added-value work such as assembly and payroll. Recent years have seen considerable moves up the value chain into areas such as financial reporting, analytics and design.

Upgrade your HR processes
• Make meaningful, inclusive workforce planning a priority. 
• Use a mix of enabling tools, systems and strategies to attract, develop and retain a mobile workforce. 
• Outsource to experts in strategic planning, talent mapping and talent management.
• Utilise talent analytics to understand behavioural patterns and desires of top professionals.
• Start small when it comes to talent analytics. Choose one human capital problem and determine how employee data within your organisation can help solve it.

Tips for effective online job advertising
• Prioritise the functionality of your site. Simplify its presentation and ensure fully responsive presentation for hand-held browsing.
• Use behavioural targeting to reduce user effort, presenting them with relevant jobs according to their past searches, as Randstad does.
• Realise that user experience creates an expectation of future experience for your users. If you want candidates to return, you have to get it right the first time.

A Randstad recruitment consultant has the networks and expertise to find quality talent that's a good fit for your organisation. Speak to a consultant to find out how they can help.