Direct sourcing involves leveraging the employer brand to create internal and external talent pools to source candidates. Either the employer company itself or the third-party provider can manage the talent pool.
Developed economies around the world (with the exception of Spain’s) are facing generational low levels of unemployment. While that’s good news for workers, it’s a serious talent deficit problem for employers. How bad is it?
In 2018, the number of unemployed persons per job opening in the U.S. fell below the benchmark of one. In plain speak, that means there are more job openings out there than the number of relevant available people to fill them.
And the Beveridge curve tells essentially the same story in Europe.
Against this backdrop, I was very interested in hearing what solutions and ideas were presented at NTT DATA’s “Captaining the Talent” Summit in Lisbon last month. (Full disclosure – NTT DATA arranged my travel for the event.) The event featured a range of speakers from all walks of life – from the former captain of New Zealand’s national rugby union team to British perfumer Jo Malone to TED Speaker and eminent neuroscientist Mariano Sigman.
The common thread among all the sessions was the question on every senior executive and leader’s mind: how to navigate the choppy waters in a talent-deficit world.
What we face today is a talent deficit of a unique nature. In the mature markets, there isn’t enough talent to go around, while the future of work in a global technology environment brings a significant reskilling/upskilling challenge for traditional offshore/nearshore geographies. The common underpinning theme is the irrevocable shift in the profile of people that work in this environment. Talent is changing across the life cycle – from sourcing to retention to relevance – requiring a rethink of traditional talent management practices. How we respond is going to create an irrevocable difference in the future of work.
There is a clear talent shortage in the US, and this is particularly true of specialized skills (engineering and IT), which are at the center of the competitiveness of the US economy. The current Administration is intensifying this skills shortage by restricting companies’ ability to import talent through H-1B visas. The unintended consequence of the Administration’s strategies to constrict offshore workers is that the skills shortage is forcing US companies to go back offshore for the necessary talent.
Read my article in Forbes
The Indian IT industry generates at least one lakh new jobs a year. But if you think that makes jobs readily available, the reality is different. That is because the industry, which employs more than four million people, has changed the way it hires. Basic skills are no longer in demand, and companies want candidates to be job-ready from day one.
Yugal Joshi, Vice President, Everest Group, a management consultancy, said, “Bench development is a loss to the provider as those resources aren’t billed but paid. As the digital disruption gains pace, it will be difficult to build bench anyways as the requisite skills won’t be available.”
Enterprise perspectives on the 2019 global services market: five things to know – automation, business models, talent challenges, budget centers, and sourcing models / provider mix
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