The talent standoff
We’ve all seen the signs in the windows, cringeworthy and otherwise. We’ve experienced long wait times and interruptions and uncharacteristic mistakes. We’ve seen the stress and dread written on the faces of retail and restaurant workers as they desperately try to do their jobs; jobs that were never easy but are now near-impossible.
The window signs tell the story, or at least part of it. Businesses are currently understaffed and/or desperately hiring. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were over ten million positions open as of September 1st. Few workplaces can claim they haven’t been rocked by turnover in recent years – the service world, the medical world, the corporate world, you name it, their people have been quitting en masse to find something better.
Just about every employer has been quick to place blame on a so-called talent shortage, but that’s an unfortunate misreading at best and at worst a deliberate misrepresentation of the situation. It’s not like the talent has abruptly disappeared or gone into hiding. No, we’re looking at something different entirely here. We’re looking at a talent standoff.
On one side, there are the businesses suffering from the perceived or reported shortage. They want to keep doing things the way they’ve always done them and see it work out like it used to. Some might have tried earnest countermeasures like raising wages or shifting to hybrid work, but it hasn’t moved the needle. Others have held steadfast to the hard line of “no one wants to work anymore” – which, of course, is nonsense. The reality is they don’t want to work the way they used to.
For the first time in generations, they don’t have to. The talent side of the standoff holds a ton of cards. They know what they want and what they deserve from a job, and if they can’t find it in one, odds are they can find it in another. Among their ranks are the hardworking, the dedicated, the creative, the highly-skilled. U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that between 2011 and 2021, the percentage of people age 25 and older who had completed a bachelor's degree or higher rose from 30.4% to 37.9%. The talent does in fact exist, and they’re more qualified and educated than ever. They’re just no longer willing to waste their time and effort in a job that offers them nothing but the recurring thought of “why am I doing this to myself?”
It’s tough to predict how this standoff will end, but the smart money is on employers making the first move. All the turnover and short-staffing has put a sizable dent in many a business, and it’s only going to exacerbate the problem when the last remaining workers, the true canaries in a coal mine, reach their wit’s end and defect via resignation letter.
There is a way to change this. First, there needs to be widespread acceptance that there’s a new talent landscape and the old one isn’t coming back. Then, the jobs in question need to be transformed in terms of what they truly offer people.
Yes, that means raising pay to a level that’s actually fair, or adding benefits that actually matter. Yes, it means allowing for more flexibility so work and life can coexist in harmony. It also means re-thinking our talent strategies to create more genuine employee engagement and support real learning and growth.
Organizations are just starting to come around to talent mobility and internal talent marketplaces like WORQDRIVE that make it happen. These organizations understand there’s nothing more powerful we can offer people than a career of their own design. It’s as much of a reason for talent to stay as it is for talent to come on board. It could be the key to finally ending the standoff, and moving on to a future that works for employers and employees alike.