“If you want to grow as a business, the single most important component is talent. But right now, we’re facing a talent crunch, where there are fewer skilled labourers than demand. And that is a real problem.”
So said Multiplier CEO and Co-Founder, Sagar Khatari in conversation with the Mayor of Vancouver at Collision 2023 in Toronto. And the forecast on talent shortages in the coming years makes the issue even clearer.
Over 75% of the Baby Boomer generation will retire in the next decade and younger generations haven’t yet had the time or training needed to fill those roles. Partly for this reason, according to a recent Kornferry report, there are expected to be 85 million empty positions in 2030.
Sounds a little rough, but don’t worry, there’s good news too… With the right approach, organisations can adapt, attracting new team members, retaining old ones and scaling way beyond their competition.
In this article, we explore three strategies that allow you to strengthen your team in the face of talent shortages. These are:
- Fostering a standout culture
- Facilitating remote, global hiring
- Strengthening your recruitment strategy
We also recommend a solution that allows you to hire across borders without hassle in minutes… (And yes, it’s us. We partner with companies like Uber and PWC to help them rise above global talent shortages year on year.)
3 Actionable tips for navigating talent shortages
1. Foster a standout culture
As Sagar describes, “Gone are the days where the balance of power was in the hands of the employer. Employees now have a massive say in the kind of environment they want to work in.” So to attract and retain top talent, you need a top culture.
In an age where resignation is rife, this means honing in on your core values and ensuring your employees feel aligned with them. After all, a sense of belonging has been shown to be the strongest driver of employee engagement in recent research.
To combat talent scarcity through your culture, you should:
- Ensure transparency. No matter what your core values are, make sure that people across your organisation understand how they look in practice.
- Boost psychological safety. Build a close-knit, trusting community by making sure your team feel free to feedback ideas and concerns.
- Provide rewards and recognition. Award employees when they exemplify core values and tackle skills shortages by encouraging continuous learning.
- Promote work-life balance. Employee wellbeing and benefits initiatives are a key part of any great culture. And you can manage them without paperwork by using Multiplier (more on this later).
2. Facilitate remote, global hiring
Over 90% of employees report a desire to work remotely at least part of the time and there are currently huge skills shortages across industries such as IT, retail and construction. And as Sagar highlights, “Both of these factors mean that companies need to be able to hire where the talent is… Businesses need to go global from day one.”
And yet it’s important to note that global talent acquisition doesn’t have to directly correlate with remote talent acquisition. Sagar says, “With a global, distributed model, you can have colleagues working in Cyprus, but they can still work in an office or from home as suits them.”
3. Strengthen your recruitment strategy
Contrary to popular belief, modern talent shortages are not down to employees not wanting to work. Instead, as Sagar highlights, they are because candidates (particularly foreign candidates) want to exercise more choice over the environment they work in.
“A churn problem is an acquisition problem,” he says,” If your employees are leaving, at least some of them were not fit for your environment. Your hiring strategy has to be clearly laid out to ensure that you find the best fit possible.”
This means creating clear job descriptions that bring your company culture to life. You can also implement skills-based hiring practices such as competency assessments and practical exercises to pinpoint the right talent.
| Pro-tip: Gain time to focus on finding the right hire by using Multiplier’s EOR services to manage payroll, taxes, benefits, and more. |
Create a company without limits
“Are you hiring the right talent or just the best talent in your city?” asks Sagar at the end of the remote stage talk, “These days the infrastructure is out there for companies to hire top talent no matter where they were incorporated and no matter what talent shortages there are.”
To tackle these worldwide skills shortages, you need to adopt a global employment model. But, to do this effectively, without paperwork and stress, you also need a partner like Multiplier.
- We are a global employment platform that helps companies of all sizes employ talent across the globe without having to go through the process of setting up a legal entity in any country.
- You can find talent anywhere in the world, give us a call, and we’ll set it all up so you can hire them. Even onboarding, job descriptions, and all the compliance paperwork. Then, we’ll handle benefits, insurance and more.
- Global talent to fill high-priority roles is 3 clicks and 30 seconds away.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you navigate the current talent shortage. We believe in a world without limits.
