There’s a lot of talk in hiring circles lately about a talent shortage.
We all know the fastest way to drive business results is hiring the right people in the right roles at the right time. But for many hiring managers, this is much easier said than done. Languishing open headcount is an unnecessary opportunity cost that can prevent businesses from thriving, and it’s lead to the collective bemoaning of a phenomenon known as the “talent shortage.”
But I’ll let you in on a little secret: There is no talent shortage.
In fact, there’s an abundance of both high-quality jobs and amazingly talented people to fill those jobs on the market today. They just can’t seem to find each other quickly and efficiently enough. The real cause of this “talent shortage” isn’t a lack of talent; it’s a talent disconnect.
Trying to Fit a Round Peg Into a Square Hole
Hiring today is broken.
Everyone is extremely busy and wrapped up in an increasingly complicated world where job roles, duties and expectations continue to evolve. As a result, hiring managers fail to take the time necessary to clearly connect the business goals with each job they are hiring for.
For example, a hiring manager may need to hire a Project Manager. This is one of the most common titles, yet a Project Manager’s duties can vary vastly from company to company and person to person. Connecting the business goals to the job description is a crucial first step to find the right fit for the specific business need(s).
In addition to hiring managers being too busy to slow down and define what success looks like for them, many job seekers are also too general in their resumes and cover letters, obscuring their true expertise and failing to target the right hiring manager who needs their skills out of a false belief that a “spray and pray” application strategy is their best chance of success.
This leads to hiring managers creating vague job descriptions and holding out for the “perfect hire” that simply doesn’t exist. It leads to job seekers genericizing the words on their resumes in the hopes that one of them will resonate with a search filter. Neither of these approaches achieves everyone’s goal of finding the right match.
The key to hiring right is goal clarity on the part of both the hiring manager and the job seeker. We as individuals and human beings have many unique dimensions, and we can make things hard on ourselves by not putting a stake in the ground and saying, “This is what I need, right now” in a realistic way.
The Solution
Here’s a simple and very effective question for hiring managers to consider as they try to find the right talent for their needs: “What is the most important deliverable I need right now?”
The answer to this question will provide clarity as to what skills should be prioritized for the role they’re trying to fill. For example, a hiring manager may decide the most important deliverable of a Marketing Manager role is to manage a global campaign launch. Now that hiring manager can narrow in on prioritizing global launch experience as the #1 criteria in available candidates. This helps cut through the sea of generic Marketing Manager candidates and is a solid starting point.
Job seekers can consider the question, “What type of work brings me the most joy and plays to my strengths?” This will help them define what success means for them and enable them to hone in on ideal jobs and companies that match their answer. For example, if you realize you love writing about health and fitness, then your target companies can be identified as being in that industry, and you can hone in on positions like Content Manager or similar roles.
The “talent shortage” being lamented today is no more than a disconnect between hiring managers and job seekers. Hiring managers and job seekers both want the same thing: a successful match. Sometimes, all we have to do is slow down and ask ourselves the “obvious” questions more frequently in order to get to success faster and start creating matches rather than disconnects.