Is the Talent Shortage a Myth?

By Randy Quarin, Co-Founder & Emerging Technology Recruiter

What Is the Talent Shortage Myth?

For the past couple of years, we have been hearing about a talent shortage. Depending on whom you ask, they may or may not believe it to be true.

The talent shortage myth is the idea that companies and hiring managers across many industries are in a battle for talent due to the lack of qualified job candidates. With few candidates, positions go unfilled. To fill positions, companies need to provide more incentives for top talent to come work for their company, meaning the power is in the hands of candidates. The talent shortage myth exists particularly in technology and other specialized fields.

“But we know from several reports that the problem isn’t the pipeline. It’s rooted in unconscious biases that are threaded throughout employers’ recruiting, hiring, and retention efforts, all of which, to be fair, are manifestly difficult to unravel,” says Lydia Dishman, on Fast Company, in regard to the talent shortage in tech.

There Is No Shortage – It’s Your Approach to Recruiting

Others argue there actually is no shortage, rather there is a lack of willingness by companies to adjust their hiring and recruiting process.

“How can there be a talent shortage, when millions of people are looking for work? Here’s how: there’s a talent shortage whenever employers complain that they can’t find people with just the skills and the background they want, at exactly the price they’d like to pay,” says Liz Ryan on Forbes.

“The talent is out there, it just might not look the way you expected it to, so it’s likely you will need to make a compromise in one or more areas,” adds Pete Macauley from MichaelPage.

3 Tips to Avoid a Talent Shortage

Whether you believe there is a talent shortage or not, there are things your organization can to do to ensure you find top quality candidates to fill open positions with your company:

1. Stop blaming the candidate pool: If you are not happy with the pool of candidates who applied, then you need to reconsider your approach to writing job ads, how you qualify candidates and your interviewing process.
2. Be flexible: If you expect candidates to have every skill and requirement you list in your job ads, you will have a hard time filling the position. Stop looking for the perfect candidate on paper. There are many great professionals who can ramp up and learn the skills they don’t have once they are hired.
3. Work with a recruiter: Working with a recruiter is an effective way to gain new insights into the job market, gain access to talent, and identify issues with your hiring process.

Get more recruiting tips by checking out these blog posts from our experienced recruiters:

How to Kill Your Chances of Hiring the Candidate You Want

Are Annual Performance Reviews a Thing of the Past?

2017 Recruiting and Engagement Statistics Worth Reading

IQ PARTNERS is an Executive Search & Recruitment firm supporting clients across the country. We help companies hire better, hire less & retain more. We have specialist teams of recruiters in Technology (IT), Accounting and Finance, Consumer Goods, eCommerce and Retail, Financial Services and Insurance, B2B and Industrial, Operations and HR, Professional Services and Legal, Media, Digital and Marketing, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, Emerging Technology and Telecom, and  Sales. IQ PARTNERS has its head office in Toronto and operates internationally via Aravati Global Search Network. Click here to view current job openings and to register with us.