It sounds utopian when we say there are enough resources and opportunities to go around to meet all needs – with a catch, of course, that the resources are distributed equitably. But to me, like most of us, this seemed counterintuitive. We have grown in the thought flow of the scarcity framework.
For example, when we look at the Talent market, Talent is scarce for certain niche skills. There are two things we can do to meet this demand:
- We look for the exact candidate or the ‘best fit.’ We outbid each other for this (currently) scarce resource till such time that supply increases as the pay and perks on this one skyrocket.
- We make our job descriptions less rigid and explore the ‘best bet,’ where the person has 70-80% skills match, and invest in upskilling. The upside is that we have a bigger candidate pool. And this, in turn, will bring down the cost of resourcing – giving the organization more flexibility and employees aspirational career mobility. A win-win. This, again, is a highly simplified rendition of the theory of abundance.
The approach in option 1 is one of the primary reasons why we had an escalating war for Talent a few seasons ago, which in my view, could have been mitigated if not avoided with the latter. Again, I am not advocating vague job descriptions or unplanned hiring purely on the gut. We will have to build a functional ecosystem that allows internal movements based on employees’ interests and aspirations. This movement needs a learning infrastructure that can bridge the skills deficit. We need a backend system that allows us to predict and pre-empt emerging demand through intelligent analytics. And all of this needs to work in tandem seamlessly and accurately, creating an experience framework. But on the positive side, creating solutions to systemic inefficiencies can create sustainable development and build a better working world for everyone.
While this was my take on the recruitment context, like all powerful theories, it can be applied to any field or space. The topic was well explored in two of the books (amongst many others), which I love: “Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think” by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, and “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki.
Now exploring the topic further, what are the three things you can do as a leader, current or future, to shift the paradigm?
- Digitalize the ecosystem. For you to create talent fluidity, you need accurate and intelligent data. If we go back to the hiring conundrum, having more information on future skills and demand, and being able to map it against existing skills will let you predict the skilling requirement. In such a time, if you have a mature learning and development framework and culture, you can see how the problem starts to untangle itself. But the key here is ensuring the many moving parts work in sync – interacting intelligently.
- The second, of course, is to democratize. The first and the most obvious way is to tap into the big talent pool from small cities. Especially when you take in the context of India and its skill demographics, the answer clearly lies in decentralizing the current hubs to create multiple spokes around it, to begin with, and gradually spread the network.
- Decoding the emerging market. This is somewhat specific to India. But we see not just unemployment but a copious amount of under-employment and unequal employment. This is accentuated by the inequities that exist in society. This awareness while dealing with Talent can create upward mobility options, opening doors for our teaming millions to learn and grow while working.
In all, I want to sign this off on a note that disruption is not necessarily a synonym for destruction. It can be a start to something new, and it’s never too late to start on something new. All you need is the appetite.