Whether it’s finding replacements or increasing staff, companies are generally running into difficulties when it comes to hiring people for open positions. In fact, a shortage of qualified manpower, or talent, as many prefer to call it, is being seen. Yet is this lack of prepared personnel real or is there hidden gold to be found?

Handling shortages in manpower

When defining the skills needed to fill a job, it is important that they be based on the activities that will be performed. Leaving some of them out to increase the chances of finding candidates ends up resulting in overloaded recruiters and causing suitable people to be overlooked.

On the other hand, “loading up” on requirements filters out good potential candidates. They may have sufficient skills and experience to perform the role to be filled, yet they are left out. This strategy also ends up hindering the operation as an open position goes unfilled for too long.

That is why a good familiarity with the activities and routine that a worker will carry out makes all the difference. Having a solidly constructed description of positions and roles, with the necessary and desired requirements, will make it easier for HR to do a good job of publicizing it. Look to leaders for support to make these tasks successful.

Uncovering treasure in-house

One hypothesis that is at times underrated is filling a position with internal staff.  This idea may at first sound counterproductive. It will solve one problem, but could create another in the area or role that the professional is leaving. However, it is possible that the position opened up by the reallocation is more easily filled by external recruitment than the original position.

For this strategy to be successful, it is essential to have the support of software that provides a map of organizational competencies. This will help you locate professionals who are compatible with openings and show the degree of impact that a reallocation could have.

Anticipating needs and solutions

It’s better to anticipate needs than to hope for improvement in manpower shortages. Prepare your workforce to meet strategic needs. Using strategic goals as a starting point for your company, map the fundamental roles needed to achieve them. With this information in hand, put together an inventory of competencies in order to check existing gaps. Based on this, invest in training activities to develop your team and equip it to fulfill the demands that your company’s growth will require. You can reduce the need to open external positions and, what’s more, you also contribute to lowering turnover.

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