Employers Eyeing New Sources of Talent, Changes in Skills to Tackle Labor Shortage

• Wtw Survey Finds More Companies Believe Difficulties With Hiring and Keeping Workers Will Continue in 2022

A growing number of North American employers say new sources of talent and changes in skills required to get work done are needed to address ongoing labor market challenges. That’s according to a new survey by WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company.

According to the WTW Reimagining Work and Rewards Survey, the numbers of respondents that indicated each of the following will become increasingly important over the next three years compared with the past three years rose significantly:

• Finding new sources of talent (up 36%)
• Changing skills required to get work done (up 73%)
• Multi-skilling to enable employees to do tasks from different jobs (up 68%)
• Changing employee preferences (up 52%)

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“Companies in virtually every industry are now under significant pressure to adapt to a new business environment and sweeping workforce changes,” said Adrienne Altman, managing director, North America, Talent and Rewards, WTW. “And there’s no greater challenge right now than hiring and retaining workers. Unfortunately, organizations do not expect the situation to improve this year, especially for critical-skills roles.”

Indeed, according to the survey, over eight in 10 respondents (83%) expect to have problems attracting employees this year. That compares with 62% that had difficulty in the first half of last year and is more than double the 33% in 2020. Similarly, nearly three in four respondents (74%) anticipate having difficulty keeping workers this year, up from 51% in the first half of last year and just 22% in 2020. Employers reported difficulties attracting and retaining employees across the workforce — digital talent (82%), salaried employees (67%) and sales force positions (40%).

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The survey also identified growing pressure in five key areas driving workplace changes over the past three years. These include heightened emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (78%); how employees work, including increased flexibility (74%); changes in technology strategy (66%); importance of organizational agility (56%); and changes in leader and manager competencies (45%).

According to the survey, more employers expect to make extensive changes in three strategic areas: optimizing work and job design (e.g., multi-skilling, remote work, technology, sourcing talent); rethinking Total Rewards (e.g., compensation, benefits, wellbeing); and defining careers (e.g., job architecture, job levelling, career progression).

“Whether you view it as the Great Resignation, Reshuffle or Reprioritization, organizations can take tangible actions to win the talent race. These include identifying new sources of talent, optimizing job design, resetting their Total Rewards strategy and delivering a more robust career experience for employees,” said Catherine Hartmann, managing director, Work and Rewards, WTW.

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