5 Best Ways to Prevent Talent Shortages 

The business world today is facing numerous problems. But one particular issue that almost every sector is struggling with is talent shortages.

Reportedly, more than 75% of companies are finding it difficult to hire the right talent for their organizations. Moreover, this prevailing issue is expected to grow even bigger in the times to come.

Therefore, businesses throughout the world are honing in on finding the best ways to prevent talent shortages in their workforce.

The Growing Talent Shortages Across Industries

Talent shortages are a prominent concern that is getting more serious by the day. The increase in the insufficiency of skilled professionals could lead to an estimated 85 million unfilled jobs by 2030.

Without the right specialists, companies could face challenges in increasing productivity and growing profitability. Thus, the sooner companies address the rising concern of talent shortages, the faster they can find a solution.

This is the time for every organization, especially in the IT industry to develop effective strategies to prevent talent shortages.

5 Ways to Tackle Talent Shortages in Your Industry

Many businesses from different industries are being severely affected by the increase in talent shortages. And the best thing that businesses can do is to learn about the different ways to prevent talent shortages.

Let us look at five effective ways for you to tackle talent shortages in your business.

1. Choose the Outstaffing Hiring Model

When it comes to preventing tech talent shortages, the outstaffing hiring model is all the rage right now. An outstaffing agency can help your company bridge the skill gap and reduce development costs. When you outstaff your projects to remote specialists, you save money on taxes, insurance, and other expenses associated with in-house hiring.

Apart from this, with outstaffing, you can look for the ideal employee who aligns perfectly with your requirements. Determine the skill shortage in your company and search for the best outstaffing agency with the right experts. The outstaffing hiring model lets you widen your horizons and find the right professional for the job,

Another great benefit of outstaffing is that it lets you take full control of your projects. You can hire remote developers to work in collaboration with your in-house team and assign them tasks as required. It means outstaffing can help you resolve the talent shortage problem, without giving complete control to remote professionals.

2. Focus on Retaining Your Current Employees

As per reports, the US is expected to lose around $430 billion by 2030 due to low talent retention. Hence, companies must look for better and smarter ways to retain their existing talent. Business owners need to brainstorm ideas and develop effective employee retention strategies. Deploying these strategies could work in the company’s favor while trying to retain its best talents.

For an effective talent retention strategy, you first need to understand that it is not limited to monetary benefits. Better salaries are a crucial factor for employee retention but it is not the only one. Companies should also promote work flexibility by giving employees the freedom to work in a way that best suits them.

Additionally, offering a handful of perks is also a great way to retain your current employees. Perks such as insurance coverage, free lunch, flexible leave policies, etc. encourage skilled professionals to stay with your organization for extended periods.

3. Consider Outsourcing and Offshoring

Are you planning to hire remote staff to compensate for the talent shortage in your company? Then outstaffing is not the only way for you to do so. Outsourcing and offshoring are also two popular options.

Just like outstaffing, outsourcing helps you cut down the development cost. But the main difference between the two models is that in outsourcing, the hired company’s project manager will monitor the work. Whereas in outstaffing, you get to manage the developers and the project yourself.

Another popular hiring model to prevent talent shortage is offshoring. In this model, the developers you recruit are situated in a different country. You can benefit from offshoring if you are looking to hire IT experts at a relatively low cost or are searching for developers with specific skills who are not available locally.

4. Invest in Employee Training Programs

Conducting employee training and development programs is a crucial way to prevent talent shortages in your organization. With employee training, you help your existing team develop the skills to take on new responsibilities. When you support your in-house team through upskilling or reskilling, you make them competitive enough for the ever-changing business world.

Organizing frequent training sessions will make sure that your in-house team stays updated with the latest trends. It can also make your employees think differently, and come up with new ideas. Instead of spending money on hiring new employees, you could invest in your current resources.

By doing so, your team of professionals will constantly upscale their skills, and you can easily retain your best talents for a long time. By training your current team, you will eventually strengthen your organization from within. This is why it is perhaps one of the best ways to prevent talent shortages in your company. 

5. Hire Freelancers

Hiring freelancers is more about catering to your business’s urgent needs. These are independent workers who are hired on a project basis at a low cost. You could hire freelancers if you want short-term support to speed up your project. Generally, it is recommended that you choose more reliable remote hiring models, like outstaffing. 

Many employers hire freelancers to meet their specific project demands but don’t opt for it as a permanent solution. Besides, hiring freelancers is not an ideal choice as you have independent professionals working and managing your project. This raises concerns like lack of supervision and credibility.

What is Causing a Global Talent Shortage in the Market?

As per the 2021 Q3 ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage and Employment Outlook Survey, the global talent shortage was reported to be 39% in 2013, which rose to a massive 69% in 2019. At this pace, the problem is only going to get worse year by year.

Many factors are notably affecting talent availability in different countries. Let us look at some of these factors here.

• Increasing Number of Retiring Workers

According to Pew Research, almost 35% of American labor force participants are millennials. As most of the older skilled workers will retire soon, there will be a shortage of adequate talent to take their place. Additionally, in 2020, about 30 million older workers in America were forced to retire from their jobs due to COVID-19. This led to a huge difference between the number of skilled workers available and the number of vacant jobs.

• The Inability of the Younger Generation to Take Over

Even with a decent population of young professionals, there is a vast scarcity of talent to take over the jobs. The reason behind this is the lack of technical skills in today’s IT professionals. The Younger generation is making its way into the workforce as entry-level professionals, leaving the position left by experienced professionals vacant.

• Drastic Changes in Expectations

The rapidly evolving tech industry expects modern workers to have advanced skills to cope with the changing demands. On the other hand, workers are expecting better work flexibility, improved work-life balance, etc. This difference in employees’ and employers’ expectations is leading to an increase in talent shortages.

Wrapping Up

Business owners who are ready to take bold steps to prevent talent shortages will have a strong workforce moving ahead. Whether you hire an outstaffing company or implement employee retention strategies, do what your business needs to find the right professionals.

There are many ways to prevent talent shortages that different businesses are adopting today. But as any smart business leader, choosing the outstaffing model is the best idea as it is cost-effective, gives you access to a large talent pool, and lets you fully control the resources you hired.

Teqnovos is a leading outstaffing company with a team of highly qualified and experienced IT professionals. We provide reliable and cost-effective outstaffing services to businesses across the globe. Connect with us to hire developers and build your development team today!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How bad is the global talent shortage?

The global talent shortage is increasing rapidly every year which can affect a company’s effort to meet its long-term goals, maintain productivity, and gain profits. By the year 2030, the scarcity of skilled laborers is expected to reach 85 million.

2. How to overcome the talent shortage problem?

Businesses can choose one of the following ways to prevent talent shortages in their company:

• Hire a reliable outstaffing company to take over some projects.
• Develop and execute employee retention strategies.
• Conduct training sessions to upgrade the skills of the existing employees.

3. Which industries are most affected by the talent shortage?

Businesses such as manufacturing, wholesale and retail, healthcare, education, information technology, etc. are the industries that are vastly affected by the rising talent shortage. Companies operating in these areas of business must implement talent hiring and retaining strategies.

4. What is causing the talent shortage?

High employee turnover rate, lack of training, and changing expectations of workers are a few factors causing talent shortage. Thus, companies must monitor their internal situation and find the best ways to prevent the shortage of skilled workers from affecting their business.