The talent shortage has arrived. Research from the Conference Board suggests that the labor market is only continuing to tighten as the demand for labor as well as the stagnant labor supply remain. Nearly 26 percent of all employers have reported that their biggest problem when recruiting for new job openings is the quality of the labor. With the future workforce looking more diverse, connected, globalized, and technologically advanced than ever before, how will recruiting and retaining talent adjust to accommodate future needs of employees and their company?

Aligning Current and Future Talent Strategies

McKinsey's research on future-skilling your workforce suggests that organizations adjust their talent model entirely to allow for new talents to rise. Advertising perpetual growth and development as essential aspects of their talent-management culture is beneficial as many incoming workers value personal growth within their careers. Strategies for finding talent can draw upon what future skills will be required for the organization, where talent can be found that supports a more global organization, or technically advanced professionals that also hold business skills. Hiring practices should reflect what is needed for your organization today and in the future to meet long-term objectives and achieve growth for the organization and employees.

Engaging and Developing Talent

Engaging and retaining the right talent starts with learner-experience centered programs that impact lasting change. Expect employees to crave for more personalized learning programs, an increase in applications introduced, a focus on work-life balance, and the flexibility around maternity leave, pets, and work hours. Your learning program can be tailored to meet these needs of this workforce by identifying ways to accommodate learners’ lifestyles, locations, and career paths to nurture employees’ skill sets.

Key Skills Needed to Thrive in the 21st Century

To thrive in the 21st century, the Conference Board reports that the key factors employees will need are:

• Globalized thinking with a top understanding of business

• The ability to find meaning among changing organization processes

• The ability to adjust to diverse situations

• Self-directedness to map their own learning

• Curious, passion-driven, lifelong learning that requires a multidisciplinary set of skills

• The ability to extract meaning from their surroundings that requires being self-aware and market-aware, adaptive thinking, and a design mindset

• Enterprise-wide and open team workmanship that requires a social work setting, collaboration, and people who are engaged and able to influence others

• Agile, resilient, adoptive problem-solver, which requires effective decision making and the ability to prioritize and execute

• A positive growth mindset, which requires the ability to frame challenges as opportunities

• The ability to be multiskilled, which requires business acumen and management and technical expertise

Where Do You Go From Here?

Integration of talent processes and alignment of goals for future-skilling are the first steps toward preparing for the future workforce. As business strategies and operations evolve and develop, how can you be forward-thinking in your learning programs and talent acquisition?

With courses offered in multiple languages and available on multiple devices, OpenSesame helps companies like yours evolve the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. For more information on how OpenSesame can save you time and money by curating the right courses for your organization, contact [email protected].