With skills shortages, a General Election and planned employment legislation challenges on the cards for 2024, a team of HR, Talent Acquisition (TA) and procurement leaders have called for changes in the hiring landscape, with collaboration the key to success.
The APSCo OutSource Client Community – a prestigious group of HR, TA and procurement professionals who represent leading organisations – has pinpointed the need for every element of the workforce supply chain to work together, rather than against each other, to tackle the challenges of the coming months.
As part of this focus, the experts have highlighted an eight-point plan to talent success, which includes:
• Creating a single point of skills and workforce measurement for the entire talent ecosystem
• Developing a better understanding of existing skills through greater visibility and transparency
• ‘Deskilling’ jobs to allow people to be hired for potential
• Challenging traditional practices and driving out ‘normalised’ inefficiencies
• Utilising AI without dehumanising workforce management
• Driving greater compliance across the supply chain
• Balancing governance with flexibility to meet growing needs
• Aiming for true Total Talent Management in 2024
“As we kick off the New Year in what continues to be a challenging and uncertain economic landscape, there are a number of opportunities to reshape talent acquisition,” says Melanie Forbes, managing director, APSCo OutSource. “Throughout my career I’ve witnessed first-hand the frustrations that those in recruitment and contingent workforce management have faced and I believe that the current environment presents a brilliant opportunity to address these.
“How every business views skills has changed drastically, but we are all now looking to define what best practice talent attraction and retention looks like,” she continues. “There’s clearly a need – and indeed desire – for change which must happen with some speed this year. Worker shortages aren’t going to go away overnight and collaboration is required by us all. It won’t be an easy year for the UK with an election looming, but there’s an array of opportunities that we need to capitalise on before new norms set in.
Forbes acknowledges it is incredibly difficult to plan too far in advance given the volatile nature of the economic climate but while there are challenges ahead, each of these can be turned into an opportunity for positive change. “HR, TA, procurement, staffing firms and outsourcing providers have an opportunity to collaborate and create new approaches to address skills shortages,” she says. “But we all need to be willing to challenge ourselves and each other to achieve this.”
