Organisations continue to be on a journey of digital evolution. A shifting market means intelligence on supply and demand becomes paramount to preparing your organisation to attract and retain talent.
Businesses seem to have been going through a digital evolution for as long as the internet has existed, with innovative ideas, ways of working, and technology being developed continuously. Most recently with the advent of AI starting to become incorporated into jobs, and news stories talking about the potential replacement of jobs with technology.
How true this could be remains to be seen. However, preparation and planning are part of what successful organisations do, remaining adaptable to the changing environment and keeping pace with the new.
In preparing for this future, we see six ways that your organisation can understand the supply and demand gaps and be future-ready to tackle them.
01 Revisit your total reward strategy
How your people are rewarded can become one of the first places to start, with total reward being an age-old way to incentivise the balance of attraction and retention. When it comes to skills this is more nuanced, in that it is for the various skills your talent possesses where you can base their reward on.
When it comes to data, it means you need to understand the make up of the skills which already exist, the skills required, and then a view of the market demand or supply of a particular skill. In this picture you can see the rarity of talent you are looking for, and act accordingly to adjust your reward packages when making offers, or when looking to retain talent.
02 Identify your talent segments
After rewards, it comes down to focusing on talent segments. Who are your critical employees when it comes to digital talent? Are they one part of the organisation, are they spread out, is this in the direct product or service you offer, or behind the scenes?
Answering these questions will help you identify the critical talent in your organisation, understand their needs and expectations, and adapt your HR programs accordingly. Workforce analysis can be a way to seek out the data not just for your organisation, but then compare this to organisations in your industry, or comparable size, revenue or other variables and see if you lack population in one area or another.
03 Clarify your values and purpose
Whilst total reward is part of the story, we know that values and purpose are becoming increasingly part of the discussion. How is your business communicating this to your people, not just the ones you have already but prospective ones? Do you know what your values and purpose are? Reflecting these as part of the culture of your organisation can be incredibly attractive, and we see that those who clearly articulate this internally and externally can experience less attraction, become desirable companies, and more successful.
04 Enhance your employee experience and build your employer brand
Values and purpose are part of how you underpin a business strategy. It becomes a north star for those working towards something, defining that something successfully internally is one step. How your brand and customers experience this are the second step, often the one that more visible.
A big brand can be attractive to work for, especially for digital talent where working for a leading-edge organisation offers a challenge. Yet this also applies to start ups, pushing the edge or what is possible is attractive to digital talent, both for prospective customers, and the development of a vision. This comes back to the business strategy, values, purpose, and culture, not about being the same as another, but knowing the one in your organisation, and owning it.
05 Define your internal strategy to close skills gaps
Understanding your current talent pool and identifying areas where you need to upskill your employees can help you close the gap between supply and demand. Promoting from within is one way to do this, as it allows you to build layers of skills within your teams, while relying on people who are already engaged with the work they do. This can lead to greater abilities to meet the demands of business strategy and reduce costs by building skills within as opposed to having to buy them from the external market.
Nowadays, career paths are not always linear. This means that employees need to be able to adapt and grow their skills in order to stay relevant.
We place data at the centre of decision making, and there are multiple and interconnected sources of data.
Organizations can help employees do this by providing clear development paths and opportunities for learning and development, which are often cited as drivers for retention. Understanding this career ecosystem starts with job levelling, architecture, and a view of your knowledge and skills framework. We have helped organisations build these, to then make choices about the routes that fit best with
06 Leverage data insights for decision making
We place data at the centre of decision making, and there are multiple and interconnected sources of data that you can access. These sources provide actionable insights into making decisions in the context of your business strategy, for example:
- Assess the demand for digital talent, now and in the future.
- Pull in data on the market supply of talent.
- Seek out the latest data on market pay for skills and adjust your total reward.
- Use workforce analytics principles to see where you are compared to other similar organizations, seeking the gaps.
In addition, our SkillsVue and Talent Intelligence offerings are two solutions that help organizations to understand this gap from both a demand and supply perspective. These tools can help organizations to understand which skills are needed to achieve competitive advantage and to understand the nature of supply and demand of these skills out in the market.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
