Organizations are under tremendous pressure to increase their performance through cost optimisation, speedy innovations and talent development and retention. On the other hand, talent has an inherent want to associate with the best, whether it’s a product-based or a service-based organization.
Further, products, services, business models, or process can be copied but people and their competencies are hard to copy. Therefore, the competent and engaged people become the key differentiators for organisations in the market.
Different sectors are offering different talent acquisition challenges for HR Departments. The speedy technological changes, global demands, and evolving social and political requirements have necessitated that organizations and their HRs function to embrace constant change and adaptation in their talent management practices.
HRs are working towards developing new thought processes in alignment with key stakeholders for meeting sector-specific talent demands while leveraging new technologies to enhance decision-making effectiveness, and balancing it with human-centric values and mindset to meet talent challenges.
Let’s examine a few of the sector-specific challenges.
1- IT/ITeS Sector
In IT/ITeS imbalanced Talent Demand and Supply ratio are offering new challenges creating a demand for more specialized competencies such as AI, machine learning, cybersecurity etc.
India offers a huge demand for tech talent while availability is not to the extent of demand. With multiple offers available, competent IT professionals are seen as switching jobs and going for moonlighting leading to talent scarcity in the market.
2- Manufacturing Sector
In manufacturing organizations, hiring and retaining skilled workforce for specialised tasks is poseing a big challenge. Manufacturing companies being traditional in nature are still relying on outdated and slow to respond recruitment tools which may not find suitable talent in today’s scenario.
Many a times, work life balance and lack of career development within manufacturing organisations put talent challenges in recruitment process.
3- Healthcare Sector
In healthcare sector, there already exists huge competition in the light of high workload and burnout & limited availability of professionals (Doctors, skilled talent—nurses, technicians). Organisations in Healthcare sector often have multiple vacancies across various functions & departments, (requiring HR Department to manage multiple hiring processes simultaneously).
Startups suffer from recruitment challenges due to ‘low to average compensation’ ‘high risk possibility’ ‘lack of right culture’ ‘working under tight budgets’ perception among the workforce and employer branding issues leading to intense competition for skilled talent.
The over reliance on referrals and networks and the ‘multi-tasking’ and ‘role ambiguity’ (at least initial years) required in executing responsibilities make recruitment a high challenging job (specially for HR). Similarly, start ups face retention challenges due to long hours and burnouts.
4- Education and Edtech
In Education and Edtech the biggest challenge is recruitment of competent faculty specially in areas of technology such as AI, ML, Analytics. Also, lack of attractive compensation packages and working in traditional mindset is another very big challenge through which education sector suffers.
Retail and hospitality sector also suffer from talent retention issues, want of right managerial and skilled talent, seasonal demands & talent scarcity due to that, gig workforce retention alongwith motivational issues and lack of career growth.
The Challenge Across Sectors
Fast paced technology changes have taught us that there is a gross disparity between the competencies groomed in educational institutions and industry requirements which has to be addressed quickly to find and bridging gap of talent requirement of all sectors.
Also, compensation and incentives need to be carefully planned and while use of technology and AI in recruitment may fast pace the process, over-dependence may lead to de-personalization in talent acquisition and dilution of employer branding.
How HR Professionals Are Responding
HR Department/HR professionals are partnering effectively with key stakeholders, top leadership and business needs to respond to sector specific talent challenges—be it traditional mindset, skill gaps, work life balance, seasonal hiring, role ambiguity, tech challenges etc.
Also, talent pipelines are being managed via campus recruitments, hackathons, and referral networks. HR managers of today are using AI-driven recruitment tools for screening, matching, predicting dropouts as well as creating a personalised experience for applicants wherever possible.
At least for new joinees, HR aims to ensure that they offer a positive employee experience. As large organizations hire talent in large numbers, sometimes it becomes hard to create personalized onboarding experiences for each recruit, therefore, pre-boarding engagements such as virtual meet-ups are one of the ways in which HRs are ensuring that new hires do not start looking for other options.
Also, HRs are customising learning modules for ensuring a great onboarding experience. Today, as we live with the learnings drawn from Covid-19, hybrid induction experiences are being planned and executed to keep onboarding meaningful, engaging, and more motivating, and an effective tool for retaining talent.
HR Guru Prof. Dave Ulrich says on Talent Challenges: “Developing a future-ready workforce with the necessary skills and competencies to navigate the changing world of work, particularly in light of rapid technological advancements like AI, remains a critical challenge.:
“Beyond individual talent, HR must focus on strengthening the organization’s overall capability, including its culture, systems, and processes, to enable greater agility and responsiveness to market shifts. Nurturing adaptable and visionary leaders at all levels of the organization is essential to drive change, foster innovation, and inspire employee engagement.” He added.
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