Rethinking your talent acquisition strategy

One of the biggest challenges for leaders of all stripes is finding talent. An unprecedented combination of people leaving the job market, record job changes and inflationary wages has made it difficult to find, let alone hire, the right people.

However, the old joke that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” often applies to technology leaders and their HR partners. Recruiting full-time talent using tools and incentives that didn't work last month results in renewing the same old job offers and trying the same old channels, perhaps with a small increase in the salary package.

Instead of waiting and waiting for the talent market to normalize, if that's possible, consider rethinking how and where you source your tech talent . Here are some ideas for rethinking your talent strategy.

Rent a Capacity Versus an Individual

Involving external talent in the form of consultants or “technical hires” is nothing new for most technology leaders. However, these resources are generally involved in one of two relationships. The first is hiring a temporary employee, with the expectation that the individual will work full-time for your organization until the role is no longer needed.

Involving an individual in this capacity can fill a gap in your team, but is subject to similar restrictions as a full-time hire . These “hired guns” are equally scarce, and while they don’t require many of the HR onboarding processes of a full-time employee, they do require the same level of vetting and acceleration as an external hire.

The second approach most companies use to hire outside consultancy is to hire a team for a well-defined project. This project could be a software development effort or training and implementation of a new methodology or tool. The key is to focus on a (hopefully) well-defined outcome, and the team disbands once this is delivered.

Academic Partnerships

Academic institutions, from local universities to technical colleges, have a similar problem to yours: They are often looking for ways to get work experience for their students. You can even find schools with adult education programs staffed by experienced workers looking for a career change who already have experience with customer service, meeting management, and dozens of other skills we take for granted.

However, filling the talent gap with students is not as simple as calling a local university and expecting dozens of competent, low-cost individuals to show up the next day. You will need to think of a strategy tailored to the type of student you are engaging.

For undergraduate students, channeling a large amount of energy and enthusiasm combined with limited work experience and technical knowledge will be the main challenge. For adults or graduates, it may be necessary to carefully craft a discrete project or outcome that they will “own” during their tenure.

You'll also likely need to deal with the complexities of scheduling and the tradeoffs that arise when someone enters a field for the first time. If done well, engaging students and fostering academic partnerships can be highly rewarding and provides low-cost talent . If executed poorly, a single “class” of students can damage a relationship with academia that takes years to repair.

Creative work arrangements

The fact that many workers simply abandoned the job market during the pandemic is well known. However, few companies have effectively engaged this population of experienced individuals who may no longer want conventional full-time employment.

Whether focused on caring for children or the elderly or simply seeking a less work-oriented life, nearly 2.5 million more people left the workforce during the pandemic than if pre-pandemic trends had continued, according to with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. While there are varying theories about whether these individuals will return to full-time work, why not offer ways to engage this talent ?

With the rise of remote work and flexible workplace tools, you can likely easily access these workers wherever they reside without worrying about logistical complexities like device issuance and tracking.

As with working in academia, engaging this population requires some forethought, especially since these people have explicitly chosen not to work full-time. Resist the temptation to set schedules, demand time tracking, or expect attendance at every meeting. Instead, look for routine projects or activities that are results-oriented and have minimal dependencies on scheduled activities.

There are probably dozens of routine projects and activities that could be handed off to someone with an outcome and due date and left to complete according to your schedule. If your company has worked with offshore companies in distant time zones or specialized consulting firms, you probably have some experience packaging work and “throwing it over the wall” to be completed without real-time interaction. Apply this same thinking, combined with paying for completing discrete projects, and you will create a “win-win” that allows you to access high-quality resources with minimal overhead .

You may already have several people who left your team without selecting a new job. Resist the temptation to ask if they want to come back “part time” and instead suggest offering distinct projects and letting them choose which ones (if any) they want to complete.

Avoid “Perfect”

Most technology leaders are as disconcerted as you are when dealing with the new talent environment. However, difficulty often comes with opportunity, and you may find that seeking unconventional talent allows you to work differently and more effectively in the long run.

Resist the temptation to select the “perfect” academic vendor or partner or create an elaborate program before turning to a few early retirees. You will likely find that “good enough” is often just that, and engaging unconventional talent with a few setbacks today is much more beneficial than a perfect strategy that is never executed.