Consider work redesign to close talent gaps

For Dave Zielinksi’s latest article in SHRM, he documented how American Express & Unilever have adopted new talent attraction and engagement strategies to ensure they are filling critical roles while bypassing the traditional hurdles to finding top talent.

For example, American Express used a “fit for purpose process,” very similar to the Hiring Success Talent Scarcity-Impact Framework, to “help minimize its talent needs for data scientists.” Instead of trying to initially recruit 8 data scientists, American Express realized it could now contract out two resources that would still provide the same impact of those 8 roles. Similarly, Unilever unbundled “job roles into competencies and bite-sized tasks.” By doing so, Unilever has been able to “analyze a job role to see which of its competencies could be addressed through loaned internal talent or external resources like freelancers or university students.”

In summation, the novel talent acquisition approaches adopted by American Express and Unilever showcase how prioritizing the competencies and impact of new hires, instead of traditional job titles and work experience, can uncover new talent pools for attraction and engagement that have the potential to solve the challenges of talent scarcity.