Hidden Workers: Tapping overlooked talent pools to reduce worker shortages

Solving worker shortages requires more than just tweaking visa policy

So, the government U-turn we predicted a few weeks back on bringing in foreign workers to combat the growing crisis of HGV driver shortages has come to pass…  We didn’t need a crystal ball for that one!

Long queues, filling stations shut and violence flaring between anxious customers are just some of the symptoms that finally brought the situation to a head. In flurry of crisis fuelled activity that it described as “moving heaven and Earth”, the UK relaxed migrant worker policy allowing temporary visas for 5,000 HGV drivers.

However, as many observers point out, the effects won’t be instant and this action can only be a temporary fix. It equates to no more than sticking plaster over a running sore. The solution to the problem requires joined up thinking and structured reasoning that translates into effective long term policy.

Besides recruiters and hirers, it may also be of interest to policy makers that a new report suggests part of the answer to the worker shortage crisis may actually be embedded within the existing populations of nations around the world. The report ‘Hidden Workers, Untapped Talent’ is the output of some research carried out by Accenture in partnership with Harvard Business School.

The factors helping create pools of overlooked talent

The report highlights the ‘hidden worker’ phenomenon. Three key elements identified are:

• A widening training gap – The rapid pace of change in many occupations, much driven by technology, makes it difficult for workers to obtain and maintain relevant skills. Education and training services cannot keep in step. In effect the only way to acquire and develop up to date skills is by being hands-on, through employment.

• Failure to recognise and elevate the business case – Most companies that have engaged with hidden workers have done so through their corporate foundations or corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. While praiseworthy this approach also inherently reinforces the myth that hiring hidden workers is an act of charity or corporate citizenship, rather than strategically leveraging this demographic as a source of competitive advantage.

• Inflexibly configured automated recruiting management systems – Working together, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Recruiting Management or Marketing System (RMS) automate aspects of the recruiting process such as candidate scoring. More than 90% of employers surveyed for the research used RMS to filter or rank candidates.

They hone in on candidates, using very specific parameters, in order to minimise the number of applicants that are actively considered. For example, most use parameters such as a degree or possession of precisely described skills to define the possession of attributes such as skills, work ethic, and self-efficacy.

Failure to meet criteria such as a gap in full-time employment is also used to filter out applicants, irrespective of any other qualifications they may possess.

As a result, they exclude from consideration viable candidates who could perform at a high level with training. 88% of survey respondent companies said that qualified high-skills candidates, and 94% of middle-skills workers are filtered out.

How recruiters unlock the potential of hidden talent

Clearly, the research suggests ATS systems may be inflexibly configured and rejecting many potentially suitable candidates. In short, the criteria used to reject applicants are applied too severely. The report contains a number of suggestions for unlocking the potential of the hidden talent pool. As a matter of priority, it is probably worth recruitment agencies considering working with their clients to:

• Refresh job descriptions – Focus on a limited list of ‘must-have’ skills and experiences that correlate to performance in the role.

• Shift from ‘negative’ to ‘affirmative’ filters in an ATS/RMS – This technology largely relies on ‘negative’ logic to shortlist applicants. Applying an ‘affirmative’ logic is a more reasoned approach for seeking talent. Configuring systems to identify applicants with the core skills and experiences required for a role would be more efficient and inclusive.

The findings of the research in the recent global study, which included a survey of more than 8,000 hidden workers and more than 2,250 executives across the US, the UK, and Germany is readily transposed to developed economies around the world battling with similar talent problems.

In the US, as many as 27 million people remain on the fringes of the workforce while companies struggle to recruit talent. With UK worker shortages way in excess of one million, tapping into the pools of hidden workers is likely to be a key part of the permanent solution to worker shortages.

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ETZ is a hub that allows you to integrate your other favoured applications, including accounting platforms such as Xero and Quickbooks, and ATS platforms such as JobAdder and Bullhorn. To find out more about how we simplify the complexity of RecTech for agencies like yours, call us on 0800 311 2266 or book a demo.