Talent acquisition tailored: Fill the skill gaps sustainably

While we generalize the talent crunch as a shrinking supply of candidates, it often boils down to the shortage of talent that can hit the ground running. Organizations today are in perennial need of an up-to-speed workforce that’s adept at the in-demand skills of today. Technology is evolving constantly and so is skill relevance. In the middle of such a major shift, HR and talent acquisition teams often find themselves in a lurch with the business. Under the pressure of sourcing quality talent from the market, recruiters have already hit a dead-end as they have exhausted all existing talent pools. Turning to educational institutions has been futile due to their dated and sluggish approach to enhancing their syllabus offerings with more new-age courses. What’s next? Is there a better solution out there?

Hire-Train-Deploy (HTD) shaping the future of work

Skill gaps and The Great Resignation are no foreign foes to HR professionals, making it almost impossible to both recruit and retain the right talent. More than 85 million jobs are projected to remain vacant by 2030, costing about $8 trillion to businesses. The Hire-Train-Deploy model, prolific in IT and BFSI sectors, has helped many a hiring manager to breathe a sigh of relief. Leveraging this model, employers can access the untapped talent pool, ignored majorly because of “lack of job readiness”. A well-planned HTD solution is highly customized to provide hands-on domain-centric experience to candidates, to get them started in their roles. With the right HTD partners, employers can co-create a tailor-made talent acquisition strategy with long-term impacts.

What makes HTD impactful

The HTD model takes control of the key steps in talent acquisition, i.e., Sourcing, Screening, Hiring, Training and Deploying. Training in this model creates output similar to apprenticeship programs but at a much faster pace. Having candidates shoulder-surf while others work, goes only so far. However, in well-implemented training, special emphasis is laid on practical hands-on training to hone candidates with the related technical instruction (RTI). The model plays a crucial role in accelerating candidates’ journey from campus to corporate. Its “hire first, train later” approach has proven instrumental in motivating candidates and showcasing that the company is willing to invest and nurture them right from Day 1.

HTD zeroes in on building domain-specific skills in cybersecurity, cloud computing, Big Data, DevOps etc. across e-commerce, IT, healthcare, IBFS, and more. Platform-based skills too are integral to the program which focus on giving candidates practical exposure to and experience in emerging tools and technologies. Technical training apart, the courseware and curriculum take behavioral and soft skills into account as well.

Only gains for the employer

But how relevant is it to most hiring managers and business leaders? The short answer is, extremely. For employers looking to hire entry-level candidates, this can be the perfect way to tap into the young minds that come prepared for their jobs. An employer-focused solution, HTD relies purely on the outcome, bringing quality candidates to the forefront. It elevates the employer’s value proposition by upskilling candidates from diverse backgrounds, creating a heightened focus on inclusivity. Globally, the success rate of the Hire-Train-Deploy model has been remarkable for adopters across industries. At an age where new skills are taking over the old ones at lightning speed, it saves the workforce from becoming proverbial dinosaurs by helping them catch up to the existing and upcoming standards.

Industries across the board are benefitting massively from well-thought-out HTD programs. Along with metropolitan candidates, it takes the untapped talent bubble from tier 2 and tier 3 cities into account, bringing down recruitment costs significantly down. From early diagnosis of skill gaps to ideating actionable solutions and executing them from end to end, it lends new visions and readiness to the talent acquisition process.

What it means for employees

From the employee standpoint, the Hire Train Deploy model is a good resolution for entry-level and mid-level candidates aiming to build a long-standing career. It helps them reskill and upskill themselves as per the market demands and create the output that the business demands. As broached already, it offers equal opportunities to a diverse pool of candidates to shine and spearhead their professional goals. They can overcome their weaknesses using the curriculum under these programs and increase their employability score. Over 10,000 graduates have set their careers in motion by being part of the HTD program in the US. HTD is committed to solving an underserved talent program, mutually benefiting the candidate as well as the employer.

Results are numerous. Most important and relevant today among them would, undoubtedly, be lower dropout rates and lower attrition rates. While hiring managers across the globe scratch their heads over reining in both these figures, the Hire-Train-Deploy model is enabling companies to tackle the talent crunch by widening their candidate funnels.

The article has been written by Veer Taneja, Vice President & Business Leader, NLL Academy, skilling arm of NLB Services