The “Great Talent Shake-up” is here
The tech talent world has changed more rapidly in last 3 years than previous 15 years.
- Software (including AI, web3, metaverse et al) is eating the world. As a result, demand for tech talent has been increasing exponentially and it is only going to accelerate.
- Location barriers, both domestically and internationally, are getting broken
- There is a rapid, fundamental change in terms of how modern tech workers look at employment these days. People don’t want a naukri — they want better careers.
This is “The Great Talent Shake-up” that is fundamentally changing the professional world and is leading to new phenomena such as “The Great Resignation” and “The Great Reshuffle”.
The “Great Talent Shake-up” is disrupting hiring, performance and retention in a fundamental way
If you have been hiring, you would have experienced that:
- Skilled talent has become even more scarce
- Salaries have become 2x to 3x.
- Tactics like offering BMW bikes or fat joining bonuses failed to make the top talent actually join
Given this shakeup and its acceleration, companies need to change the way they hire. I described how companies can do this in this post recently.
Beyond hiring, this shake-up is also deeply influencing why and how people stay and perform in a company. Personal branding, side projects, moonlighting, remote work are all topics that every company will have to deeply think about and define their responses to.
This shake-up could lead to a huge opportunity loss for everyone
If the friction between the industry and professional is not reduced, it will lead to huge loss of opportunities for everyone:
- Companies will lose the talent and hence won’t be able to succeed
- Professionals won’t be able to do their best work and hence won’t be able to have harmonious careers
As an example, take the friction that is caused by the industry practice of “3 month notice period”. It aims to make it difficult for employees to leave but it ends up hurting companies themselves since employees rather choose to lie about their notice periods or keep companies guessing till the end.
Cutshort is waging a war against this opportunity loss
As the #1 tech hiring platform where thousands of recruiters interact with lakhs of candidates every month, we believe Cutshort has a big role to play in transforming The Great Talent Shakeup from an challenge to a big opportunity for everyone.
We plan to fight this war with this initiatives:
1. Plug the information and trust gap between the companies and professionals
There is a big information gap between what companies and professionals think about each other.
- Older recruiting processes, blaming all the candidates for offer shopping, etc are some ways this manifests on the company side.
- While on the candidate side, it becomes evident in terms of gross mistrust and a general feeling that all companies are just there to take maximum advantage of their workers.
We will strive hard to reduce this gap
- By our product
- By our research and curated insights Here is an example.
2. Modernize recruiting and upskill recruiters for this new world
Recruiting looks deceptively simple. It’s just about calling, checking interest, scheduling interviews, doing HR rounds and making offers, right?
No. Recruiting has changed dramatically in last 3 years. It is not art and science. To be successful, recruiters now need:
- Strong cross functional knowledge of business and tech
- Even stronger interpersonal skills
- Comfort with using technology
- Data crunching skills
- Sales and marketing skills
In many of our webinars and meetups, we have received requests from the recruiter community to enable learning on these essential skills.
We plan to soon launch a certification and learning program to help the recruiter community learn and share the skills that are super important in the context of #GreatTalentShakeup.
3. Foster recruiting community and connections to unlock the network value
Recruiting is a skill that you learn by doing. Every candidate is different, every company is different and every situation is different. The best way to learn is not theoretical.
In 2021, we brought together recruiters and HRs to come together and share info and network to help each other. We now have 2000+ members!
4. Design the Cutshort product to solve emerging problems
The Great Talent Shake-up has created new problems that need to be solved better.
For instance, there is a need for a stronger layer of trust between companies and talent. We are rolling out a new feature to bridge this gap.
Similarly, the modern talent wants more privacy settings and ways to explore more learning and collaborating opportunities outside of primary work. We will likely be rolling out more features to enable this too.
This war won’t be easy but together we will win
Honestly, doing all the above won’t be easy but as I keep saying — we are fortunate to have found many customers and well-wishers who have believed in us and made awesome things happpen.
The quantum of changes in the new economy are exciting and I’m sure we will be collectively able to tide over them and create a wonderful balance where companies and talent will be able to work together to achieve greater things for the humanity.
