Not Talent

tal·ent     n.

• A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment, [syn: ability]
• Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality
• A person or group having such ability
• Natural qualities or talents [syn: endowment, gift, natural endowment]
• A person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity

We're facing a global competition for workers, not a shortage of talent. Study after study proves that employee performance is always a function of expectations. There is not a talent shortage, talent has nothing to do with the problem. The shortage is of fleshy human beings with the right skills to do the job.

You're probably scratching your head going "There he goes again, stating the obvious."

The problem with describing the problem as a question of "Talent" is that the doublespeak obscures the real situation. Solving a "War for Talent" is immensely different from "Finding the people we want to build our company from". Much of the consistent difficulty in driving recruiting productivity has to do with misunderstanding the real problem.

The latest Prescription plan offerings from the Federal government, executed without thinking, will exacerbate the already serious shortage of pharmacists. While hospitals around the world are willing to pay significant referral fees, we've yet to hear anyone describe the skills of a pharmacist as a "talent". In fact, the competition for existing workers (who are all already employed) simply moves the problem around making it harder to solve.

Here, rather than a battle for existing resources, is a problem best stated as "How do we get more people to fill prescriptions?" or, even, "How can we get more prescriptions filled?" or, perhaps "How can we reduce our reliance on pills as an answer?" While treating it as a talent problem drives you towards culling a herd of chimps to find the best pill-fillers, the other formulations encourage real problem solving.

That will be the real job of recruiters in the near term. Given that there are no more of people with skill X, what are our alternatives?

Get your copy of the white paper, Building Talent Scout Networks, today.