Available skilled talent is at an all-time low, and this is great for the staffing industry. You might think that these two facts are opposites but when the going gets tough, hiring managers turn to the staffing industry for help. The recent drop in available higher-level professionals has created serious scarcity, and not just where you’ve seen it in your nearby industries. The War for Talent, as it has been deemed, is happening all over the world. Companies from Amsterdam to Seattle are struggling to fill lead, engineer, and senior management positions. Even mid-level technicians are becoming increasingly harder to find. Because of this, the competition is high between businesses, and every recruit has become a hot commodity. It’s no wonder the staffing industry is in high-gear to help these companies find the employees they need.

What is the War for Talent?

The War for Talent is, of course, not a real war. Instead, the war in question is the incredible competition being seen between companies to gain access to the available professionals in the workforce. Snaking, poaching, and even sabotage are at their height as employers scramble to get the best talent available. But where has all the talent gone? In the 80’s and 90’s, companies had to chase talent off with a stick. In the 00’s and early teens, ‘creating jobs’ was the way to go, but it’s not that we created too many jobs. It’s actually all about the gap between the boomers and the millennials.

Baby Boomers Retire

Baby boomers have been the core of the business world for decades, but they’re getting older. A lot older. Most boomers are now hitting or are already past their retirement age. They are taking their gold watches and their 401k’s and heading for the beach. Unfortunately, all of those boomers were our senior managers, engineers, and project leads. And as those positions open up, the business world is finding that there are not enough, leaving the much smaller generation of Gen-X professionals to try and pick up the slack.

Millennials Work Freelance

But, you may be wondering, what about all these highly talented, tech-savvy millennials we keep hearing about? Why aren’t they picking up where their boomer parents left off? The answer to this question is two-fold. First, there are thousands of millennials in the workforce right now taking interviews and office positions. However, like the professionals, their careers are young. They are still building up the 10-30 years of experience that are sometimes required for these senior positions. Millennial techs also tend to be self-taught instead of college educated, another disqualification.

The other side of this is that 40% and rising millennials don’t feel that commuting, interviews, and office work are a necessary part of their careers. They’d rather work remotely on their laptops or at home. They work freelance or in small millennial-founded outsourcing agencies, meaning they are officially out of the job seeker pool of people looking to fill an existing office position.

Staffing in a ‘War Zone’

So where does the mass Boomer exodus and the Millennial independent spirit leave the staffing industry? Working a lot harder, faster, and more competitively. High-quality staffing services are in even higher demand than they once were because now every candidate counts. Some companies face a combination of staffing shortages and high turnover, so they need each suggested recruit to be a great fit. These companies need someone they can hire quickly before the competition has a chance to get to the recruit with a better offer. If you are ready for the fast-paced and very human-centric world of staffing, rest assured the staffing industry could use your help.

Starting your own staffing franchise may sound daunting, but in reality there is help available. The real challenge starts when you roll up your sleeves and get to work with your employees to possibly have an opportunity to solve the War for Talent. Whether you become an expert at recruiting freelancers back into office life or simply build a reputation for efficient perfect matches, we look forward to seeing what you might do with your staffing franchise. For more information, contact us today.

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