Why workforce agility platforms are a win for talent acquisition teams

As the pace of change accelerates and economic uncertainty continues, leaders are increasingly looking to talent marketplaces to unlock the agility needed to thrive in 2023 and beyond. The platforms are no longer experimental technology; today, they’re considered one of three key areas of focus for executives to drive value. As leading HR industry analyst Josh Bersin explains, “[The talent marketplace] is one of the most successful innovations in HR. Every company that adopts this solution sees almost immediate positive results and over time the platform becomes one of the most popular systems in the company.”

By now, most talent management and workforce planning leaders recognize that launching a workforce agility platform that includes a talent marketplace is a major win. In addition to providing full skills visibility and paving the way for employee-led career development, implementing a workforce agility platform is an exciting opportunity for talent acquisition teams.

With these systems, talent acquisition teams can become strategic partners for workforce planning and help their organizations pivot from a jobs-based hiring approach to one that’s rooted in skills. Beyond serving as an employee matching tool, workforce agility platforms enable talent acquisition teams to recalibrate their strategies and bridge skill gaps that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

A new chapter for talent acquisition teams

In the past, talent acquisition efforts focused on bringing external candidates into the organization and building talent pools around them. Leaders didn’t have a full picture of the skills within their workforce, so attracting new talent often seemed like the surest way to add necessary capabilities.

In contrast, today’s talent acquisition strategies are turning those outdated models upside down. As skill gaps widen, HR teams recognize that some of the most valuable talent is already working within their organization. Internal candidates have several advantages over their colleagues from outside organizations, including streamlined onboarding, more seamless cross-functional collaboration processes, and reduced hiring and recruitment costs.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for sourcing candidates. At every organization, there will be times when it makes the most sense to hire externally, moments when talent can be “borrowed” from other teams, and occasions when internal candidates can be upskilled or reskilled to fill high-priority positions.

Thus the new challenge for talent acquisition teams is making strategic decisions about when to upskill existing employees, when to hire externally, and when to reallocate team members—also known as choosing whether to build, borrow or buy. And that’s where workforce agility platforms come into play. By pairing a talent marketplace with workforce intelligence, these platforms create a continuous loop of insight to action that takes talent acquisition to new heights. They help talent acquisition teams capitalize on internal mobility by ensuring their organization can tap into all of the skills within their workforce.

3 reasons why workforce agility platforms are a win for talent acquisition teams

As the half–life of skills shrinks and labor shortages continue, talent acquisition teams must embrace new strategies to ensure their business has the capabilities needed to stay competitive. Workforce agility platforms equip talent acquisition teams with several key advantages that will help them embrace more dynamic, skills-based approaches to talent management and workforce planning.

#1. See how candidates stack up

Identifying the applicant whose skills, aspirations, and experience best align with a job opening is always challenging—especially when comparing internal and external candidates. Rather than struggling to weigh applicants across multiple systems, workforce agility platforms enable talent acquisition teams to compare profiles for external applicants side-by-side with internal talent. As a result, leaders can feel confident that they’re promoting a fair and equitable selection process and ensure that they’re not hiring externally when there’s a qualified candidate within their organization.

#2.  Build skills-based talent pools

The shift to skills-based strategies is well underway. 98% of organizations indicate they want to adopt skills-based work and 90% are actively experimenting with it.

By harnessing a workforce agility platform, talent acquisition teams can actively empower their organization to embrace a skills-based approach. The platform leverages recommendations driven by workforce intelligence so that talent acquisition teams can build talent pipelines around critical skills or high-priority roles.

#3. Level-up candidate experience

Nearly one-third of new hires quit their jobs within their first six months because the role wasn’t what they expected it to be. Rather than letting this turnover cycle continue, workforce agility platforms provide candidates with more clarity about how their skills stack up against a job and what their career growth could look like. As a result, these systems can improve the quality of every hire by giving applicants the information they need to decide whether a job and company are actually a good fit for them.

How to get your talent acquisition team excited about your platform launch

Change can be challenging, and launching a workforce agility platform is no exception. To maximize the success of your system, it’s important to gain buy-in from team members across the organization—including talent acquisition leaders.

Building momentum for the platform starts by making a clear case for why it’s going to benefit talent acquisition teams. After highlighting how workforce agility platforms can improve the quality of every hire and fuel skills-based talent sourcing, remind leaders that the system is more than just another business tool. As Heather Yurko, Vice President of Digital Talent at Mastercard, explains, “It’s more than a business solution, it’s also a people solution that allows us to bring our employees together and develop them in very meaningful ways.”

Yurko offers the following advice for talent and HR leaders who are preparing to launch their workforce agility platform: “Commit your vision to paper. Write down where you are now and where you want to go. Be clear about what’s changing for each of your stakeholders and document what you need them to know about and what you need them to do.”