Workforce Planning and Recruitment in 2023: Navigating Remote Hiring, Talent Pool Readiness, and Unique Skill Sets

For the last week, I tried to connect with a few leaders and discuss what priorities may shape up in 2023.  Here are the few things that came up

• A few CFOs are asking about the spread-out location footprint due to remote hiring.  Should we be this spread out, and what are the longer-term implications of such a large location footprint
• Can smaller locations gain importance in footprint planning with automation and resizing in play?  This concept is an interesting evaluation scenario as we may not hire in large volumes.  Can we look at, say, San Antonio in Texas, Nova Scotia in Canada, Northern Ireland, Manchester in the UK, Smaller cities in India like Indore, and places like Nepal for GBS
• There is a bit more emphasis on industry maturity and the readiness of the talent pool.  Perhaps this is consistent and to be expected with the market conditions.  Companies want us to analyze the readiness of the talent pool deep
• While employers may have some flexibility on sign-on bonuses and other components, Compensation for the right talent has not changed in the candidates’ minds.  This is where Recruiters can add huge value in bridging the gap between reality and market conditions
• Backfill Recalibration:  Many companies are taking the opportunities around backfill and recalibrating their experience and skills.  For example, if you are to backfill a Product Manager with historical P&L savviness, does it now make sense to reimagine this role from an innovation angle?
• As the demand for unique skill sets continues to rise, resource management is increasingly becoming vital to any successful enterprise.  To stay competitive, organizations must be able to identify and acquire resources with specific abilities to maximize efficiency and achieve their goals.
• In today’s global climate, geopolitics has shifted to the forefront of workforce planning models.  Countries worldwide are now taking a closer look at how they interact with countries like Russia, as one example.  At Draup, we are planning to add indices such as Fragile State Index, Political Stability, and so on

As you can see, the market is ripe for the services that a Workforce Planner and a Recruiter can do; they are precious now.  But a bit of reemphasizing and communication may be required.  Tony Fadell, in the book Build, gives a perfect example.  Nest introduced a revolutionary thermostat that wasn’t like any other on the market.  After taking an in-depth look at energy consumption trends, they saw how many companies rewarded customers for not using as much during peak hours and decided to highlight this feature with their own version called Rush Hour Rewards – allowing users to save money by curbing cooling or heating usage when demand was highest!

Recruitment is more than just finding new resources – it’s about creating lasting, value-maximizing relationships.  A recruiter acts as a compensation optimizer, ensuring both sides are rewarded in onboarding.  There are several new things a workforce planner and a Recruiter may do.  Similarly, a Workforce Planner is more than just a supply/demand gap modeler.

Here is a schematic for your consideration through the lens of an alternate talent pool that may be helpful

As we embark on a new exploration, our mission is to investigate the consistency of roles within different industries and comprehend their individual duties.  Take the role of an ABB product manager as one example; what distinct obligations come with this position?  How do they vary from industry to industry?  By performing an in-depth analysis, you can optimize the number of roles and make their descriptions more detailed.