Now is the time for HR departments to seize on their "opportunity to influence strategy" and find ideal candidates amid the fierce competition for a limited talent pool, says Lyn Craven, a principal consultant at Thought Leadership & Advisory Services for Cornerstone OnDemand, a Santa Monica, California-headquartered cloud-based learning and talent management software provider.
The question for HR is can they "help determine learning strategies that could help bring people onboard who maybe don't have the skills, but [have] capacity and willingness to learn to close the gap?" Craven says.
HR needs to be proactive in demonstrating the importance of a "return on human capital," which may not always garner the same attention from top leadership as spending to protect capital assets or to boost marketing. HR can frame their pitch, for example, by laying out the cost to improve hiring and retention, but also how that will save money as solid employees decide to stay for the long-term.