The Big Bang is often an overused metaphor, but in the case of what’s about to happen in the talent market, it’s exactly on point. As I discussed in my last post, the Big Bang in talent acquisition isn’t a concept or even a prediction. It’s a proximate reality. It will be driven by the simultaneous investment of $6-7+ trillion in building out global AI infrastructure and $1.5+ trillion in replenishing and upgrading defense systems in the U.S.plus billions more in the EU.
That massive expenditure of money will create an unprecedented demand for talent. Employers will, of course, need to recruit AI-expert talent, but they will also seek skilled tradespeople, factory workers trained for modern manufacturing, commercial drivers and warehouse workers as well as engineers and scientists to accelerate research and development and specialized workers in maritime, air and space systems manufacturing.
No less important, there will be an unrelenting sense of urgency in meeting that demand, thanks to competitive pressures in the AI market and burgeoning national security requirements. This hothouse environment will force employers to aggressively acquire and/or adopt resources that will optimize their recruiting productivity and outcomes, and only the broad spectrum of recruitment technology has the potential to deliver that capability.
Successfully capitalizing on this opportunity, however, will require that job boards and talent technology companies do more than simply show up. They will have to start now on a range of preparatory actions that will ensure they can individually meet a number of employer needs. For that reason, the central focus of most action plans will be the addition of recruitment capabilities, either through partnering with other TA solution providers or through external investors that enable those capabilities to be acquired.
Over the next 15 years, there will be one labor category that is every bit as hard-to-recruit as AI-ready talent. That labor category is purchasing professionals. The press of the extraordinary build-out of the AI infrastructure and the massive build-up of defense systems will create a contracting frenzy that will far outstrip the available supply of those workers.
In the HCM arena, companies will respond by accelerating a development already underway in the talent market: reducing friction in the tech stack. Employers will still consider best-of-breed TA solutions, but more and more, they will lean into the acquisition of multi-capability platforms or portfolios that meet more than one of their needs. And now, there will be the additional incentive of those platforms imposing less of a workload on the purchasing department than contracting with multiple vendors to acquire the same (or similar) capabilities.
To prepare for the Big Bang in talent acquisition, therefore, providers will have to embark on a two-pronged strategy.
• Partnering: Most TA solution providers have used partnering as a core element of the Go-To-Market strategy. Such efforts must now be redoubled and viewed through a much more strategic lens. In other words, recruitment technology companies must seek out other providers with capabilities that augment their value proposition as “an integrated solution” AND evaluate and replace those relationships which do not help the integrated solution generate additional revenue. Said another way, TA solution providers must emulate employers and focus more on the quality than the quantity of their partnerships.
• Investments: While many, maybe even most TA solution providers “think” about seeking outside investment, only a small fraction actually act on that notion. Going forward, however, they must be more proactive. They will need funds for multiple purposes, but most importantly, to build out their own capabilities and/or acquire others for their platform or portfolio and to brand and promote the combined entity as a multi-capable platform. The downside, of course, is that investments always come with strings, so success will also depend on providers finding an investment partner or partners with a compatible vision.
The Big Bang isn’t some distant event, but rather a near-term window of opportunity, and that window is about to open. To take advantage of it, recruitment technology companies must prepare now for the extraordinary change about to take place in the scope and pace of employers’ talent needs and establish a platform solution that measures up to the moment.
Food for Thought,
Peter
Peter Weddle is the Founder & CEO of TAtech: The Network for Talent Technology Solutions. The author or editor of over two dozen books, he has also been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and chaired major human-machine and leadership studies for select Federal Boards.
