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Why are so many top performers staying out of the job market? Why are applications from quality talent so hard to come by?
According to MichaelPage, almost four-in-ten employers (37 percent) struggled to find candidates with the right skills in 2024. Another 30 percent didn’t receive enough applications to fill their openings with qualified hires. And those shortfalls are unlikely to get any better in 2025. In fact, according to McKinsey, a whopping 87 percent of employers will experience a skills gap by the end of 2025.
What’s driving this situation? Economic and educational factors are certainly playing a role as is the uncertainty caused by political and labor market changes. Add those dynamics to the entirely appropriate mistrust workers have for corporate business leaders and you have the makings of a perfect talent vacuum in the job market.
Those same conditions have existed in the past, however, and have never produced a similar situation. So, there must be some other factor at work. The one that gets the most attention is career advancement or, more specifically, the lack thereof. If top talent can’t see a clear and credible pathway forward, they aren’t going to budge from where they’re already employed (as most are).
That’s true enough, but I think it’s the inverse of that factor that is actually having a greater impact. Opportunity is a powerful motivator, to be sure, but fear is even stronger. And today’s top performers aren’t applying for new jobs because they’re paralyzed by fear – by the fear of falling behind (FOFB).
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Ironically, fiction has provided one of the better illustrations of FOFB. The West Wing was a hugely popular TV series from 1999 to 2006. It was a fictional drama based on real world issues. In one episode, the president of a major labor union and two of his members are meeting with a senior aide in the White House. They’ve come to complain about the Administration’s new initiative to make American companies more competitive by introducing more technology into the workplace. Sound familiar?
Of course, the White House aides tell the workers not to worry. For every current job displaced by the technology, one or more new jobs will be created. One of the workers replies that he’s already retrained once to accommodate new technology and now this initiative will undoubtedly force him to do so again. And probably again after that. He concludes by saying he fears he’ll always be running to catch up, and that thought both exhausts and demoralizes him. He’s in the grips of FOFB. And, so too are many of today’s top performers.
So, while spotlighting an employer’s opportunities for advancement can’t hurt its value proposition as a place to work, it’s not enough to trigger a significant response from quality prospects. What has to be featured – not instead of but in addition to career potential – is a counter to candidate fear.
What’s that? A fulsome and credible commitment to employee Learning and Development (L&D).
Now, including L&D as a cited benefit in job postings is not a new idea, what I’m proposing is. I’m positing that the way an employer helps its workers avoid obsolescence should be the lead element in both its Employee Value Proposition and every one of its job postings. The content of that initiative and the creativity with which it is expressed will, more than any other single attribute, set the employer apart as an organization that can and will address candidate FOFB.
Workers’ fear of technology is well documented. In most cases, however, it’s seen as the fear of being replaced by robots or AI, and that’s certainly justified. But there’s another kind of fear that’s scaring even the best performers into paralysis. That’s the fear of being unable to continue as an effective working partner with advanced technology. Employers that recognize and provide a prescription for that FOFB will gain a powerful competitive advantage in today’s tight talent market.
Food for Thought,
Peter
Peter Weddle has authored or edited over two dozen books and been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is the founder and CEO of TAtech: The Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions.
