The rapidly changing nature of work coupled with unexpected external circumstances, such as the novel coronavirus pandemic, requires organizations to continuously relook and adjust talent strategies as needed. One component of this evaluation is trying to understand the supply and demand of skills within the workforce. In many respects, circumstances will result in a shortfall of skills that require talent decisions and questions such as 1) should we build on our existing skills? 2) Should we acquire them? 3) Or should we “rent” them? In other cases, it results in skill overages where we need to ask: 1) do we redeploy workers, 2 ) do we reskill or upskill workers, or 3) do we need to find thoughtful ways of exiting employees from the business. This article by McKinsey provides a few ideas on how to frame and answer some of these questions. A proactive approach such as this one can better enable organizations to take actions that prepare their talent strategy for tomorrow’s challenges.
