Let’s see where we are right now.
The most recent Manpower Group talent shortage survey reported that 77% employers find it tough to find the right people for the job. The 2022 CEO Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs cited global labor/skill shortages as a top external business strategy challenge.
KPMG’s opinion is that this lack of talent is the most important roadblock to industries growing and innovating, and this is during a time that we’re anticipating a global recession. This is not surprising, because:
- The world has experienced the hottest June ever, the hottest July ever, the hottest August ever
- Random wildfires, hurricanes, cyclones, and floods are overwhelming natural disaster experts (and victims)
- Russia is at war with Ukraine, Israel is at war with Palestine, and economies are becoming increasingly war-focused
- There is some justifiable anti-immigration panic in big cities, as everyone worries about living space and jobs
- The truth is there is going to be more migration as dictatorships in Africa collapse or strengthen themselves. The number of people claiming asylum is triple the amount cities like NY, Chicago, or Washington can accommodate.
- The world is in pandemic recovery, and mask mandates are still being followed in many cities (Vienna, for a big and bright example)
We dwell in unbalanced times.
Does business have a responsibility to address this fundamental instability and looming crisis? Yes and no. It is ultimately the job of policymakers and government administrations to take climate change seriously, debate their stand on political asylum, and fund medical research to tackle the post-Covid situation. But it’s dishonest to overlook the amount of influence businesses have on the way big money is spent. And whatever role hiring and salaries may be playing in individual businesses, we cannot achieve any level of preparedness without a proper understanding of the big-picture problems we’re surrounded by.
There is another, slightly more sinister problem underlying this crisis: we’re told repeatedly that financial growth follows a chosen path, and if we – as individuals, NGOs, or 8-figure businesses – stick to that path, we will be invincible. We’re subtly informed that only specific kinds of work are valid, and experimenting with our choices might be disastrous. Fancier ways of work are inherently dangerous because you might lose control of the business processes. Work from home, a 100% freelance team, or a 100% full-time team are too outlandish. We misunderstand how widespread our individual problems are, and our stopgap solutions actually solve nothing at all. Our ill-timed efforts to run business-as-usual halt progress in its tracks.
Let’s try, for a moment, to break out of this agonizing loop.
Political conflicts are beyond the control of most businesses, and industries are investing millions to address climate change. Strategies to reduce industrial waste, deforestation, emissions, and the use of fossil fuels have been successful. But it will take years to reverse the pressures we’re currently facing. In the meantime, is it really possible to leave businesses open to vulnerabilities?
Would building a system of internal resilience within our businesses be a possible answer? A system that would absorb shocks coming from political issues, legal situations, or environmental concerns?
It is not the intention of this article to posit global hiring as this shock-absorbing backbone. That is not how global work functions. The only thing that can act as this support system is a mindset ready to experiment with different work styles, setups, and formats. (That this mindset is perfect groundwork for global work is a different matter.)
The real work towards raising awareness for this was done during the 2008 recession.
- Starbucks swiftly closed hundreds of stores only to open many more outlets once they had recovered
- Ford drastically reduced its operations in the U.S., and focused on its global presence
- Coca Cola invested in innovation instead of doubling down on cost-cutting measures
This is not to show how already-established brands deal with these unexpected problems, but to point out the range of options all businesses have at their fingertips. A really good example of on-their-feet thinking was Disney’s launch of Disney+ when the pandemic forced them to shut down their theme parks all over the world. The ability to operate on a global scale also spreads risk, reducing vulnerability to regional economic downturns. This, of course, is leveraging a global clientele, but strategic global hiring also buttresses resilience. Using remote work, such as hiring freelancers or part-time remote employees from around the world reduces operational costs and offers access to specialized skills. Small companies can outsource specific tasks or projects to global freelancers or outsourcing agencies, providing cost-effectiveness and scalability. Incidentally, the biggest companies – Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Shopify – use a variety of setups for their work. Even in the midst of the ‘back to office’ trend, all of them continue working with remote workers near physical offices, remote workers in different continents, distributed departments, and global freelance professionals.
More often than not, this flexibility has side benefits:
- Global connections
- Improved digital presence
- Better work-life balance
- Diversity and inclusion
What we can immediately do is look beyond the obvious external sources of concern. It’s easier for us to focus on business continuity when we’re equipped to treat political/economic upheavals as unavoidable events, not an anomaly.
Every second spent trying to turn the clock back is wasted.
