I hear a lot of talk about how hard it is to find qualified people, especially in relation to an anticipated workforce shortage. I disagree. In fact, we have two overlooked, overlapping populations that are a rich source of qualified personnel within our organizations. Both are just waiting to be noticed.
The In-house Talent Oversight
Too often, once a person is hired, they find themselves pigeon-holed in that same position for the rest of their organizational lives. Opportunities for which they are profoundly qualified go to new hires or to employees already in a particular area, simply because no one bothered to look a little deeper into the existing talent pool. The lost opportunity costs of promoting existing in-house talent is multiplied by the costs of external advertising, recruiting and interviewing for open positions. Talent acquisition costs can be saved by looking deeper within the existing talent base.
