Untapped talent: a long-term game leaders can no longer afford to ignore

In October of this year, the unemployment rate in the UK dropped to 3.5%, the lowest rate since February 1974. At face value, this is a really positive statistic, suggesting less people are struggling to find work and are able to participate in the economy.

Unfortunatley this isn’t the case. The number of people not in work or seeking employment has significantly increased. This number jumped by 22% during June to August of this year, up by more than 6% than before the Covid-19 pandemic. Statistics show that there’s been an increase in people not working because they are suffering from a long-term illness, as well as a rise in people who aren’t able to work due to caring commitments.

This data alongside existing skills shortages across the labour market means employers are facing an unrelenting battle for talent. There are of course simple tweaks to your attraction and retention strategies that can help make sure you will stand out as an employer of choice for professionals, yet there’s a long-term game in engaging with ‘untapped’ or ‘unexpected’ talent that I believe leaders can no longer ignore.

What is untapped talent?

Untapped, unexpected, or hidden talent describes a proportion of the workforce who might struggle to access work, or who might face a number of barriers during application. This could include, but isn’t limited to, ex-service leavers, caregivers, individuals over 60, neurodivergent professionals, or those with a criminal record.

Not only might this section of the workforce face barriers during a job application, it’s also likely that employers simply won’t come across them during ‘traditional’ searches for staff.

The term unexpected or hidden talent might suggest these people are actively choosing not to partake in the labour market – this is far from the case. In fact, leaders should be doing all they can to actively seek them out and ensure they aren’t left behind, subsequently supporting their long-term talent pipeline.

Why should leaders care about untapped talent?

Not only is supporting those who might struggle to access work the right thing to do, it’s crucially important for business. A 2021 report by Harvard Business School and Accenture found that businesses who purposefully hire hidden workers are likely see a direct return on investment. Organisations who did hire outside of their usual talent pool were 36% less likely to face skills shortages compared to organisations who don’t seek out untapped talent.

The report also highlighted that untapped talent, once given the opportunity, will often outperform their peers across six criteria - attitude and work ethic, productivity, quality of work, engagement, attendance, and innovation. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as taking ex-service leaders as an example, many have a wealth of transferable and in-demand skills that can benefit workplaces of all shapes and sizes such as organisation, reliability, timekeeping and a solution focused work ethic.

When it comes to purposefully hiring those who could classify as untapped talent, there’s certainly room for improvement. In data from our Hays UK Salary & Recruiting Trends 2023 survey, whilst over a third of employers said they are actively hiring apprentices and graduates, less than a fifth are actively hiring those over the age of 50 (19%), only 13% are actively hiring ex-service leavers and even less so are purposely hiring neurodivergent talent (9%).

Not only does hiring from outside your usual talent pool make good business sense, but it’s more importantly allowing those who might need certain tweaks to the application process, or access to part-time work a chance to thrive in a skills short labour market.

What steps can organisations take to access untapped talent?

Like the title of this blog suggests, accessing and purposefully hiring untapped talent is a long-term game. It isn’t a quick fix to skills shortages and must be part of your wider DE&I strategy.

Instead, working with your hiring teams and senior leaders it’s important to assess what skills you are lacking amongst your workforce as a starter. Then next look to what area of the workforce you could make adjustments for to purposefully hire, and this may involve working with partner organisations who will be able to advise on adjustments to policies as well as tweaks to your hiring process.

There’s no harm in looking for support to do this, and in fact I’d encourage it. At Hays we work with Genius Within, an organisation supporting neurodiverse talent as well as our work with End Youth Homelessness, proactively helping disadvantaged young people secure jobs.

In order for this happen, leaders need to understand the skills and talents available from all segments of the workforce – and acknowledge that diversity is a key point of competitive leverage for organisations to drive forward access for untapped talent.