During COVID, something changed with how people worked and what they were willing to do at work. Small business owners struggled to find qualified people with the skills and dedication they needed to fit jobs inside their organization.
My guest on The Small Business Radio Show says that using AI for “talent intelligence” to assess skills adjacency (if you are good at skill A, you will also be good at skill B) opens non-traditional pathways for candidates who don’t have the experience doing the exact job, needed but have every ounce of capability required.
Alexandra Levit is an author, speaker, consultant, and futurist who helps individuals and organizations prepare for the future of work. A nationally syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal, she has spoken about workforce issues on five continents and has consulted for numerous Fortune 500 organizations and the U.S. government. Her new book is called “Deep Talent: How to Transform Your Organization and Empower Your Employees Through AI”.
This is what I discussed with Alexandra:
- She believes the world is at a societal and technological inflection point. Small business owners are ready to empower employees to pursue the careers of their choice within our organizations.
- Business leaders cite talent recruitment and development as top challenges due to talent shortages, long hiring times, and high turnover. Meanwhile, key challenges for engagement and retention include managing employee expectations in line with post-pandemic norms.
- Her research and experience show that nearly 50 percent of top talent leaves within two years, but also that most individuals would happily stay if given the right learning and growth opportunities.
- Unfortunately, as companies grow and gain thousands of employees, leaders tend to lose track of their workforce’s abilities. They don’t know what skills employees have already acquired at work, what skills employees are well-equipped to master next, or how certain skills can be used to grow individual careers.
- AI holds the promise of the next big career accomplishment hidden in plain sight. The jobs are there, and the people are there. It’s not an HR or a workflow problem, it’s a matching problem.
- Unearthing the right matches between the best people and the most critical jobs small business owners need to fill, is more than doable. The technology is here today, and the strategies needed to effectively wield it on behalf of our workforces are already being deployed across the globe.
Listen to the entire interview with Alexandra Levit on The Small Business Radio Show.
Image: alexandralevit
This article, “How Talent Intelligence Uses AI to Match the Right Employees for Your Company” was first published on Small Business Trends