How to leverage ‘skills-based innovation’ in ongoing candidate crisis

Want to increase your talent pool without breaking the bank? One VP of HR might have the answer you’re looking for

BY Emily Douglas 22 Feb. 2023

If technology is the right arm of HR, then innovation is most definitely its left. Since the pandemic, HR departments have been relied on as the strategic arm of an organization – needed to both come up with major decisions as well as implement them seamlessly.

And it’s been hard going.

As well as overnight digitization and an ongoing talent shortage, the current economic climate is giving rise to yet more budgetary cuts – making innovation more difficult than ever. In that vein, HRD recently scoured Canada for the Most Innovative HR Teams of 2023 – looking for the people who’re doing the best work even under such intense external conditions.

Access the full report of winners for the top HR innovators in Canada here.

Speaking to HRD, one of our winners, Laura Salvatore, VP of human capital at Toronto-based Centurion Asset Management, says they innovated their recruitment strategy to navigate the tight labour market- and it worked.

“Companies were offering huge increases and fancy titles that I’ve never seen before,” she explains. “So, we really had to get very creative.

“We managed to hire over 140 employees last year - but what’s really interesting about that is 90% of those hires were directly sourced. It really changed from being a typical interview process, to now we were trying to sell ourselves to these candidates saying, ‘Here’s why you should come and work for us’.”

A reliance on development and upskilling also helped them weather the candidate crisis, with Salvatore adding that the organization focused on soft skills online learning.