So They Go

So what? Can’t you just replace them? You might be able to replace your key people, but at what cost? Most retention experts agree that replacing key talent will cost you two times their annual salaries. And replacing “platinum” workers (those with specialized skills) will run four to five times their annual salary.

GO TO Numbers

Even if you can afford to replace them, will you be able to find skilled replacements?

You think 1999 was a bad time to be hiring? That year was only a footprint for what we’ll see in the future. We’ll be facing the worst labor shortage in our lifetime within the next five years.

—Jeff Taylor, founder, Monster

The demographers and workforce pundits disagree. Will we be short millions of workers in the coming decades or have plenty to go around? The mitigating factors to talent shortages (globalization/offshoring, technology advances, delayed retirement, immigration) are so many and so complex that some feel a crystal ball would do as good a job as the experts when it comes to projecting the answer.

What we do know is this: the labor market is changing, and in many segments there aren’t enough skilled workers to fill the jobs open today, let alone support a growing economy. Notice what’s happening in your own backyard. Do you have plenty of people, with exactly the right skills, to step in when you lose a key contributor? Or is there a current or pending talent shortage in your industry, geography, or job function?