98% of Employers Are Struggling to Find Talent. A New Talent Playbook Can Help.

A survey from Hult International Business School paints a bleak picture of our current talent economy. According to those surveyed—HR leaders and recent college graduates working in business roles across the US—traditional undergraduate programs aren’t adequately preparing students to succeed in the workplace. 

Among the findings: 

• 77% of graduates say they learned more in six months at their job than in their entire 4-year education  

• 75% of HR leaders say the education provided at most colleges isn’t preparing people at all for their jobs 

• 98% of leaders say their organization is struggling to find talent, yet 89% admit to avoiding hiring recent grads  

The challenges facing our talent economy are multifaceted and complex. The systems that should connect individuals to opportunity remain fragmented, outdated, and misaligned. At the center of this failure is a structural mismatch: individuals need flexible, personalized pathways relevant to a dynamic 21st century economy, while employers need adaptive, prepared talent. But the institutions and models meant to supply that talent haven’t kept up—and not for a lack of trying. 

Rather than changing the way education is provided and funded, predominant reform efforts of the past two decades haven’t emphasized the role of the talent suppliers:  

• The “college for all” movement expanded access, but often neglected persistence, completion, value and cost, and alignment with workforce demand 

• The push for skills-based hiring has challenged conventional employer practices, but does little to restructure how individuals gain, signal and stack the skills needed for mobility 

Now, we face an inflection point: public trust in higher ed is waning, AI threatens to upend traditional pathways, and political pressure is intensifying. 

But here’s the good news. A thriving talent economy is within reach, and substantive efforts are already underway to move the needle towards a talent economy that enables mutual growth for the workforce and the individuals who power it.   

As I recently shared at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Washington DC, we’ve uncovered several design principles at Western Governors University that are proving instrumental in bridging the worlds of education and work (98% of employers say WGU grads meet or exceed expectations, according to a 2023 Harris Poll). Grounded by a set of core beliefs—the inherent worth of individuals, their innate capacity for learning, and that opportunity is abundant and expands as more participate in it—these principles can for the most part be applied across the talent lifecycle, and serve as guideposts as we work to build a thriving talent economy:   

1. Individuals = primary beneficiary: In education and in work, it’s about helping individuals progress. 
2. Skills-architected, competency-based: A skills-based architecture reduces disparities in labor market outcomes and benefits organizations that gain access to a broader talent pool. 
3. Multi-modal pathways, designed for first, and next: The days of one-and-done learning are behind us; we must enable learners to engage in a lifelong learning loop where learning is ubiquitous and verification and credentialing are needed across pathways and modalities. 
4. Who you know matters: Up to 80% of jobs come through connections ( Julia Freeland Fisher ), and social capital is shown to boost economic mobility more than anything else (Raj Chetty et al.) 
5. Tech (AI)-enabled: Technology is just a tool, but it can and should be used as a force for good. Just as the Internet democratized access to education, AI holds the potential to democratize learning through personalized interventions. 
6. Market = accreditor: Students cite improved career outcomes as their top reason for pursuing higher education ( Lumina Foundation & Gallup ); to make education more relevant, learning outcomes must be aligned with workforce demands. 

Every day I feel humbled to serve as the president of WGU—there truly is no greater gift than to work among peers and endeavor to improve lives, one-by-one, by creating pathways to opportunity. And what I witnessed at the Washington DC event was encouraging. Momentum is building to reimagine how higher education and industry align to unleash individuals’ limitless potential. 

Are there any design principles you’d like me to explore in greater depth? Let me know and I’ll do my best to revisit in a future newsletter or post.   

Until next time, 

Scott   

Reader Spotlight: The opportunities (and challenges) of digital wallets   

I recently shared how digital wallets can enhance individuals’ employability and help employers more efficiently identify qualified talent by providing a digital space for individuals to showcase their verified skills, experiences, and achievements. Much of the feedback was positive, but I appreciate Jeremy Bellows for elevating the conversation with an additional perspective (response edited for clarity and length): 

“All of this is useless without business culture reform. When businesses mitigate risk excessively by transferring risk to the candidates, that signals poor decision making during process architecting and a lack of integrity in values. I have used the digital skills wallet when it was in beta. The market has an abundance of innovations in this space so I am not surprised by the slow adoption. The issue is not tech-related. It is a management issue and a fundamental lack of benevolence by decision makers.” 

Jeremy isn’t wrong—despite data showing individuals are excited to use the tech, employers continue to have a bias for the degree. In last month’s Progress, SHRM 's Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP described how the people who are making decisions have often acquired their education through traditional pathways, so their bias is built in. It'll take time for individuals and organizations to change their mindsets, but I remain optimistic.

ICYMI: Here's what caught my attention recently 

• We’ve Forgotten What College Is For (Scott Parker, The Chronicle of Higher Education ): Unlike the author, I’m not convinced taxpayers should be funding an individual’s “coming-of-age” experience or presumption of it as a unique or singular path to “good citizenry.” 

• ‘You can’t create 18-year-olds’: What can colleges do amid demographic upheaval? ( Ben Unglesbee , Higher Ed Dive ): Yes, traditional college-going populations are shrinking—but millions of others have already been locked out of higher education, creating ample room for scaling the impact of education and the economic mobility it enables. 

• Why You Can’t Hire for Skills Without a Skills-Based Culture ( Maria Flynn , MIT Sloan Management Review ): A helpful perspective: “Making good on the promise of a skills-based approach to hiring hinges on longer-term shifts in the mindsets, culture, practices, and procedures that underpin the day-to-day activities of employers.”