The Sift for Talent

Consultants love talking about the war for talent because it implies that companies should hire them to help. However, I don't think companies experience the world that way. It's not so common that a company interviews people for a job and then finds their top choices turn them down because someone else made a better offer (university recruiting may be an exception). More commonly, they sift through mounds of applications and try to find someone suitable, usually ending up with an ok new hire but not a star.

The problem is not battling against a competitor but sifting through a piles of sand to find the gold nugget. The war metaphor doesn't work.

So consultants might want to give the war metaphor a rest. Talent is important, but it doesn't feel like a war, it just feels like a long slog.