When an industry faces a workforce shortage, the immediate response is often to recruit more aggressively. Employers increase job advertising, attend career fairs and compete to attract qualified applicants.<\/p>\n
These efforts can help fill open positions. But when multiple employers are competing for the same limited pool of workers, attracting someone to one organization doesn’t necessarily increase the number of people available to work in the industry.<\/p>\n
Addressing long-term workforce shortages means looking beyond who’s already qualified and actively searching for work. It also means helping more people discover, consider and prepare for careers they might not have explored otherwise.<\/p>\n
Workforce challenges aren’t the same in every industry. Some sectors are struggling to replace retiring employees, while others need workers with emerging technical skills or specialized qualifications.<\/p>\n
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025<\/a> found that employers expect 39% of workers’ existing skill sets to change or become outdated between 2025 and 2030. The report also identified skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation for 63% of employers.<\/p>\n Demographic changes are adding another layer of complexity. According to Statistics Canada<\/a>, the 12-month average number of retirements in Canada rose from approximately 184,000 in August 2012 to nearly 277,000 in August 2025.<\/p>\n These developments don’t mean every industry faces the same shortage. They do show why workforce planning needs to look beyond today’s vacancies.<\/p>\n Organizations must consider how required skills are changing, who will be available to perform the work and how new people can be introduced to career opportunities.<\/p>\n Imagine someone with technical experience that could be valuable in construction, energy, manufacturing or transportation. Employers across these industries might be competing to recruit that person.<\/p>\n A compelling job advertisement, attractive compensation package or strong employer brand could help one organization stand out. But successfully recruiting that worker doesn’t create an additional person with those skills.<\/p>\n This is one of the limitations of relying exclusively on conventional recruitment tactics.<\/p>\n When employers focus only on people who already possess the required qualifications, they may find themselves competing more intensely without addressing the underlying shortage of available workers.<\/p>\n That doesn’t make job advertising or recruitment campaigns ineffective. It means their ability to solve a broader workforce challenge depends on how many qualified people are available and willing to make a move. To expand the potential workforce, industries also need to reach people who aren’t currently considering their opportunities.<\/p>\n Some potential workers don’t apply because they don’t know an opportunity exists. Others may know about an industry but have assumptions that prevent them from considering it.<\/p>\n Someone with an aptitude for skilled trades might associate the work with outdated stereotypes. An experienced employee might assume that moving into another sector would require starting over. A student might be interested in a career but have no idea which training program could help them get there.<\/p>\n These people aren’t necessarily uninterested or unqualified. They may simply lack the information or encouragement needed to explore the opportunity.<\/p>\n Traditional recruitment tends to reach people who are already looking for work. Workforce development also needs to engage people earlier, before they’ve decided which careers are possible or relevant to them. That includes students, newcomers, career changers and people working in adjacent industries.<\/p>\n For organizations facing persistent shortages, introducing new audiences to potential careers can be just as important as attracting applicants who are ready to move today.<\/p>\n One opportunity that conventional recruitment can overlook is the experience people already have.<\/p>\n A worker may possess technical, administrative, operational or interpersonal skills that could be valuable in another industry, even if their previous job title doesn’t match the role being advertised. However, people don’t always recognize these connections themselves.<\/p>\n An employer might describe a position using specialized terminology that makes the opportunity seem inaccessible. A prospective worker might assume they need to complete an entirely new education program when some of their existing skills could already be relevant.<\/p>\n Clear information about transferable skills can help people understand where their experience fits and what additional training they might need.<\/p>\n Employers and industry organizations can also make these pathways more accessible through apprenticeships, supported training, employer-funded certifications and opportunities to earn while learning.<\/p>\n These approaches won’t eliminate every qualification requirement, particularly in regulated or highly specialized occupations. But they can help organizations identify potential workers who might otherwise be excluded from consideration.<\/p>\n Even when career opportunities exist, the way people perceive an industry can influence whether they explore them.<\/p>\n An industry might offer meaningful work, opportunities for advancement and access to new technology, but prospective workers may still associate it with an outdated or incomplete picture. That’s where communications and employer branding can make a difference.<\/p>\n Rather than simply promoting vacancies, organizations can help people understand what the work involves, who performs it and what opportunities are available.<\/p>\n Our work with Tourism HR Canada on the Discover Tourism campaign<\/a> provides an example. Through a refreshed brand, digital resources and stories from people working throughout the industry, the campaign helped present tourism as a sector with diverse career possibilities.<\/p>\n The refreshed brand’s launch announcement reached an estimated potential audience of more than 13.5 million through online and print media. While potential reach doesn’t demonstrate an increase in the workforce, initiatives like this can support an important earlier objective: helping people reconsider an industry and discover opportunities they might not have explored otherwise.<\/p>\n Attracting new audiences doesn’t mean presenting an overly positive picture of an industry. People need credible information to decide whether a career aligns with their interests, abilities and circumstances. That includes understanding the rewards of the work, but also its demands.<\/p>\n Compensation, scheduling, workplace conditions, training requirements and career progression can all influence whether someone chooses to pursue an opportunity. If an industry struggles with difficult working conditions or limited advancement, better advertising alone won’t resolve those challenges.<\/p>\n Recruitment communications need to reflect the actual experience being offered, while employers and workforce partners address the practical conditions affecting attraction and retention.<\/p>\n In our work with Abilities Manitoba on the Let’s Grow to Work campaign<\/a>, authentic stories helped introduce audiences to the experiences of direct support professionals. By highlighting the people involved and the realities of the role, the campaign provided a more relatable understanding of a career that prospective workers may not have previously considered.<\/p>\n This kind of storytelling can help people make more informed career decisions rather than simply encouraging them to apply.<\/p>\n Organizations still need effective recruitment strategies to fill immediate vacancies. But workforce development also requires investment in people who may be months or years away from entering an industry.<\/p>\n That could mean introducing students to unfamiliar occupations, helping career changers understand transferable skills or connecting interested people with training and certification opportunities. It also means maintaining relationships with people who express interest but aren’t ready to apply.<\/p>\n A student exploring a career might need information about education requirements. A worker considering a transition may need to understand available training supports. A newcomer may need clearer information about how previous qualifications relate to local opportunities.<\/p>\n Each audience has different needs, and those needs may not be met by a standard job advertisement.<\/p>\n By considering these longer-term pathways, organizations can support the development of future talent rather than relying exclusively on competition for existing workers.<\/p>\n Traditional recruitment still has an important role. Job advertising, career fairs, recruitment websites and employer branding can connect qualified people with meaningful opportunities.<\/p>\n But when industries face persistent shortages, these tactics need to work alongside initiatives that introduce new people to careers, develop relevant skills and make employment pathways more accessible.<\/p>\n At UpHouse, we approach this challenge through our six-stage framework<\/a>, which considers the full journey from someone’s initial impressions of an industry to successfully beginning a career.<\/p>\n For organizations struggling to attract talent, the opportunity isn’t always to recruit harder. Sometimes, it’s to help more people recognize that a career could be right for them in the first place.<\/p>\n Recruitment campaigns can help individual employers attract qualified applicants, but they don’t necessarily increase the overall number of people with the skills needed across an industry.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Career awareness initiatives, employee stories, educational partnerships and information about transferable skills can introduce opportunities to people who haven’t considered the industry.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Employer branding can help people understand the value and reality of a career. However, communications need to be supported by credible employment conditions and accessible pathways into the work.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Training programs, apprenticeships and supported learning opportunities can help people develop the qualifications needed to enter careers that might otherwise seem inaccessible.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When an industry faces a workforce shortage, the immediate response is often to recruit more aggressively. Employers increase job advertising, attend career fairs and compete to attract qualified applicants. These efforts can help fill open positions. But when multiple employers are competing for the same limited pool of workers, attracting someone to one organization doesn’t … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-essentials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uphouseinc.com\/marketing-hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recruiting the Same Workers Doesn’t Expand the Talent Pool<\/h2>\n
The Next Generation of Workers Might Not Be Looking for You<\/h2>\n
Transferable Skills Can Create New Pathways<\/h2>\n
Changing Perceptions Can Expand Career Consideration<\/h2>\n
Recruitment Messaging Needs to Reflect the Reality of the Work<\/h2>\n
Build for Future Workers, Not Just Current Applicants<\/h2>\n
Recruitment Is One Part of a Larger Workforce Strategy<\/h2>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\n
Why aren’t traditional recruitment campaigns enough to address workforce shortages?<\/h3>\n
How can organizations reach people who aren’t actively looking for jobs?<\/h3>\n
Can employer branding help address workforce shortages?<\/h3>\n
What role does training play in expanding the workforce?<\/h3>\n