OUR PERSPECTIVES
Executive Summary
Recruiting and hiring for full-time jobs remains challenging in 2026: Too few applicants, competition from other employers, and applicant “ghosting” (i.e., applicants suddenly ending all communication without an explanation) are leaving critical roles vacant. When these vacancies persist, the impact reaches far beyond the surface. Organizations see efficiency and productivity erode, driving up operational costs. Skills gaps limit bandwidth for innovation and strategic initiatives, slowing growth. Workers juggling multiple workloads may let quality standards slip, putting customer satisfaction at risk. For employees, staffing gaps can contribute to elevated stress, fewer opportunities for skills development, and declines in engagement.
Over time, these pressures can weaken market position, damage employer brand, and undermine sustained competitiveness. Addressing these challenges through targeted talent strategies and ongoing skills development is paramount to success, both for organizations and their workforces. The organizations that are finding success in recruiting reported approaches that focus on employee development and building new talent pipelines through internships, mentorships, and other training initiatives.
The findings from SHRM’s 2026 Talent Trends research lead us to recommend a strategic shift in how organizations should think about their talent strategy.
KEY FINDING NO. 1
Recruiting challenges remain widespread.
Nearly 7 in 10 HR professionals (68%) reported difficulty recruiting full-time employees, and half of those HR professionals (53%) said recruiting has become more difficult compared with one year ago. HR professionals said that the biggest sources of this difficulty are low applicant volumes, competition from other employers, and candidate behaviors such as declining offers or disengaging from hiring processes.
KEY FINDING NO. 2
Skills shortages remain a critical barrier to hiring.
When asked how difficult it has been to find applicants with various skills groups, HR professionals predominantly reported the greatest difficulty finding candidates with systems and resource management skills (80%) such as judgment and decision-making, complex problem-solving, and time management.
KEY FINDING NO. 4
Learning and development pathways to sourcing talent show promise at filling hard-to-fill roles.
According to HR professionals, job rotation programs remain underutilized (i.e., less than a quarter of HR professionals reported having one) but boast the highest effectiveness at addressing talent gaps (93%) among learning and development (L&D) pathways such as internships, mentorships, apprenticeships, and returnships.
KEY FINDING NO. 3
The same set of recruiting strategies remains the most popular among organizations.
In 2026, HR professionals reported the same ranked order of top recruiting strategies used, with minimal percentage-point changes in prevalence, compared to 2025. However, the most used strategies are not necessarily the most effective at filling open roles. Social media was the most frequently reported recruiting strategy used by HR professionals (59%), but they ranked it ninth in effectiveness at filling open roles.
Together, these findings point to a broader leadership imperative: Organizations cannot hire their way out of today’s talent challenges. They must redesign how they find and build talent.
Recruiting Challenges Continue to Plague Most Organizations
In 2022, amid the tail end of the pandemic and the Great Resignation, SHRM Thought Leadership reported the highest percentage of employers experiencing recruiting difficulties for their full-time regular positions, with 91% saying they were having problems. Those issues have since decreased, but in 2026, nearly 7 in 10 HR professionals (69%) are still reporting difficulties recruiting for full-time regular positions, on par with 2016’s and 2025’s numbers.
Recruiting Challenges More Difficult Than One Year Ago
Among the HR professionals experiencing recruiting challenges, half (53%) said that recruiting had become more difficult compared with one year ago. Meanwhile, 38% reported no significant change, and only 10% indicated that recruiting had become easier.
Recruiting Challenges Span All Job Levels and Types
Recruiting challenges span both hourly and salaried roles, as well as multiple job levels, reflecting broad labor market tightness.
Percentage of HR professionals that said they’re having trouble filling…
66%
Midlevel nonmanagerial positions
50%
Entry-level positions
37%
Midlevel managerial postiions
19%
Senior or executive-level positions
Results are based on responses from 1,359 HR professionals who reported difficulty recruiting for full-time regular positions in the last 12 months. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
These findings suggest that talent shortages remain structurally persistent rather than cyclical. For many organizations, open roles are not simply an HR challenge — they represent a growing business risk that can affect productivity and long-term growth.
Today’s Talent Problem Is a Mismatch Problem
Employers often frame talent shortages as a simple supply problem, but the findings suggest a more nuanced reality. The issue is not only that there are too few candidates — it is also the mismatch between candidates’ skills and the rapid evolution of the skills that organizations now need to succeed, as well as the mismatch between what employers are able to provide and what applicants are looking for.
HR professionals identified several primary reasons why their organizations are having difficulty recruiting for full-time regular positions, spanning challenges in supply and demand, skills, and compensation and benefits.
Other challenges that HR professionals reported were:
- Applicants declining offers due to competing offers (41%).**
- The local market is not producing enough work-ready/qualified job candidates (31%).
- Applicants expecting faster hiring decisions than our process allows (24%).**
- Qualified candidates are not interested in moving to our local area (23%).
- Lack of interest among job seekers in the types of job we have available (23%).
These challenges span occupation groups, with HR professionals reporting that health care jobs are the most difficult to hire for.
**These were new response options added in the 2026 survey.
Retention Presents Parallel Pressure
At the same time, organizations are not only competing to attract talent, they are also competing to retain the employees they already have. In the past 12 months, 4 in 10 HR professionals (42%) reported experiencing difficulty retaining full-time employees.
Together, these findings highlight the increasingly competitive nature of the talent market and how job candidates and employees seek opportunities for better pay, career growth, and flexibility. Companies that align their value proposition with what candidates and employees are looking for will be better positioned to compete, while those that fail to do so risk falling further behind in both attracting and retaining talent.
RELATED CREDENTIAL
SHRM Talent Acquisition Specialty Credential
As recruiting challenges remain widespread, this credential will equip HR professionals with strategies to attract and retain top talent, addressing issues like low applicant volumes and competition from other employers.
The Skills Disconnect: When Demand Outpaces Supply
Many organizations are not only struggling to fill their open roles, they are also struggling to find workers with the skills required to perform the open roles.
Most Roles Do Not Require New Skills, but Many Are Updating
Over a quarter of HR professionals (27%) reported that full-time regular positions they hired for in the last 12 months demanded skills not previously required by their organizations, a similar percentage to what HR professionals reported in 2025 (28%).
Among the HR professionals that reported positions requiring new skills, 77% said they had difficulty finding qualified candidates to fill those roles. Also, among these HR professionals:
- 44% indicated that new skills needs resulted from a mix of newly created roles and updates to existing roles.
- 40% reported modifying existing roles to include new skills.
- 17% reported creating entirely new roles to address emerging skills needs.
Workforce Planning Practices Vary Widely Across Organizations
New to the 2026 Talent Trends survey, we asked HR professionals what approaches their organizations take to workforce planning. The most common workforce planning approaches included:
- Analyzing current workforce headcount, skills, and roles (45%).
- Forecasting future workforce demand based on business strategy (41%).
- Conducting ad hoc workforce planning as needs arise (34%).
- Using labor market data or benchmarking data (29%).
- Analyzing skills or capability gaps (25%).
However, some HR professionals (17%) said their organization does not conduct formal workforce planning at all, highlighting uneven readiness to manage long-term talent risks.
Technology Is the Leading Driver of Changing Skills Requirements
Among the HR professionals that reported new skills requirements, technological change was the most commonly cited driver, and it demonstrated a 12-percentage-point increase from 2025. Organizational growth, rising productivity expectations, and changing customer needs also continue to contribute to evolving skills requirements.
Skills Supply at Odds with Organizational Demand
Across research reports, SHRM Thought Leadership discusses skills in these groupings – basic skills, social skills, systems and resource management skills, technical skills. A new addition to the 2026 Talent Trends survey was the inclusion of power skills (also known as soft skills).
Demand for Skills
As organizations plan for the growing impact of technology on their workforces, they also recognize that human-centric skills remain essential to overall success. When asked what level of demand employers currently have for various skills types, power skills — which include creativity and critical thinking — outranked technical skills by 15 percentage points. Looking ahead, when respondents were asked which of these five skills types will be most critical to their organizations’ success in the next five years, over a third (37%) said systems and resource management skills.
These findings highlight the gap between the skills that employers need and those available in the labor market. Employers increasingly need workers who can navigate complexity, collaborate across teams, and adapt to changing organizational needs. Together, these findings suggest that skills gaps are not merely temporary hiring challenges but may represent longer-term structural shifts in workforce capability requirements. If skills needs are changing quickly, organizations have to be dynamic and prepared to meet these needs.
RELATED CREDENTIAL
SHRM Foundation Skills First Specialty Credential
As organizations face evolving skills needs, this credential supports HR professionals in adopting skills-based hiring practices to bridge the gap between demand and supply.
Recruiting Strategies That Reflect Candidate Expectations Perform Best
Across several years, the same set of strategies have remained the most popular among organizations as ways to address their hiring and retention challenges. However, organizations’ most frequently used strategies might not actually be the most effective at filling their open roles.
Recruiting Strategies Used
The most widely used approaches focus on increasing visibility and competitiveness in the labor market, including leveraging social media, promoting organizational culture, including pay ranges in job postings, and improving compensation. In 2026, HR professionals reported the same ranked order of top recruiting strategies used, with minimal percentage-point changes in prevalence, compared to 2025.
One recruiting strategy that has been popular among organizations across the years is streamlining the application process. Organizations that adopt this approach often focus on improving efficiency and candidates’ experience when they complete applications. This includes enhancing the “Careers” page on their company’s website for easier navigation (55%), implementing a mobile-friendly platform for applications (47%), and reducing the number of required fields in their applications (42%).
Skills-First Hiring
Only one-quarter of HR professionals (26%) reported eliminating degree requirements for certain positions as a strategy to recruit for full-time regular positions at their organizations. However, 74% of those that have eliminated degree requirements reported successfully hiring at least ones who would have previously been deemed unqualified for the position. Among the HR professionals whose organization have eliminated degree requirements:
- 93% removed degree requirements for individual contributor roles.
- 48% removed requirements for managerial roles.
- 13% removed requirements for director-level roles.
- 7% removed requirements for vice-president-level roles.
Most Effective Strategies
The most used recruiting strategies are not always the most effective at filling open roles. According to HR professionals, the most effective recruiting strategies involve addressing candidates’ priorities. Higher compensation and flexible work arrangements top the list, with 58% and 57% (respectively) putting those two strategies in their top three most effective. New to the top three list of most effective strategies, training existing employees to fill roles jumped 6 percentage points in 2026 to reach the third spot, replacing “streamlining our application process to make it easier for applicants to complete” from 2025.
Evaluating the candidate experience can be a vital part of an organization’s talent strategy to gain insights into which practices are helping or hurting their recruiting. Despite the potential for these valuable insights, more than a third of HR professionals (36%) reported not tracking candidate experience at all. Among those that do, the most commonly monitored candidate experience indicators are:
- Offer acceptance rates (32%).
- Employer review site ratings (24%).
- Candidate feedback from interviews (23%).
- Time-to-response from recruiters or hiring managers (23%).
- Candidate satisfaction or experience survey results (18%).
Some employers are experimenting with talent community strategies — actions that intentionally build and maintain ongoing relationships with potential candidates who are not actively applying for jobs — in an effort to boost candidate experience and keep talent engaged. Only a small minority of HR professionals (7%) reported that this approach is a core part of their recruiting strategy, though 42% said they do this on an informal basis.
The Most Effective Recruiting Strategies
58%
Improving compensation
4th most utilized strategy
57%
Offering more flexible work arrangements
17th most utilized strategy
53%
Training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill positions
6th most utilized strategy
Results are based on responses from 2,094 HR professionals. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number and reflect the proportion of HR professionals who selected this recruiting strategy when asked, “Which three recruiting strategies have been the most effective for your organization?”
Internal Talent Marketplace Use Remains Limited
Internal talent marketplaces (e.g., digital platforms that enable skills-based internal mobility) remain relatively uncommon among organizations. Only about a quarter of HR professionals (26%) reported using such systems to identify internal talent and match them to relevant open roles.
Many organizations continue to rely on the same recruiting strategies, but the most effective approaches are those that align with evolving candidate priorities, such as higher compensation, flexible work arrangements, and career growth. These findings highlight the importance of adapting recruitment efforts to meet both organizational needs and candidate expectations. Career growth opportunities might seem like a focus for organizations’ existing workforces, but learning and development pathways that recruit new talent can show viability and effectiveness at addressing hiring gaps.
RELATED SEMINAR
SHRM Workforce Planning: The Future of Work
Effective recruiting strategies align with candidate expectations. This program helps HR professionals anticipate future talent needs and adapt hiring processes accordingly.
RELATED CREDENTIAL
SHRM People Analytics Specialty Credential
Data-driven insights are critical for tackling recruiting challenges. This credential helps HR professionals analyze trends and identify actionable solutions to persistent hiring difficulties.
Development Pathways Offer High Impact but Remain Underutilized
Many organizations have programs designed to build future talent pipelines, such as internships, apprenticeships, mentorships, and job rotation programs. These development pathways are proving highly effective at addressing talent shortages, but some remain underused today.
Internships
Internships have become a staple of talent acquisition strategies, with 67% of HR professionals offering formal programs at their organizations. This high adoption rate underscores the value that employers place on providing students and early-career candidates with structured, experiential learning. Over 3 in 4 HR professionals (78%) reported that the typical duration of their internship programs is nine weeks or more. When internships are well designed (e.g., with clear learning objectives, dedicated mentorship, and meaningful work assignments), they not only build future pipelines but also deliver strong returns. In fact, 77% of HR professionals at organizations with internship programs rated them as somewhat effective or very effective at addressing talent shortages.
Alongside traditional internships, micro-internships are a niche model that provide paid projects for college students and recent graduates without them taking on a full-time internship. Only 22% of HR professionals reported that their organizations currently offer these short-term, project-based engagements. Of those HR professionals, over half (60%) reported that their micro-internships are eight weeks or less, offering a quick source of talent for focused tasks that provide students with real-world exposure in an accelerated time frame. Despite the shorter time frame, 74% of HR professionals whose organizations offer micro-internships reported that they are effective in filling skills gaps.
Taken together, these two models form a complementary talent strategy. Traditional internships excel at immersing participants in company culture and workflows, while micro-internships offer just-in-time support for critical projects. Employers that leverage both approaches can develop a robust, flexible talent pipeline, nurturing long-term relationships with potential hires through traditional internships while meeting immediate, tactical needs via micro-internships.
Mentorships
Although fewer than 1 in 3 HR professionals (29%) currently operate any kind of formal mentorship program, those that do reported positive outcomes. Among HR professionals, 90% whose organizations offer traditional mentorships described them as somewhat effective or very effective at addressing skills gaps and talent shortages, and 93% whose organizations offer peer mentorships described them as somewhat effective or very effective.
Within the cohort of HR professionals at organizations offering formal mentorship programs, traditional one-on-one pairings are by far the most common format, underscoring the enduring appeal of hierarchical guidance. Peer mentorship follows, with half of mentoring HR professionals creating “skill-alike” or cohort models in which employees at similar levels collaborate for mutual support. In contrast, only 15% run group mentorship cohorts, 9% of HR professionals have embraced diversity-focused mentoring, and a mere 6% have implemented reverse mentoring, in which junior staff guide more senior leaders on emerging trends and technologies.
Examples of Formal Mentorship Programs
Traditional mentorship: A type of mentorship in which a more-experienced employee partners one-on-one with a less-experienced employee to provide career guidance and support.
Peer mentorship: A type of mentorship in which employees at similar skill levels mentor each other.
Group mentorship: A type of mentorship that pairs a group of employees with one or more experienced employee mentors.
Diversity-focused mentorship: A type of mentorship that connects employees from underrepresented groups to an influential mentor within the organization who can help support their career development.
Reverse mentorship: A type of mentorship in which a less-experienced employee becomes a mentor to someone more experienced in the field.
Apprenticeships
HR professionals at organizations that offer or partner with registered or customized apprenticeship programs (23%) remain in the minority. However, among that relatively small cohort, 84% indicated that their apprenticeship programs have been somewhat effective or very effective at addressing talent shortages. For the organizations that do not provide or work in conjunction with registered apprenticeship programs, HR professionals most commonly cited staffing limitations (37%), unclear return on investment (33%), and time constraints (26%) as the top reasons preventing their organizations from providing apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships: A workforce development strategy that trains people in a specific occupation using a combination of on-the-job training and related instruction.
Registered apprenticeships: Programs that have met national standards for registration with the U.S. Department of Labor (or an approved state apprenticeship agency). Businesses that register have access to a nationwide network of expertise, tax credits, and opportunities for funding.
The value of registered apprenticeships is certainly recognized: 59% of HR professionals agreed that these programs can be used to develop skills where talent is needed. At the same time, only 8% of HR professionals agreed that the administrative process of registered apprenticeship programs is easy to navigate.
Top Reported Occupation Groups with Apprenticeships
25%
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair
(e.g., mechanics, HVAC or refrigeration technicians, equipment repairers)
19%
Construction and Extraction
(e.g., carpenters, construction supervisors, electricians, inspectors)
15%
Production
(e.g., fabricators, machinists, textile producers, woodworkers, jewelers, food processing workers, butchers)
Results are based on responses from 442 HR professionals who indicated that their organizations provide or work in conjunction with a registered or customized apprenticeship program. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
Returnship Programs
Only a small fraction of HR professionals (9%) reported that their organization currently offers returnship programs. Yet, the high effectiveness reported by the few HR professionals at organizations that have embraced returnships is striking: 83% said their initiatives are somewhat effective or very effective at addressing talent shortages in their organizations. This stark contrast between low adoption and strong outcomes suggests that although returnships are not yet mainstream, they deliver substantial value when they are implemented.
Like in 2025, former employees and older workers re-entering the workforce are the two groups targeted the most by returnship programs. Jumping 8 percentage points in 2026, people transitioning from one career to another are now in the top three groups targeted for returnship programs. This may signal that organizations are recognizing they need new approaches to fill open roles and the right person for the job might be from a different professional background.
Job Rotation Programs
Only about 1 in 10 HR professionals (11%) reported that their organization currently offers formal job rotation programs, highlighting how uncommon this talent strategy remains. Yet, among that small group, an overwhelming 93% reported that their programs are somewhat effective or very effective at alleviating talent shortages.
Among the HR professionals whose organizations offer a job rotation program, 50% target existing employees to help them develop and advance their careers within the organization. In 2026, more organizations reported targeting both existing employees and new hires than in 2025 (34% versus 26%). These programs vary in duration, spanning anywhere from less than one month to more than 12 months.
Taken together, these findings suggest that organizations are experimenting with multiple approaches to developing talent. However, some of the most effective strategies remain underused, indicating opportunities for employers to strengthen long-term workforce capability.
RELATED CREDENTIAL
SHRM Total Rewards Specialty Credential
Development pathways are essential for talent retention. This credential helps HR professionals design competitive compensation and benefits programs to support employee growth.
Recommendations
Invest in Workforce Planning and Internal Mobility
Organizations must elevate workforce planning from a reactive process (or one not done at all) to a strategic capability that directly supports business goals and delivers outcomes, such as improved talent readiness and reduced skills gaps. Building robust internal mobility systems can also help organizations address talent shortages while improving employee engagement and retention.
HR leaders can enhance workforce planning and internal mobility capabilities by:
- Assessing current and future skills needs regularly to identify gaps that could impact organizational competitiveness in the market.
- Utilizing external labor market or benchmarking data to inform proactive decision-making.
- Developing internal talent marketplaces to allow employees to explore opportunities across the organization.
- Using metrics such as internal promotion rates, skills development progress, and employee satisfaction to evaluate the effectiveness of mobility initiatives.
By focusing on these strategies, organizations can create a workforce planning and mobility framework that both addresses immediate talent needs and drives long-term workforce readiness.
Redesign Recruiting Around Candidate Expectations
To remain competitive in today’s talent market, recruiting success increasingly depends on delivering experiences that align with candidate priorities. Compensation remains a key factor, but candidates are increasingly evaluating employers based on flexibility, career growth opportunities, and the overall hiring experience.
HR leaders should review recruiting processes through the lens of candidate experience by:
- Simplifying application requirements to reduce unnecessary barriers and improve candidate engagement.
- Providing timely, clear, and consistent communication throughout the hiring process to build trust and maintain candidate interest.
- Monitoring metrics such as offer acceptance rates, candidate satisfaction, and time-to-response from recruiters or hiring managers to identify areas for improvement.
- Ensuring that employer brand messaging reflects the actual employee experience to build credibility and attract talent.
Flexible work arrangements, competitive pay structures, and visible career development opportunities are likely to remain critical differentiators in attracting talent.
Build a Sustainable Talent Supply Through Development Pathways
Many organizations are already investing in L&D programs such as internships and mentorships. However, some high-impact development strategies — including apprenticeships, returnships, and job rotation programs — remain underutilized.
HR leaders should consider expanding workforce development investments that convert potential into capability by:
- Scaling apprenticeship and work-based learning programs for hard-to-fill roles.
- Strengthening internship pipelines to support early-career talent acquisition.
- Implementing formal mentoring and coaching programs to accelerate skills development.
- Exploring returnship programs to re-engage experienced workers.
- Using job rotation initiatives to build workforce agility and succession readiness.
These approaches can reduce long-term talent risk by strengthening internal capability rather than relying solely on external hiring.
Shift from Hiring Tactics to Talent Systems
Ultimately, the most resilient organizations will be those that treat talent as an integrated system rather than a series of disconnected programs. Recruiting strategies, internal mobility initiatives, workforce planning, and development pathways should reinforce one another.
HR leaders can support this shift by:
- Aligning talent strategies with long-term organizational priorities.
- Establishing cross-functional governance structures for workforce decisions.
- Tracking talent metrics that reflect both short-term hiring outcomes and long-term capability development.
- Communicating a clear organizational vision for skills development and career growth.
Organizations that adopt a proactive, systems-oriented approach to talent management will be better positioned to compete in a labor market defined by evolving skills needs and persistent talent scarcity.
CONCLUSION
The Future of Talent Depends on Workforce Systems
The findings from SHRM’s 2026 Talent Trends research highlight the ongoing transformation of the talent landscape. Together, these forces signal a critical shift in how organizations must think about talent strategy. The future belongs to organizations that design talent systems, not just hiring processes.
Organizations continue to face persistent recruiting challenges, growing skills gaps, and evolving workforce expectations. At the same time, technological change and shifting business strategies are reshaping the skills that organizations need for future success.
Successfully sourcing talent is shaped not only by economic conditions but also by how effectively organizations adapt their workforce strategies. Employers that broaden access to talent, invest in continuous skills development, and integrate technology into thoughtful talent systems will be better equipped to navigate ongoing disruption.
For HR leaders, the challenge ahead is balancing immediate hiring needs with sustained workforce development. The organizations that succeed will be those that shift from filling jobs to building talent systems designed to support long-term organizational resilience.
Methodology
SHRM fielded the survey to a sample of HR professionals via SHRM’s Voice of Work Research panel between Feb. 9 and Feb. 20, 2026. For the purposes of this study, participants were required to be employed full time or part time for an organization and employed in HR. In total, 2,094 HR professionals participated in the survey. Respondents represented organizations of all sizes in a wide variety of industries across the U.S. Data is unweighted.
How to cite the research: 2026 Talent Trends, SHRM, 2026.