Are employers hiring for today's labour market or the one they already know?

Most leaders I speak to think they have a talent problem, but that is only partly true.

AI is changing the skills people need at work and lowering the barrier to application for candidates, while many companies are still hiring and managing as if little has changed.

The result is a strange mismatch: two-thirds of recruiters say it's harder to find qualified talent than a year ago, while people with the right skills are still being missed. Fixing that means changing how companies hire, how managers lead, and how work is organised.

Let's start with hiring.

For decades, employers hired based on where you studied, where you worked before, and who you already knew. Even now, people are over seven times more likely to be hired somewhere they already have a connection.

For a long time this way of hiring made enough sense. However, it always came at a cost: you overlook people who have the right ability but not the "right" CV, and it leaves recruiters competing for the same small pool of candidates.

Used well, AI should widen human judgement, not replace it. It can help employers cut through the noise and look beyond the traditional CV to spot people whose skills aren't obvious from a job title, degree or previous employer.

That means being clearer about the skills a role really needs, and stripping out unnecessary degree and experience requirements, so people with less conventional paths get a fairer chance to be seen.

Hiring the right people is only half the problem. If the organisation they're walking into hasn't changed, neither will the outcome.

Bolting AI onto structures that haven't changed

Many companies are adding AI to old ways of working. They keep the same job titles, the same hierarchies and the same decision-making processes — then expect technology to transform the business for them.

It doesn’t work this way. Most companies have bought AI tools and plugged them into how they already work. This means you only get a slightly faster version of an old way of working, not a better way of running an organisation.

Six in ten leaders say change is happening faster than their organisation can make decisions, and most are responding by doing the same things faster rather than asking whether those things still make sense. Leaders need to stop treating AI as a tool to bolt onto existing jobs.

They should look at the work itself: which tasks can be done faster, which decisions still need people, and which roles need to be rebuilt as a result. But that only works if managers are ready for this shift.

Managers are being asked to lead a change no one has explained to them

As AI absorbs more routine work, managers will need to spend less time checking work and more time helping people adapt, learn and make better decisions. They need to develop their team's judgement, creativity and empathy — exactly what AI can’t do.

Yet half of leaders admit they don't yet know how AI will reshape the roles inside their organisation, and eight in ten say their own role is being redefined in real time. That uncertainty is understandable, but it cannot become an excuse for standing still.

Some employers are beginning to respond by training managers differently, giving staff practical time to learn AI tools, and creating safer ways for teams to practise new skills.

For example, UNICEF UK is using AI-powered coaching to help managers practise difficult conversations with the AI providing realistic scenarios and honest feedback.

Workers cannot be expected to adapt to a changing labour market if the people leading them have not been trained for it either. All three shifts are connected. You can't hire skills-first into a structure that still rewards titles.

You cannot tell people skills matter, then promote only those with the most familiar career paths. You cannot ask workers to embrace AI, then leave managers unclear on how roles are changing. Finally, you cannot solve a skills shortage if your hiring process filters out people before their abilities are properly seen.

Employers need to stop hiring for the labour market they remember, and start looking for the skills people actually have.