Your human capital is the heart of your business, where the skills and expertise resides — and keeping good staff is vital in an increasingly competitive environment. From accounting to secretarial work, talent shortages are hitting America hard, causing an over reliance on temporary and casual workers and often resulting in a quick turnaround of staff. Every year more than 14 million temporary and contract staff are hired by staffing companies, and more than three million of them work weekly.

The ManPower Talent Survey 2015 found that more than 40% of American employers indicate that worker shortages negatively impact on the company’s ability to meet client needs, reducing competitiveness and productivity, increasing employee turnover, raising compensation costs, and reducing employee engagement/morale.

When you look at specific industries a picture of the extent of the crisis starts to emerge. Currently about 9% of staffing employees are employed in healthcare, an industry which is experiencing skills gaps. According to GoodCall, one of the top ten most difficult jobs to fill in the US is that of nursing staff. The Association of American Medical Colleges has also stated that the US will need an additional 90,000 physicians by 2025; the report indicated that a specialists to treat an aging population, many of whom will have a chronic disease, is a critical need. Having specialist recruiting help can make all the difference in a talent shortage situation. Healthcare staffing professionals can help to identify the needed skills and match potential candidates to the job specification. The specialist healthcare recruiting sector is destined for growth, with the Staffing Industry Analysts? latest Staffing Industry Growth Forecast showing that growth in healthcare staffing outpaced growth of the overall staffing industry, with more than 6% growth in this year.

Another sector that is experiencing a gap in the supply of skilled workers is that of secretarial work. With office-clerifical and administrative positions account for 28% of all staffing employees, secretaries, personal assistants, administrative assistants, and office support staff are ranked fifth on GoodCall’s list of the top ten most difficult jobs to fill, and fifth on the ManPower Talent Survey 2015 list too. Pulling in the right skills mix for your human capital needs requires specialized recruiting techniques. Staffing specialists can advise on how to best attract high quality applicant and assist with transitioning the new hire into the organization too.

While talent shortages are unlikely to diminish any time soon, choosing a specialized recruiting agency can make all the difference to your human capital management program.