SHRM 2026 Talent Trends Report: Nearly 70% of HR Professionals Still Struggle to Recruit
The News
SHRM has released its 2026 Talent Trends Report, based on a survey of more than 2,000 HR professionals conducted in February 2026. The report finds that nearly 7 in 10 HR professionals (68%) reported difficulty recruiting full-time employees, and half of those said recruiting has become more difficult compared with one year ago. Retention is also a challenge — 42% reported difficulty retaining full-time employees in the past 12 months.
The report highlights a persistent skills shortage: 80% of HR professionals reported the greatest difficulty finding candidates with systems and resource management skills, including judgement, decision-making, complex problem-solving, and time management. Social media was the most frequently reported recruiting strategy (59%), but HR professionals ranked it only ninth in effectiveness at filling open roles. Meanwhile, job rotation programmes were rated highly effective (93%) by those who use them, yet fewer than 25% of organisations have implemented them.
“Our research demonstrates that organisations embracing skills-based hiring, leveraging technology, and fostering inclusive cultures are best positioned for sustained success,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President and CEO of SHRM. Over a third of HR professionals (41%) said they are now training existing employees for hard-to-fill roles rather than recruiting externally.
Why It Matters
For TA leaders, the SHRM report is a bracing reality check. Despite all the investment in AI, chatbots, and programmatic advertising, nearly 70% of organisations still find recruiting difficult. The finding that social media is the most-used but least-effective strategy should prompt a hard look at where your sourcing budget is actually going. The report's emphasis on internal mobility and upskilling reflects a broader shift: when 80% of employers can't find candidates with the right skills, the solution isn't better sourcing — it's building talent from within.
Job rotation programmes, which 93% of users find effective but only 25% implement, represent a particularly underused lever. For TA leaders who are measured on time-to-fill and quality of hire, the case for investing in internal mobility infrastructure has never been stronger.
Taking Action
All action is situated in your corporate context. These are starting points, not prescriptions — choose what fits.
Connect
Who to talk with in your enterprise
Your head of talent acquisition — Ask them to benchmark your sourcing strategy against the SHRM data: if social media is your top channel but ranks ninth in effectiveness, where is the misalignment in your budget allocation, and what channels should you be investing in instead?
Your head of learning and development — Discuss the 41% of organisations now training existing employees for hard-to-fill roles. Request a joint audit of which roles could be filled through upskilling rather than external recruitment, and whether your job rotation programmes are underused.
Your CHRO — Present the SHRM finding that 93% of organisations rate job rotation as effective but only 25% use it. Propose a pilot internal mobility programme tied to specific hard-to-fill roles.
Inspect
What to take a closer look at
Map your current sourcing channels against their actual hire conversion rates, identifying which channels are consuming budget but delivering candidates that don't progress to offer stage. Specific tool to look at: Your ATS's source-of-hire analytics report — review cost-per-hire and quality-of-hire by source over the last 12 months.
Reflect
What to think about more deeply
The most interesting question isn't 'How do we find better external candidates?' — it's 'If 80% of employers can't find candidates with the skills they need, and 93% say job rotation works but almost nobody does it, what does that say about our collective addiction to external hiring over building talent we already have?' And whose job is it to break that cycle?