Why organisations need to look beyond recruitment and rethink how they recognise, develop and use the capabilities already within their workforces.

Skills shortages have become a familiar feature of the global employment conversation. Across industries and economies, employers continue to report difficulties finding people with the capabilities they need. Demographic change, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and evolving business requirements are adding further pressure.

Yet alongside these recruitment challenges, another question deserves greater consideration…are organisations making full use of the skills, knowledge and experience already available to them?

New international research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) offers a timely opportunity to examine this question. And for the Age Diversity Forum (ADF), it reinforces an increasingly important argument, that workforce capability cannot be understood through recruitment figures or chronological age alone. We need to look more closely at how organisations recognise talent, support development and create opportunities throughout working life.

What the OECD research tells us

Published on 14 October 2026, the OECD’s Mapping Skill Shortages in OECD Countries: New Evidence from the Updated Skills for Jobs Database examines occupational and skills imbalances across 38 countries.

The findings reveal persistent shortages in several highly skilled occupations, particularly information and communications technology, healthcare, engineering and teaching. By contrast, labour surpluses are more frequently identified in lower-skilled occupations.

The report also highlights population ageing, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the green transition as important influences on changing workforce requirements (OECD, 2026). Although labour market pressures have eased from their post-pandemic peak, mismatches between available skills and employer requirements remain a significant challenge.

Importantly, these are not simply questions about how many people are available for work, they are also questions about which capabilities are needed, where those capabilities exist and how effectively people can access opportunities to use them.

The OECD distinguishes between occupational shortages and skills mismatches, recognising that the availability of workers does not necessarily correspond with the capabilities required by particular roles. Its latest database provides a harmonised framework for examining these challenges internationally, drawing largely on data available up to 2024, with some country-specific exceptions.

This is an important distinction when considering potential solutions. The challenge is not always a shortage of people, sometimes it is a mismatch between the capabilities available and the opportunities through which those capabilities can be used.

The capabilities organisations may be overlooking

When employers experience recruitment difficulties, the immediate response is often to look externally. Organisations advertise vacancies, engage recruitment agencies, compete for candidates and reconsider remuneration packages.

These responses may be necessary, particularly where specialist qualifications or experience are genuinely scarce. However, an exclusively recruitment-led response risks overlooking another potential source of capability: the existing workforce.

Employees accumulate knowledge through education, professional development, previous employment, changing responsibilities and practical experience. Some of these capabilities are directly relevant to their current roles. Others may be transferable to different functions, emerging requirements or new areas of responsibility, yet organisations do not always possess the systems needed to identify these skills or provide opportunities to apply them.

An employee may possess valuable digital capabilities that are not being used in their current role, another may have developed transferable leadership, communication or problem-solving experience in a different sector, and someone returning to employment after a career break may bring capabilities that conventional recruitment processes fail to recognise.

These possibilities raise an important question about organisational workforce intelligence…Do employers really understand the skills and experience available within their organisations, or are they relying too heavily on job titles, qualifications and assumptions about career histories?

The distinction matters because overlooked capability can represent a missed opportunity for both employers and employees.

Age, tenure and experience: three different considerations

One area that deserves particular attention is the relationship between chronological age, organisational tenure and accumulated experience. These characteristics are frequently treated as though they are interchangeable, they are not.

Chronological age tells us how long someone has lived, organisational tenure describes how long someone has worked within a particular organisation. Experience reflects the knowledge, skills and judgement developed through different activities, responsibilities and circumstances.

Although these characteristics may be related, one cannot reliably substitute for another. Consider a 55-year-old employee entering a new industry. They may have extensive professional and leadership experience, but relatively limited knowledge of their new sector. A 30-year-old colleague who has spent a decade working in that industry may possess considerably greater sector-specific expertise. Equally, someone beginning a new career later in life may be undertaking many of the same learning activities as a younger employee entering employment for the first time.

These examples illustrate why workforce decisions based primarily on age can overlook important differences in capability and development needs, but they also challenge familiar generational assumptions.

Younger employees may be perceived as naturally technologically capable but lacking professional judgement…older employees may be associated with experience and organisational knowledge while being incorrectly assumed to be less adaptable.

Neither assumption provides a reliable assessment of an individual’s abilities or potential. For the ADF, this distinction between age, tenure and experience is becoming an increasingly important area of thinking. If organisations want to understand their workforce capabilities, they need to measure and assess the relevant characteristics rather than rely on age as a convenient proxy.

Shared challenges across different countries

The international dimension of the OECD research is particularly interesting. While labour market conditions and the severity of individual shortages vary between countries, the underlying challenge of aligning workforce capabilities with changing employment requirements extends across national boundaries.

This reflects an observation emerging from the ADF’s own engagement with organisations operating in different international markets. Many of the fundamental age-related workforce challenges appear familiar, regardless of geography. Age-related assumptions, access to skills development, career progression, retention of experience and opportunities throughout longer working lives are recurring themes.

What may differ is the pace at which organisations respond, the influence of national employment policies and the economic or demographic pressures encouraging action.

This distinction matters, as a country experiencing significant population ageing may place greater emphasis on extending working lives. Another may prioritise youth employment, skills development or improving labour market participation. Yet employers in both environments may still face similar questions about recruitment fairness, access to development and the effective use of workforce capabilities.

These observations are not, in themselves, evidence that age-related barriers occur equally across all countries, rather, they suggest a potentially valuable area for further investigation. The fundamental challenges may be shared internationally, while the drivers, urgency and methods of response differ between countries and organisations.

For multinational employers, this creates an opportunity to establish common principles for recognising and developing workforce capability while responding appropriately to local circumstances.

Lifelong learning must become everyday practice

The OECD findings highlight the continuing importance of changing skills requirements. As technology develops and occupations evolve, the capabilities demanded by employers will continue to change.

This makes lifelong learning essential, however, lifelong learning should not simply mean providing more training courses. It should include genuine access to development, opportunities to apply new skills, support for career transitions and pathways into different responsibilities.

Crucially, these opportunities should remain available throughout working life. An employee’s development potential should not be judged by assumptions about how many years they have already worked or how close they may be to retirement. Equally, employers should not overlook the development needs of younger employees because of assumptions about their familiarity with technology or ability to learn independently.

A more effective approach is to identify skills requirements objectively and provide development opportunities according to individual circumstances. This becomes particularly important when organisations introduce new technologies or redesign existing roles. The objective should be to support workforce adaptability, rather than assume that certain age groups will adapt more readily than others.

From recruitment shortages to workforce intelligence

Addressing skills gaps requires more than improved recruitment processes, it also requires better workforce intelligence. Organisations need to understand the capabilities they currently possess, the skills they are likely to require and the barriers preventing employees from accessing opportunities. This includes examining who receives training, who is considered for progression, who can move between roles and whose experience is recognised.

An age-inclusive perspective can add valuable insight to this analysis. For example, reviewing learning participation across age groups may identify differences in access to development. Examining internal mobility may reveal whether opportunities are concentrated among particular career stages. Analysing recruitment and retention patterns may help identify where valuable skills and experience are being lost.

However, age data should not be considered in isolation. Organisational tenure, occupation, gender, working arrangements and other relevant characteristics may also influence employment outcomes. This is particularly important when interpreting apparently age-related patterns.

A difference in training participation between two age groups, for example, may reflect different occupational roles, levels of organisational tenure, access arrangements or career circumstances. Without examining these factors, organisations risk drawing simplistic conclusions from incomplete evidence. Understanding the interaction between these characteristics can help employers develop more accurate and effective workforce strategies.

What this means for organisational age inclusion

For the ADF, the OECD research reinforces the importance of examining workforce systems rather than treating age inclusion solely as an awareness issue. Skills shortages may originate in wider labour market conditions, but an organisation’s capacity to respond is influenced by its internal practices.

  • How effectively does it recognise existing capabilities?

  • Does it provide equitable access to learning and development?

  • Can employees move between roles and career pathways?

  • Are recruitment and progression decisions based on relevant capabilities rather than assumptions about age?

  • And does leadership understand the relationship between age, experience, organisational tenure and workforce opportunity?

These questions connect directly with the ADF’s Age Inclusion Benchmark. The Benchmark examines eight dimensions of organisational practice, including Employee Lifecycle, Learning & Development, Leadership, and Data & Measurement.

Its purpose is not to measure national skills shortages or determine whether every existing employee possesses the capabilities needed for future roles, rather, it provides an evidence-informed assessment of whether organisations have the policies, systems and practices needed to support age-inclusive employment. This can help identify where access to development, progression or opportunity may be constrained by organisational arrangements.

For multinational employers, a consistent framework also creates the potential to examine these issues across different locations, while recognising local workforce circumstances. As international application develops, further methodological testing will be important to ensure that comparisons remain meaningful. The wider opportunity is to move from assumptions about workforce capability towards a more structured and evidence-informed understanding.

The ADF perspective

The OECD research provides a valuable reminder that skills shortages are complex and cannot be addressed through a single intervention. Recruitment will remain essential, as will investment in education, vocational development and new technical capabilities. However, organisations should also examine whether their existing employment practices are restricting access to skills and experience.

Age-inclusive workforce design offers opportunities to challenge assumptions, improve internal mobility, strengthen development pathways and make better use of capabilities across generations. This does not mean assuming that every skills shortage can be resolved from within an existing workforce, it means ensuring that employers have properly explored the potential already available before concluding that the answer must always be found elsewhere.

Importantly, this is not exclusively an older-worker consideration, it concerns how organisations recognise and support capabilities throughout working life, whether someone is entering employment, developing an established career, changing direction or seeking opportunities to continue contributing.

The distinction between chronological age, experience and organisational tenure deserves particular attention in this discussion. As workforce careers become more varied and employment requirements continue to change, these characteristics may become increasingly important to understanding where capability exists and how it can be developed.

Responding to skills shortages requires more than finding new talent, it also means recognising, developing and making better use of the capabilities already present across the workforce, without allowing assumptions about age to obscure individual potential.

The most effective workforce strategies will not simply ask where the next generation of talent will come from, they will also consider how every generation can continue to contribute.

References

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2026) Mapping Skill Shortages in OECD Countries: New Evidence from the Updated Skills for Jobs Database. Getting Skills Right. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/735f9485-en (Accessed: 6 November 2026).