Dive Brief:

• For the first time since its debut, attracting talent is the top HR concern in Paychex's Pulse of HR Survey. In past years, regulatory compliance was the top challenge for HR, Paychex said. About half of HR leaders in the survey said it's difficult to find hires, including those that fit the company culture. Retention is also a challenge for almost half of HR leaders, Paychex said. 
• Training and development has become one of HR's top five priorities for the first time, with more HR leaders willing to train and upskill underqualified candidates than in years prior, Paychex noted. Eighty-five percent said they're willing to do so.  
• A majority of HR leaders (90%) said they now have a voice in company strategy and decision making processes — up 10% from the previous years. Participants reported they are involved in company success through evaluation of productivity and efficiency, providing training and development, focusing on culture to drive results and assessing performance more frequently, among other strategies.

Dive Insight:

The data continues to support the trend: acquiring talent is becoming more difficult and is of top concern from the C-suite down. In a recent survey, nearly half of employers have had to increase their pay rates to attract candidates and retain employees. Established companies want to compete with startups that may be more attractive to job seekers. Organizations also look for creative ways to craft an employer brand to entice candidates, and have adopted more novel benefits — like longer parental leave and student loan assistance — to meet candidates where they're at. 

All these efforts speak to HR departments' recently heightened focus on talent acquisition and management overall, and in the growth of the talent industry as a specialized field in its own right. With a greater need to find and retain workers, CHROs and CPOs are growing more common in the C-suite. HR teams with a C-suite leader might even be more productive than those without. Whether or not they become official members of the C-suite, talent and HR leaders must still collaborate with their executives to influence growth and develop strategies that consider labor market trends and workers' evolving preferences.