What happened
Talent Canada published a column, reported by Talent Canada, in which Megan Paterson, chief operating officer of Kinaxis, describes what she calls the agility gap. It is the mismatch between the skills a company hires for today and the ability people need to learn, adapt and innovate when conditions change.
Paterson says the gap is different from a classic skills gap. It shows up when learning is slow, when teams are thin outside their own function, or when people struggle to shift with new priorities. She points to two causes: hiring to a static job description rather than a person's trajectory, and the pressure to fill seats fast when teams are stretched.
Her fixes run on two tracks. On the hiring side, widen the ideal profile to include adjacent industries, career switchers and internal applicants, and screen for skills and behaviour rather than milestone checklists. On the development side, protect learning time during the workweek, build data and AI literacy beyond specialist teams, and track whether people fill critical roles internally rather than externally. She also cites one survey finding that 94 per cent of employees would stay if their employer invested in their long-term learning.
Why it matters if you are hiring
Narrow requirements have a price. The column notes that roles stay open longer, recruiting costs rise and the people already doing the work absorb the strain. For a plant, a finance team or a sales floor, that usually means overtime, burnout and the next resignation.
The practical issue is the shortlist. If a posting demands exact industry experience and a fixed list of years, you screen out people who could do the work within a few months. A production supervisor from a neighbouring sector, an accountant from a different industry or an analyst who has already worked with AI tools may be a better bet than the perfect match who never turns up.
It also changes how you use contract talent. A contract hire can cover urgent work now while you decide, without pressure, what the permanent role should look like once your systems and processes change.
The column is an opinion piece and offers no Canadian hiring data. Treat it as a framework to test, not a finding.
One thing to do this week
Pick your longest-open role. Rewrite the requirements as four or five skills the person must show, not years or job titles. Add one interview question about a time the candidate had to learn something new under pressure. Then note whether you would have rejected your last good hire under the old posting.
Traverse helps employers find operations, finance, sales, manufacturing and technical people whose skills transfer, and who can step in now and grow with the role.