Talent shortages and rapid technological change have intensified the challenges of recruitment and reskilling. For decades, the “recruit vs. reskill” debate has been central to workforce planning. However, a skills-first approach has reframed this conversation, offering a new way to balance recruitment and internal development.
Given the pace of this workforce transformation, organizations are being forced to rethink how they acquire and manage talent. In fact, 77% of business and HR executives are already in agreement that flexibly moving toward a skills-first approach is critical to navigating future disruptions. (Deloitte 2022).
How It Started: The Traditional Divide
Traditionally, recruitment has been prioritized for acquiring expertise, while reskilling was deemed to be more of a secondary, reactive measure.
Recruitment’s role: Hiring externally was often seen as the “faster” solution to fill immediate skill gaps. In periods of rapidly changing demands, internal talent with the required expertise and skill sets is often scarce and difficult to find. External talent might be ready to deliver results immediately. On top of this external hires may bring in fresh solutions and help to drive up the education levels around them.
Reskilling’s role: Traditionally reskilling has been reserved for low-priority initiatives that were not time sensitive. In efforts to cut the costs associated with recruiting and onboarding new talent, reskilling may be deployed. This can also save the productivity lost in times of personnel change as existing employees already understand company infrastructure and processes.
This debate has persisted for decades as a result of the false dichotomy created by positioning the high costs of recruitment against the slower timelines of reskilling.
The False Dichotomy
The "recruit vs. reskill" debate has traditionally been framed as an either/or decision, suggesting that organizations must choose one strategy at the expense of the other. This framing oversimplifies the complexity of workforce planning and ignores the possibility that both approaches can—and often should—be used together in a complementary way.
A series of misrepresentations have fueled this false dichotomy:
Either - Or - Recruitment and reskilling are not mutually exclusive, in fact they can support one another. External hiring is positioned to address immediate skill gaps while internal development can build a sustainable talent pipeline for long-term growth. Framing this debate as an “either-or” choice ignores how these strategies can create a more agile and sustainable talent pipeline when used in tandem.
Fast vs. Slow - Recruitment has often been presented as the faster option compared to reskilling as it bypasses the learning curve associated with acquiring new skills. However, this perspective ignores the hidden time costs associated with recruitment, such as onboarding and the time required for new hires to reach full productivity.
Costly vs. Cheap - Reskilling internal employees is often viewed as a costly investment compared to external hiring. However, this money tends to go further and be more impactful in the long-term as it helps to build loyalty with employees and thus reduce the risk of potential turnover and disengagement costs in the future.
What changed the debate?
A combination of factors have underscored the need for both recruitment and upskilling:
Technological Advancements - Historically, organizations often lacked tools to properly evaluate the ROI of recruiting versus reskilling. Advancements in data management and workforce analytics have given organizations a clearer view of talent gaps and resource pools, enabling an informed approach to the debate.
Talent Shortages - Approximately 75% of companies are struggling to find qualified talent (ManpowerGroup, 2025). Given these global talent shortages, organizations have been forced to reevaluate recruitment-heavy strategies.
The ROI on Skills - AI is rapidly reshaping industries, not just by automating tasks but by continuously redefining the skills and talent needed. The pace of innovation has shortened the shelf life of skills making the need for ongoing talent optimization more urgent.
Employee Expectations - Forty-six percent of employees say that growth and learning opportunities significantly impact their employment decisions (PwC, 2024). As employee expectations shift, reskilling is now a more attractive option as its impact extends beyond talent development to talent acquisition and retention as well.
While these factors all play a significant role, it is the growing awareness of a skills-first approach to talent management as a whole that is truly reshaping the conversation. A skills-first approach breaks down the traditional dichotomy so that instead of asking “recruit or reskill,” organizations ask, “what skills do we need, and how can we get them?”.
The skills-first shift encourages organizations to view recruiting and reskilling not as separate choices but as interconnected strategies. By treating recruitment and reskilling as one integrated process, organizations can seamlessly shift employees into roles as needs arise in eliminating bottlenecks caused by siloed talent functions. This streamlined approach enhances agility by ensuring skills are deployed efficiently—whether through hiring, upskilling, or internal movement—based on the best way to meet evolving business demands.
Building a Single Pipeline Powered by Skills
How could talent acquisition and internal development work together to build a single talent pipeline? (If you're unfamiliar with the foundational elements of a skills-first approach, you may want to check out my first blog here for more context.)
The following principles show how a skills-first approach can unite recruitment and reskilling:
Integrate Skills Data Across Recruiting and Reskilling - Organizations must assess both external candidates and internal employees using the same skills-based criteria. In order to achieve this, HR and business leaders must collaborate to outline a centralized skills taxonomy that ensures consistency when evaluating talent. In parallel, organizations should integrate ATS and internal talent marketplaces, enabling recruiters to gain visibility into internal talent alongside external candidates. By taking these steps, hiring decisions can give equal consideration to both talent pools.
Align Recruiting & Reskilling Needs - Recruitment and internal mobility should function as parallel processes. Close collaboration between recruiters and L&D teams ensures reskilling programs equip employees with in-demand skills, building strong talent pools both internally and externally. By embedding learning pathways into workforce planning, organizations can build a more agile workforce based on a sustainable balance of internal development and external hiring.
Embed Career Mobility into Both Recruiting & Reskilling - By merging hiring and training into a continuous talent strategy based on mobility, organizations can proactively build talent pipelines ahead of urgent demands. A well-structured skills marketplace can empower employees to explore career opportunities based on their evolving capabilities, enabling smoother transitions and better preparation for future roles. On the flip side, when external hiring is necessary, companies should prioritize aligning new hires with long-term internal mobility and development pathways.
It is clear that the skills-first approach in talent management is gaining momentum; as of 2023, 73% of employers had adopted skills-based hiring, a jump from 56% in 2022 (SHRM, 2024). Now is the time to effectively apply this skills-first approach to the “recruit vs. reskill” debate to create a single, integrated talent pipeline. The future of work isn’t about choosing between hiring and reskilling; it’s about building a talent ecosystem founded on flexible, agile talent flows that adapt to evolving demands.
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