Yep, that has been the difference between companies that grew and the ones that didn't (if you look at Monzo, they needed to hire hundreds of devs overnight...they created an actual HR strategy rather than just posting a listing on Indeed, running bad interviews based around random questions and probing for social cues, and then hiring no-one).
Tech jobs in the UK aren't even particularly high skill, tons of applicants for every role but hiring is run by people who have never hired before, have no business knowledge, and end up rejecting everyone...and then they lobby the govt for easing visa rules...it is all very puzzling.
Btw...there are businesses in the UK that hire almost anyone with a degree, put them through a three-month bootcamp, and then hire them out £70k/year pro-rata rate. According to most tech companies, this should be impossible...yet these guys do it. The skills required aren't even complex, and we are struggling...shocking.
US tech companies are still massively and ludicrously overstaffed.