If you have been in the loop of business news and articles lately; you would have noticed that there is an increasing concern among employers about what they call ‘The Skills Gap’or ‘Talent Shortage’; which simply means that the youngsters of today do not have the skills to make them employable.
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| Pic: Students by Gage Skidmore; licence CC BY SA 2.0 |
Shockingly these concerns are voiced by some of the bigger organisations and being covered by some top writers. Now there is a big reason why I’m not naming anybody because I’m just about to call the entire concept stupid.
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The Dry Stuff:
A Career Builder study into the U.S job market says that 54% of the open positions cannot be filled due to skills gap. And more than 80% employers have trouble in filling positions.
The Same story in India; According to Career Builder (India) Around 78 per cent of the surveyed employers said they are concerned with the growing skills gap in India while 57 per cent said they currently have open positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates.
Europe is no different; the report, Education to Employment: Getting Europe's Youth into Work, indicates 27% of employers have left "entry level" jobs unfilled because they could not find anyone with the necessary skills. This skills shortage was causing "major business problems" for 33% of the employers surveyed.
The Good Stuff:
Problem vs. Result:
First and foremost employers have to understand that talent shortage is not the problem but the result.
Let us look at it this way; when a customer does not buy a company’s product, what does the company do? Do they complain about a ‘purchasing gap’? Or do they find new and innovative ways to engage with the customers to keep them buying their stuff.
The same way it is the company’s responsibility to keep themselves attractive and relevant to prospective employees.
Employers have had more than 20 years (the kind of time a customer would NEVER give them) to engage the youth of today.
Imagine this; every year Employers (big and small) line up at university campuses; but nobody in their HR department had the mind to identify the skills they will need over the next 5 years and collaborate with the University or even the students to create those competencies.
If you are an Employer reading; know this:
Your Chief HR has led you into an enormous strategic mess. Every year you have funded his/her salary only to watch the number of unfilled vacancies rise. If your Chief HR had spent less time shaking hands with the chancellor and more time working up some real collaborations, you would not have been in this mess.
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| Pic: me @ work by adriagarcia; license CC BY SA 2.0 |
Did I use the word Stupid?
Of course; it is incredibly stupid to consider an entire generation not employable. Not like you have another option. In fact many economists, business thinkers and some employers are of the opinion that there is no skills gap (Readers: do a Google search, you’ll find them)
The entire concept of talent shortage is as brainless as it sounds. Let’s quote it this way: “An entire generation lacks talent!!” How intelligent does that statement sound?
What is on display is the Employers lack of will to work with and train their employees. All expect the employee to hit the ground running from day one. And when was the last time something as magical as that happened?
If you as an Employer did not meet up with the student until the placement day how do you expect the young bloke to understand you? Oh wait.. yes you sent your expert to conduct a couple of guest lectures at the college.. hmm.. You wasted his time and your money. Most college professors are better equipped to conduct lectures than your expert.
What is required from employers is, that if you feel that certificates and degrees are only worth the paper they are printed on, work with Universities and students and offer more qualitative internships. Internships that don’t smell like your brilliant idea of hiring cheap labour. But in fact deliver the competencies that you would expect from a youngster in a couple of years to come.
Put pressure on the Universities; tell them if they were to even expect you to hold campus placements then they should make this, this and this a part of the curriculum and send the students over for this number of months for a GENUINE internship.
Basically, your problem your responsibility!
Employer's Big Fear!!
The biggest hurdle that employers face while implementing any qualitative recruitment side initiative is this mentality: What if another employer snaps up the employees we create.
Really? If you were to engage with your prospective employment pool qualitatively; make the participants feel that you have added real value. You can be rest assured that the first resume they send will be to you.
And it is not because the prospectives are falling in love with you (maybe some are) but it is because of the human psychology of showing preference towards the place at which they feel most comfortable and accepted. ‘I’m accustomed to it’ Syndrome.
If one was to summarise the all the contents of this article and put it in just 7 words; it would read like this: Give your HR something useful to do!
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