Five Symptoms of Skill Gaps
Signs of skill gaps and solutions to eliminate them.
If you manage or own a business and struggle to find qualified workers, you have witnessed firsthand the skills gap – that gap between the knowledge, skills, and abilities workers have and what they need to be productive on the job. How is this affecting your business? How do you know if skill gaps exist in your organization? Most importantly, what can you do to help solve the problem? This article provides you with information you can use to identify and fix that gap utilizing resources within your grasp.
The Statistics
A November 2021 blog post by Izabelle Hundrev from InStride.com entitled, 10 Need-to-Know Skills Gap Statistics for 2023, gathered some stark statistics:
By 2030, the talent shortage and skills gap in the U.S. alone is expected to total a loss of $8.5 trillion. (PwC)
Filling the skills gap is a top priority. 64% of L&D professionals said that reskilling the current workforce to fill skills gaps is a priority now. (LinkedIn)
Employees themselves are similarly anxious about the widening skills gap, with 46 percent of those surveyed believing their current skill set will become irrelevant by 2024. (Degreed)
Yet, unfortunately, only 34 percent of workers surveyed feel supported by their organization’s skill development opportunities. (MIT and Deloitte)
Workers want to reskill. 77% are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain. 46% of people with postgraduate degrees say their employer gives them opportunities to improve their digital skills, but just 28% of people with secondary education say the same. (PwC Global)
These statistics show that as technology such as automation and artificial intelligence has vastly changed how we live, work, and play, so has it also created a need to reskill individuals to interact with this technology. Many organizations struggle to keep up with the fast pace of change, and that’s reflected in company performance reports on productivity, profitability, and employee satisfaction.
Common Symptoms of a Skills Gap
Listed below are the most common symptoms associated with a skills gap. Note that just as a runny nose or cough could be symptoms of a multitude of different illnesses, so, too, can these symptoms have other causes. However, there is a strong correlation among these symptoms and skill gaps.
An expensive piece of [software, equipment, or other asset] purchased a year ago is unused because no one knows how to use it. Whatever the purchase was, you remember the promise. This high-ticket item is the latest innovation in the age of information. Once implemented, you can turn your operation into an efficient machine, doubling, tripling, or even creating a tenfold increase in your ability to meet customer demands. However, implementing these systems can take months, and you don’t have the time or the right person on your team to handle the integration.
Employees are dissatisfied. They start showing up late for work, call in sick more often (if they call at all), and are just generally unhappy and stressed out (learn about the phenomena of quiet quitting. It’s a real thing.)
Higher turnover. When employees aren’t happy, they’ll do one of two things: let you know they are unhappy or leave. With a tight labor market and options for employment available, many just leave.
Higher error rates. Workers without adequate training are going to make mistakes. Add the ingredients of disgruntled and unmotivated, and you have the perfect recipe for more errors.
Lower productivity/inability to meet customer demands. When employees leave or aren’t motivated to do their best work, productivity decreases. When productivity decreases, you can’t keep up with customer demands. Now, not only are employees not happy, but your customers are upset, as well.
Solutions to Close the Skills Gap
Here are six tips you can use to close those gaps and get back to or become a highly productive, globally competitive employer of choice.
Make investing in education and training a top priority. Create customized micro-learning opportunities that are easy to access, digest, and complete in a short amount of time that cover key learning objectives in your organization. Implement a tuition reimbursement program for employees or, better yet, develop a fund that pays for relevant industry training up front, removing the financial burden for employees.
Start conversations with your local community colleges and 4-year universities. They can help you match course learning outcomes with skills your employees need.
Serve on college departmental advisory boards. Identify college programs that have courses aligning with your workforce needs. Ask if you may join their advisory boards. You’ll be providing valuable feedback as to missing skills in the current curriculum and making suggestions on future inclusions. You can then be assured graduates can learn what is important to your industry.
Teach as an adjunct professor. You heard me correctly…and please don’t gloss over this one. What better way to find talented employees than in a class teaching the skills you need to students who are demonstrating success in those skills? Find out what the qualifications are to teach as an adjunct at your local institution of higher education. Often, your years of experience can count towards your eligibility to teach technical education classes at your local community college. Colleges also offer lots of help to instructors. Meet one-on-one with curriculum developers and tenured faculty who can help you master the art of converting your subject matter expertise into learning experiences for students. In-class instruction is usually an hour a day, 3 days a week, or one and a half hours 2 days a week. You can often schedule your class for after work.
Make basic technology available for every employee. We are in the information/digital age, and if you want your employees to be digitally savvy, they need access to digital tools. Want them to get better with email? Give them access to a laptop and an email account. Want them to learn Microsoft Excel? Give them access to the program to practice. I’ve taught Microsoft Excel classes before where individuals tell me when they go back to work, they have no computer access to practice on. That’s so disappointing because now, those individuals will not have the opportunity to apply what they learned in class, making retention of the material almost impossible.
Consult with a professional learning and development expert. If you have a water leak, you hire a plumber. If you have a legal problem, you hire an attorney. When you have issues with workplace performance, hire an expert with years of experience identifying the root causes of those skills gaps. A professional workforce education and training consultant will work with you to identify any skill gaps between where your business should be and where it is. They can determine if training is the right solution for the problem, work with you to identify metrics for what a successful training class will do, and even bring in training experts to develop and deliver the content.
In summary, workforce challenges are going to remain with us for at least the next decade. There is no better time than right now to put a plan in place to make sure your organization is positioned to attract, retain, and continually develop the best talent.
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Sherry Coker launched Coker Consulting in August 2023. She saw an opportunity to utilize her leadership skills and 20 years experience as a workforce education and training professional to help businesses improve employee performance. She helps companies create and implement their own customized training and development plans and connect them to experienced, professional trainers known to have positive impacts on learning outcomes. Schedule your appointment by contacting Sherry Coker at 417.221-6449, sherry@cokerconsulting.net.