Business can bridge the skills gap...

The skills gap has been growing rapidly, even before recent events such as the global pandemic, Great Re-evaluations, Great Resignations and geopolitical conflict, which have all intensified the disparity. According to a 普华永道 study, by 2030, the talent shortage and skills gap in the U.S. is expected to mean a total loss of $8.5 trillion, and businesses need to find ways to bridge it.

What is the skills gap?

Quite simply, the labor force doesn’t have enough people that are qualified to do the jobs that are being recruited for. It is not necessarily about the number of people either; it is about their skills and training. The right skills for the right job. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), over half of all employees globally will require upskilling or reskilling by 2025 to embrace new responsibilities driven by automation and new technologies.

There are specialized jobs emerging from the need for businesses to be agile and adaptable, and more than ever, businesses need to adapt to a more digital and connected way of working. Fundamentally, we also need to help match the skills people have with the needs of business and combine the two.

What does the skills gap mean for business?

It means that talent pools are limited. It means recruitment is taking longer, and investment in people is up (as it should be), but often mentality is "recruit in haste, repent at leisure." As I have written about previously, the key to a successful and sustainable business lies with its people. It is about hiring the right person for the role, not just based on skills, but attitude too. The newly published report by Wiley Beyond suggests latent effects of the "Great Resignation" can make the skills gap even worse, as more than 40% of respondents said it takes more time than before to find suitable job candidates.

We all know the pitfalls of hiring wrong: low morale, high turnover, low return on investment, decreased productivity and quality of work and a lack of moving forward. This then leads to customer demand and expectation issues, product or service issues and loss of revenue.

Taking it one step further, think of the impact that this could have across whole industries and the wider economy. As business leaders, we need to start thinking about how we can act.

What can we do to bridge the skills gap?

The answer will be weighted differently depending on role and industry; however, in order to make the change, to build the bridge, so to speak, business needs to join forces with education. The Wiley report shows that the proportion of survey respondents who said more than 5% of their workforce used tuition assistance or training from colleges or technical schools, with costs reimbursed by employers, rose from 61% in 2021 to 69% in 2022.

Sometimes on opposing sides of the debate, educators and business leaders need to focus and come together to combine subjects and knowledge with real-world experience, preparing students for the next step and setting them up to succeed.

Apprenticeships have and are gaining momentum alongside on-the-job learning, and courses are opening in line with new technologies and the move to become sustainable. As a world, there are more options and opportunities to upskill. However, businesses and education need to think about collaborating more.

It can be as simple as reaching out to your local higher education institution. Take the time to ask yourself: Is there a collaborative project you could work on together? An opportunity for a member of your team to do a talk or volunteer? The opportunity to provide work experience?

You never know what you may learn if you do. It’s not a one-way arrangement. It can lead to all manner of positive outcomes. Keep an open mind, ask, listen and learn. In sharing knowledge, you can benefit all parties.

Why invest in bridging the skills gap?

All of this may seem idealistic, but it makes perfect business sense. It’s not a sticking plaster; it is a long-term solution, and, as such, it will take time. In investing in creating a platform for well-rounded education with academic and real-world experience, you are investing in the well-trained workforce of the future, your business’s future and that of the wider economy.

First published, Forbes, April 2023