CEOs, The Skills Gap & Sleepless Nights: Real World of Work Remedies for Success

The message is in this recent PwC Talent Trends Report is clear and compelling (Exhibit above)– high level executives in leading business and industry sectors globally are extremely concerned about the skills gap in their current and future talent pipeline. From impeding organizational innovation and effectiveness to absorbing disproportionate financial and organizational resources, the impact is significant and constricting.

What opportunities, if any, exist to proactively prepare for and respond to this performance readiness crisis? Here are several of my recommendations from a combination of my personal professional experience, higher education leadership, and overall workforce research:

· Higher education engagement: By engagement, I mean and propose real, substantive and constructive interaction that requires both the business/industry partner and the higher education institution to work in authentic partnership to author real-world, innovation centered curricular programs, degrees, credentials, internships, and on the job experiences that reflect the essential success skills in today’s world of work, with a keen and committed eye to the emerging world of work tomorrow and beyond. Business and industry are encouraged to invite college faculty, staff and administrators on site for externships and to engage on campus in ways well beyond job fair tables, panel discussions, and advisory board presentations. Digging in, developing, dialoguing and continuous dedication to the need for alignment of what’s really in the world of work and how its best prepared for in the classroom and its companions.

· Rewrite and forget meaningful K-12 Partnerships: How can youth (and the teachers/staff/administrators) guiding them prepare for skills required for positions that don’t even exist yet? Through continuous, engaged and collaborative conversation and investment of time and resources of business and industry leaders, innovators, and visionaries. Don’t dream without them – invite them along on the journey!

· Demand living, breathing Talent & Performance Development Plans: Throw away the online subscriptions to canned curriculum and boring, dated videos. Forget about the annual overview of conferences and required training. Create collaborative and customized individual and team learning experiences that are open to interpretation, exploration, discovery, and divergence from the status quo.

· Commit to Becoming Learning Centered Organizations: If you want your staff to develop new skills, empower them to actually have the time and access, as well as incentivize, them to participate in hands-on, interesting, engaging and diversified learning experiences. Think outside of the box and encourage creativity in how learning takes place – from sabbaticals to online/audio book subscriptions to webinars and retreats. Budget and invest in training and development, as well as dedicate time and personnel to make it happen, lead it, and evaluate its effectiveness regularly.

· Assess for Success:

1. Hire right the first time: Once you’ve outlined what the essential skills are for organizational and/or job duty performance, consider a psychometrically rooted assessment pre-hire to ascertain if the individual’s knowledge, skills and abilities are a great fit for your talent priorities and organizational culture. Hiring the right person the first time saves time, money, and other valuable HR resources involved in the talent acquisition process.
2. Identify skills gaps on the front end: Assessments and/or thorough pre-screening and onboarding of candidates can easily help identify areas for development. The earlier you identify and retrain or newly train the required skills, the better potential for positioning your talent to excel and thrive in their role.

· Reconsider Talent Sources:

• Military transitioning to Civilian Careers: The lack of “soft” skills is not a problem in our military services. Communication, teamwork, and collaboration, leadership, verbal and written expression and communication, critical thinking? Check, check, check. But identifying the presence of such skills on a DD-214 requires employers to be open to understanding, translating and transferring skills to the civilian world of work. Take the time to learn and listen, as well as invest and ideate. You won’t be sorry.
• Bravo/Second Career Changers: We are living and working longer. Our “retirement” experiences are changing, requiring us to consider second and third career paths. Divorce yourself from generational judgments and open up your workplace to leveraging the talents and skills of people of all ages. Wisdom, patience, and professionalism are already there – add new training and success is on the way!
• Gig, Project Based, & Remote Talent: Redefine what a team member looks like. Consider the workroom without walls – your organization will be all the stronger for it. Talent and contribution can occur in segments and with different perspectives, so don’t be resistant to the opportunities that result from recruiting and partnering with contract and remote employees, whose organizational loyalty might be differently defined but still just as powerful.
• Formerly Incarcerated: Perhaps no one is more motivated to acquire and master new skills and consider new professional pathways than those who are ready for a second chance. Partner with area diversion and correctional facilities, including juvenile focused ones, and see what magic can occur by investing and aligning training with future opportunities for career success.

Employing any or all of these ideas will result in a better night’s sleep for any CEO or business leader concerned that the talent and skills needs of their organization of today aren’t preparing them to succeed and compete tomorrow.

Dr. Jennifer Blalock is a subject matter expert in change leadership, higher education innovation, and college-career alignment. She has over two decades of progressively advancing leadership and is driven by a fierce commitment to changing the world of work, one mind, one organization, one boundary at a time.