Employee centric market trends display unpredictable crests and troughs due to a constantly changing business landscape, driven majorly by automation and rapid technological advances. This has acutely facilitated a dire need for change in workforce skills for organisations to adapt and thrive.
According to a report by Mckinsey & Company, around 375 million people will have to change their field of work this decade to meet the expectations of their employers.
Skill shortages within the existing workforce has emerged as a problem needed to be tackled with apt methodology and acumen. This has eventually culminated into employee talent gaps in organisations.
Understanding ‘Talent Gap’.
Talent gap refers to the dissimilarity between the skills required for a particular job and the skills an employee already possesses. Most of the organisations hire employees based on current trends and requirements without putting in place a plan of action equipped for future needs. As the dynamics ofbusiness continue to evolve, organisations realise the disparity between what they have and what they will need in terms of employee skills. This need requires a thorough understanding, evaluation and analysis in order to plug existing skill loopholes, aligning with an organisation’s future business needs. e.g.- In this day and age of artificial intelligence and its proactively increasing presence, organisations might require highly skilled individuals than the current ones to adapt and learn to harness AI’s optimalpotential. So it’s imperative for organisations to have a capable workforce inplace, well equipped to handle changing business needs.
Its Significance.
Talent gaps contribute to workforce disruptions and are largely influenced by changing market and technology trends. Current scenario indicates thosein the financial services, high tech, telecom and IT sectors are more prone to this disruption compared to those in pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical product services. While hiring remains an option for organisations to address this, many would prefer the process of Reskilling and upgrading their existing workforce. This not only reduces the burden on the HR system but the organisations found it more cost effective, timely achievable and significantly more productive.
Identifying Skill Gaps.
The primary step to address talent shortages is to pinpoint theplaces they come from and the reasons they exist. An organisation has to astutely assess its current workforce capabilities, performance and potential, along with its future workforce needs and goals. Various tools or methods can be made use of to conduct a thoroughly accurate talent gap analysis. These may include employee surveys, assessments, interviews, data analytics and benchmarking. A well implemented talent gap analysis enables an organisation to understand the skills, competencies and behaviours that are missing or not fully developed. It also facilitates identifying the root causes and business impact of these gaps.
Addressing the same.
It is of prime importance for organisations to explore strategies which will bridge the gap of skills. Adaptive and drastic improvements in an organisation’s recruitment and retention strategies have to be made to address the talent shortages within. This includes luring and hiring right talent for your organisation, as well as to retain and upgrade existing talent. Recruitment and retention strategies can be enhanced by creating a strong employer brand and value proposition that highlights your ethos, vision and incentives. Also multiple channels, hiring assistance partners and platforms can be leveraged to reach out to a larger talent pool.
Most organisations can address their talent needs through a combination of actions like hiring contract or freelance workers and redeploying employees into new roles. Hiring remains the most common tactic used in the last 5 years. The second most-common is skill building or development, accomplished through reskilling programs and other efforts.
Reskilling.
Reskilling is the process of helping employees learn and acquire new skills to improve proficiency in their current job or shift into advanced roles. Organisations who strongly emphasise on developing employees’ skills are more well equipped to handle role disruptions than the organisations who address gaps through other means. Looking ahead for the next 5 years, skill building is much more effective in closing skill gaps than the process of hiring. Reskilling can be done by starting with one group and gradually aided by programs focusing on learning and developing new skills. Reskilling programs most often focus on building employees’ skills in critical thinking and decision making, leadership qualities, managing people and advanced data analysis. These programs also centre around building multiple skills enabling employees to be more versatile.
Although reskilling programs are generally at an early stage, many organisations are already seeing positive results of their implementation.
A Mckinsey & Company, report cites that Nearly seven in ten respondents reporting reskilling say the business impact from the programs has been greater than or equal to the investment in them.
Leveraging External Partnership.
Despite sincere efforts, many organisations are not able to address talent gap shortages as per desired. For this very purpose, organisations can seek assistance from a strategic talent acquisition partner. And no better name to look beyond Scatalyst! We at the Scatalyst, have a meticulous strategic recruitment approach which we leverage on to ensure hiring of top talents. Our expertise and vast network of talent pools help you gain that cutting edge by finding the leaders your organisation deserves.