A potential skills shortage: 3 tips for you

Posted by: Matt Rivera

Maybe it’s not about whether there’s potential for a skills shortage in your company. Maybe it’s the shortage of workers with potential that should be keeping you up at night.

A recent Human Resource Executive Online article cited the same Deloitte and Manufacturing Institute study that I referenced in a recent blog post. That study found that 600,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled.

However, their analysis pointed out that many recruiting processes are so closely focused on exact skill matches that they don’t take into consideration someone with applicable skills from another industry or the potential to learn new skills or develop into a position.

The article was right on target with the analysis and how this might explain why there are so many unfilled jobs and so many people without jobs.

While I’ve been encouraging companies to update their workforce strategies, it didn’t occur to me that even some of the updated strategies might be off target.

So, here are three tips that might help with your talent acquisition, workforce management planning, or assessment processes, even if you have some more recent strategies in place.

1. Make sure your social media recruiting strategy is well thought out and shows results. A lot of time and effort can be spent with little return. (This e-book could help with your approach.)
2. Look at quality processes like Six Sigma and make sure they take into consideration high potentials, career paths, or simply development roles. As HR Executive Online points out, sometimes they can be too focused on matching skills and not looking for potential.
3. Assess your current HR technology, and evaluate its effectiveness. Sometimes technology can mask a bad process, filter out good candidates, or turn off potential candidates with cold, impersonal interaction. Automation will never take the place of a good recruiter who can interview a person and look beyond their degrees, certifications, and discrete skills.

Lastly, I would also encourage you to talk to your recruiters and get ongoing feedback on the strategies you put in place.

A good recruiter should be able to clearly demonstrate how the strategies you are using better enable them to find good people, connect to candidates, or keep your company out of a talent deficit.

If they can’t, it might be time to update your workforce strategies again — even if it feels like you just did.