Another angle on the skills gap is on the hiring side. A recent survey by Mindflash, reported here, found Americans both employed and not, agreed that employers are not doing enough. 41% of respondents said they didn’t have any training in areas like management or product knowledge in the past 2 years. For some time employers have been criticized for unrealistic application processes or expectations of job applicants.
As we move away from the dark days of the recession, employers are no longer facing the mountains of resumes that once flooded in response to job postings. Where using software as a filter might have made sense just to deal with the volume of applicants, it may be time to rethink continuing to use it as the pool of applicants dries up.
Job seekers bear some responsibility as well. If you’re out of work, in addition to searching you can avail yourself of many opportunities to make yourself more valuable. For example, mastering or improving software skills is something everyone can do as they search for work. If you’re registered with BOLT ask your recruiter about the software training we have available.
Nonetheless, employers who fail to train employees on basic product knowledge or even ignore basic on-boarding indoctrination are cheating themselves.
Finally, there is always the “try before you buy” approach of using staffing agencies. A good temp that may not appear to the “perfect” hire may surprise you in matching your needs in ways you hadn’t thought of.