6
T
he above was floating around as a quote on
Facebook last month. The second position
resonated, not surprisingly, in my circle of
HR and Learning and Development professionals.
We in the employment business speak in a lot of
averages. We talk of high national unemployment
rates – on average, and high national vacancy
rates – on average. Closer to home, numbers for
average unemployment in the Bay Area (particularly
San Francisco) are reported as 4% — a number
that many consider to be full employment. And
you cannot attend an HR meeting without hearing
colleagues discuss jobs going unfilled because of
a lack of skilled applicants at one end of the room,
and then speak with colleague who is educated
and experienced but part of the masses of long-
term unemployed at the other. Or hear stories of
their college-educated children working as baristas
because there is no work available.
How can such seemingly opposite and well support-
ed facts co-exist? Whenever discussions of high un-
employment and equally high vacancy rates due to
a dearth of qualified workers arise, a fog of cognitive
dissonance settles in. How can both be true?
A ManPower study reports that the global talent
shortage has hit a 20-year high with 36% of
employers reporting difficulty in filling positions. The
positions they noted:
Much of the media focus in recent years has been
the shortage or impending shortage of the college
educated. Yet many of the position in this study do
not require college degrees. Plus, according to the
BLS, only 27% of new jobs created will require a
college degree. The fog rolls in yet again…
At the HR West Conference in April, Dr. Peter
Cappelli, a leading researcher in this area, took the
position that the skills gap was really a myth. As
was the belief that colleges are failing their purpose
to prepare the workforce and that testing results for
American high school students had been falling. He
shared data that the lowest performing high school
scores in recent history were those of students who
graduated in the 70’s, the very folks likely to be
making hiring decisions today, perhaps.
As he, and many of the authors in this issue note,
one of the biggest changes in the workplace has
not been test scores of high school students or
the quality or number of the college educated, but
rather the systematic dismantling of vocational and
training programs within organizations. On this latter
point, high voluntary turnover, particularly amongst
millennials, makes investing in long-term training
programs a risky proposition. And yet consider
the alternative. Positions going unfilled for long
periods of time as we search for the “right” person
with the demonstrated skills and capabilities…that
someone else trained.
What is the real issue? Is there a skills gap in general
or in specified specialties? Should more people go
to college to “solve” the gap issue? Should there
be a re-invention of vocational training? Should
we, employers, rethink our positions on training
and development even with the data of a mobile,
freelance-type workforce?
These are the questions for HR today. And wringing
our hands doesn’t get the work done. Nor does
tilting at windmills in the form of “blaming” public
education institutions. Developing workforce
capability is a core responsibility for those of us who
build the talent architectures of our organizations.
What are we going to do? Because do something
we must.
This issue brings you several perspectives on the
skills gap, including opinions that it is a myth. We
are also adding a new feature – a local perspective,
with work being done in the Oakland Unified
School district and a non-profit using a structured
internship approach for technical training.
This gap – if not in skills, then in the seemingly
impossible co-existence of large numbers of
unfilled positions and equally large numbers of the
unemployed – represents a problem worth solving.
For our organizations. And for our society.
HR
Danika Davis
Chief Executive Officer,
NCHRA
415.395.1911
Executive Letter
What if we
invest in training
them and they
leave?
What if we
don’t
and they
stay?
The top 10 hardest jobs to fill globally and in the U.S. are: (Manpower, 2014)
Global Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2014
1. Skilled Trades
2. Engineers
3. Technicians
4. Sales Representatives
5. Accounting & Finance Staff
6. Management / Executives
7. Sales Managers
8. IT Staff
9. Office Support Staff
10. Drivers
U.S. Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2014
1. Skilled Trades
2. Restaurant & Hotel Staff
3. Sales Representatives
4. Teachers
5. Drivers
6. Accounting & Finance Staff
7. Laborers
8. IT Staff
9. Engineers
10. Nurses
HR West 2015
March 2-4
Details & Registration
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