3 Keys to Closing Your Organization’s Skills Gap

According Adecco’s State of the Economy and Employment research, the skills gap is a very real thing. Of the senior executives surveyed, 92% feel that there is a skills gap in the U.S. workforce. The study also reports that “senior executives believe the skills gap has less to do with complacency on the part of American workers and more to do with the U.S. education system and costs associated with in-house training programs.

Here are some of their key findings:

• 44% of senior executives cited soft skills the U.S. workforce lacks most today
• Most-affected by the skills gap
  • 30% think the manufacturing industry
  • 21% think technology
  • 19% think professional and business services
  • 30% think other
• 89% of the senior executives that believe there is a skills gap, think that corporate training programs could help alleviate the skills gap in the U.S.

Looking at these findings, it’s clear that training your workforce on soft skills is an important factor in closing the skills gap. Before taking on the entire U.S. workforce, start closing the skills gap in your own organization by giving employees the opportunity to learn and develop their own skills.

Here’s 3 ways to begin closing the skills gap at your organization:

1. Conduct a training needs assessment

A training needs assessment is designed to provide insight into employee training needs. Ideally a training needs assessment evaluates three critical areas: employees’ skill proficiency, frequency of skill usage, and level of skill critical to job performance.

Conducting a training needs assessment is one of the best ways to evaluate your workforce. It can uncover your problem areas and tell you where your organization is excelling. It can also help you prioritize your training priorities from urgent to well, eventually, right?

2. Establish a mentoring program for your new-hires

Not every employee has the same level of development when it comes to a skillset. It’s important to address that through training but it’s also important to put the learned abilities to the test. Give an employee that has strong skills in a certain area the opportunity to expand their knowledge and further their career. Have a mentorship program that allows these employees to interact and collaborate with more seasoned professionals to sharpen what they already know and inspire them to be better.

3. Invest in developing a strong internship program

Why is it that when children are going through the traditional education system we put so much emphasis on the institution’s responsibility to groom the next generation of the future but as soon as they hit the workforce, we stop teaching them?

Prepare the next generation of the workforce, who is Gen Z at the moment, by arming them with the skills they need during the critical internship period. Have an internship program at your organization that teaches the soft skills necessary for success in the workplace.