Closing the talent gap isn't just a challenge, but a pressing issue that demands immediate attention from employers. Some businesses are already facing a severe shortage of critical talent, and a staggering 90% predict a significant skills gap soon.
Three Talent Gaps
- The rapid evolution of AI and Agile development isn't eliminating jobs, but changing them at a pace that challenges workers to keep up. This transformation presents a wealth of opportunities for the workforce of the future.
- Technology is advancing—it's outpacing learning and reshaping the workforce. The key to staying ahead in this rapidly changing landscape is to foster a robust culture of learning within your company and ensure that your people managers are well-trained in coaching employee development.
- The pandemic still influences workers' expectations. They seek flexibility, well-being, and work-life balance. When they don't get it, they move on. The labor participation rate as of May 2024 is 62.5%, but a high percentage of the available workforce is low-skilled.
Overcome Challenges with Talent Development
Based on these findings, we recommend reviewing your employee development programs and preparing to invest in your workforce. Now is the time to act.
Make learning and development a priority and part of your mission. It'll improve your odds of success in attracting, advancing, and retaining talent. McKinsey research shows that fostering a growth mindset among leaders and employees by providing training and internal advancement opportunities is a cornerstone of effective organizations.
Start by knowing what you need.
If you don't have a skills-based talent strategy, now's the time to begin. A gap analysis and skills taxonomy will give you a head start and help you prove your case.
A talent gap analysis identifies discrepancies between existing workforce skills and those needed to achieve your goals. Here's a plan to conduct it:
1. Assess current skills
Evaluate each employee's abilities, knowledge, and qualifications. The tools available include surveys, interviews, performance evaluation, analytics, and your talent intelligence platform if you have one. (We highly recommend looking at what's available if you don't.)
2. Address current and future needs
Consider future scenarios and evaluate the talent impact. You'll need a data analytics team, a readout on potential strategies, and intelligence on industry trends. Use your analysis to project the skills you will need.
Be aware that managing skills is much more complicated than aligning competencies. Nearly every role requires at least some technical skills, and these skills are transforming. Your HR teams and people managers will need training to up their game. Fortunately, AI tools in HR can help you overcome the gap.
3. Analyze your talent gaps
Address your needs. Understand your gaps and how you will close them.
- Rethink your recruitment strategy. Consider potential instead of experience and how to grow a new employee into the role. Start development immediately.
- Encourage self-development through your internal talent mobility program. This is the most effective strategy for retaining people with potential.
- Invest in upskilling and reskilling programs. Not only will you avoid the pain of external recruiting, but you will also build loyalty.
- Use mentoring and coaching for knowledge transfer and skill development.
- Don't overlook contingent workers—contractors, freelancers, part-timers, and temporary employees. The non-employee workforce is growing. For many, it's become the preferred way to work.
Remove Barriers to Learning
From the employee's point of view, the highest barrier to employee learning is time.
Lack of Time to Learn at Work
Give your people the gift of time. It's as simple as a supervisor saying, "Take two hours for learning every week. That's your time to build your skills and knowledge. Put it on your calendar, and don't interact with anyone except a trainer, coach, or mentor."
Or, your COO can say something like, "From two pm to four pm on Friday, everyone will take two hours for learning."
Overcome Resistance to Change
How hard you will need to work on communication depends very much on your recent history of change. Success breeds success, but it doesn't guarantee that some of your people won't push back or avoid participation. Past failures create resistance to more change, and you must show how and why this time will be different. But keep in mind that some resistance is normal.
Communicate your who, what, why, when, and how—from the top
Prepare your implementation plan and engage the executive team to get their agreement, then build a clear, consistent message in plain language your people will understand.
Create a safe space for questions and give a clear, cohesive answer to every question. If you're in a live discussion, you can schedule a separate meeting or use your confidential online discussion tool like Teams or Slack. This is the time for your leaders to "put themselves out there" and present a commitment of support for every employee.
Involve your people in the change.
As an experienced change leader, nothing I've seen overcomes resistance to change as quickly as becoming a change agent. Involve everyone as much as you can. My best insights have come from the people involved in the work.
Provide the Tools
Everyone should have a plan and resources for training and workshops to ease the transition. Create discussion forums and private channels for them to express their challenges.
Leaders, show how it affects you at every level.
Model the behaviors you want to see. Clearly show your commitment.
Measure and report on KPIs
Monitor KPIs related to the changes made and ensure you constantly communicate results to make them tangible. Show the transformations' value and effectiveness for the company's success.
By implementing these strategies, change agents and leaders can reduce resistance and ensure that those at all levels champion change initiatives.
Embrace the Technology
There is a reason most companies haven't yet transitioned to a skills-based workforce structure. Without the right technology, it's a Herculean effort. Inventorying your firm's skills requires you to identify, evaluate, and analyze them, then align them with your business objectives.
Many HR tech vendors have assimilated AI-fueled skills and capabilities frameworks, and the rest are doing so now. The administrative load may bury your team if your vendor hasn't upgraded. Look for another solution to use until your vendor catches up.
The requirement is:
- A skills engine.
- Integrated talent intelligence.
- Skills-driven compensation
- External job market (buy the service)
But there's far more that can help you manage the new structure without overwhelming your HR team and people managers. Transitioning to a skills-based workforce architecture is a significant move that can enhance organizational agility and effectiveness. Besides the upgrades already mentioned here, other software updates can support this transition:
Skills Management Console: A centralized tool for managing a skill database that tracks employee competencies and identifies organizational skill gaps.
Workforce Insights: These are analysis tools that give invaluable insights into workforce capacities, talent distribution, and future abilities necessities.
AI-enabled Career Framework: Employ AI to develop rapid and efficient deployment of robust, defensible, best-in-class skills architecture.
AI-enabled Talent Acquisition: Software that improves the quality of hire by leveraging existing workforce skill data while reducing time-to-hire with better skilled-based hiring decisions.
These improvements will ensure your firm remains competitive and relevant by aligning its workforce with current and future business requirements. Equally important is engaging your people in the vision of skills while facilitating upskilling or reskilling to support their growth and your strategic objectives.
These upgrades can help your organization stay relevant and competitive by ensuring the workforce is aligned with current and future business needs. Providing AI-enabled adaptive learning for upskilling and reskilling opportunities is critical to support their growth and your objectives.
Remember that it's important to choose tools that integrate well with each other and with existing systems to ensure a seamless transition.
About Pixentia
Pixentia is a full-service technology company dedicated to helping clients solve business problems, improve the capability of their people, and achieve better results.
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