Skills Drought? Training Can Make It Rain
A skills drought is when no matter how hard you advertise, look, and even up your salary range, you just cannot find enough qualified candidates to fill the open positions. We’re hearing about skills droughts in industries as diverse as heavy manufacturing, automation engineering, and IT. Some areas of the U.S. are even experiencing skills droughts in basics such as customer service and office management. Depending on your area, either the training or education programs are lagging behind, or there just aren’t enough qualified candidates to go around.
What can you do when open positions are causing a slowdown in production, extra work and time for your teams, and it’s beginning to affect your organization overall? Consider hiring good people with basic soft and hard skillsets and then training them into the positions you need to fill.
Step Up Recruiting doesn’t recommend this plan lightly or for all positions, but across the country, recruiters and employers are meeting to discuss real skills droughts and how to use training to make the rain they need.
How can training-up solid candidates meet your needs? Here’s the basics:
Look for fit first. Accept only candidates who fit your organization, the team with the open position, and have deep knowledge and experience with your industry or field. The candidate has to have the “right stuff” to fit your corporate culture and their current skills should fit your organization before training.
Start with basics. The best candidates have experience and skills in your field or industry. An experienced Sys Admin with experience on several related platforms and multiple related languages can easily learn a new language or become familiar with a new platform. An engineer who has spent 10 years designing, troubleshooting, and installing automated assembly lines in the automotive industry will find the shift to aeronautics industry pretty comfortable. They just need training and mentoring. Organizations looking for highly qualified customer service specialists who work creatively with hard limits, often find that former teachers have the reliability and the patience to do the job. It’s a matter of matching present skills with future needs. Your recruiter can help you find the right candidates for training up into your open positions.
Offer strong training. Whether you develop your training in house, or outsource it, make sure you offer training in all the skills your candidate will require for the new position. Follow up with mentoring, and team support.
Step Up Recruiting believes in finding the perfect fit for each position, even when that includes training candidates up into new roles. Ask us today how we can help you make it rain on your skills drought!
