Growing Talent Gaps
It was just a few years ago that I was in the midst of kicking off a major succession plan across my organization. I can recall the presentations we delivered to the executive team to garner their support. We spoke of the coming talent shortage due to baby boomers retiring, the need to narrow skills gaps to prep people for leadership roles, and to provide cross training and developmental projects to build necessary skills. In these lean times I’ve sometimes wondered, were we wrong?
The answer is no. It’s hard to imagine these gaps are real when the job market is tight. Despite gloomy unemployment numbers talent gaps are widening. This month’s issue of T&D Magazine describes the widening talent gaps on multiple levels. The risk of retiring baby boomers and the lack of younger workers to replace them is just as true today as it was before the recession. Not only is there a lack of people in terms of numbers but companies are struggling to bridge leadership capabilities in the current workforce. In ASTD’s report “Bridging the Skills Gap” 40% of organizations ranked a lack in “bench strength in the company’s leadership ranks” as a leading factor as to why skills gaps exist in their organization. (1)
ASTD’s report also points to widening skill gaps as jobs are changing and educational attainment is lacking. The changing nature of jobs has had particular impact in attaining workers with technology skills. While this has some obvious impacts, some are more subtle. For example, another article in T&D this month “Don’t Delete the E-Messenger” cited a study from Watson Wyatt that demonstrates a “strong correlation between companies that have effective communication and those that meet their financial targets. The companies with the most effective communications strategy are those that are looking to leverage social media.” The top three reasons companies cited for not implementing social media in the study are 1. limited staff or resources to implement social media, 2. limited knowledge of social media and 3.lack of IT support or technical capability. All of the reasons are due to a lack of knowledge and skill, interestingly legal reasons ranked in last place. (2)
So it seems learning and development and society as whole has quite a job in front of us as we prepare the workforce and ourselves as we strive to keep up with the pace of technology. It’s critical that organizations aren’t lulled into complacency by a high unemployment rate. Succession planning and other talent management strategies are just as necessary today as they were three years ago.
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1. Pat Galagan, Bridging the Skills Gap, T&D Magazine (February 2010)
2. Aparna Nacherla, Don’t Delete the E-Messenger, T&D Magazine (February 2010)