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Are Skills Gaps in Your Business Hurting Overall Productivity?

Many industries move at high speeds, and keeping workers on top of new technologies is difficult. Skills gaps are a major problem for a lot of businesses today. How do skills gaps form in a company? How can you address them? And how can you avoid them in the future? The answers to these questions will help boost your company’s productivity.

Degrees vs. Job Openings

One major reason for skills gaps is the most popular college degrees do not quite line up with the most in-demand jobs.

The most popular college degrees are:

  1. Business Administration
  2. Liberal Arts
  3. Nursing
  4. Psychology
  5. General Studies

However, the most in-demand jobs that require a degree are:

  1. Nurse Practitioners
  2. Physical Therapists
  3. Statisticians
  4. Physician Assistants
  5. Operations Research Analysts

Other than nursing, there isn’t much overlap to speak of. This makes it difficult for companies to find the qualified statisticians and research analysts they need. However, that’s not the only cause of skills gaps.

More Continuing Education Is Needed

Technology moves fast, and IT jobs are not the only ones affected. New technology affects every industry, from healthcare to marketing and more. Skills gaps occur when existing staff are not kept up-to-date on emerging industry trends and technologies. The answer to this problem is to provide continuing education for employees. Learning & Development (or L&D) requires a bit of corporate spending – the average annual training budget for a small company (under 1,000 employees) is around $350,000, according to Training magazine. But a good L&D program is worth it. Industry analyst Josh Bersin writes, “Companies which fall into our ‘high-impact’ categories spend significantly more on training than average…L&D spending pays off.”

Hasty Hiring Is Not the Answer

The time when skills gaps are most noticeable is when you are trying to fill an open position. Whether it is because of a lack of degree, or lack of soft skills like problem-solving ability, it can be difficult to find job candidates who have all the skills you need. Unfortunately, some managers are so eager to fill a vacant position, they settle for a less-than-ideal candidate. This is a bad idea, as it will leave your company with even more skills gaps. Training is possible to fill those gaps, but it is less expensive and time-consuming to hire the right candidate in the first place.

Aventure works with our business clients to place the perfect candidate for every open position. We have a large network of skilled professionals, with backgrounds in healthcare, finance, IT and more. Let us help you close the skills gap; contact our staffing experts today!

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