The skills gap is an increasing concern for businesses today, with 75% of organisations struggling to find workers with the right skills. As technology advances and industries evolve, the gap between what employers need and what candidates can offer is growing at an alarming rate.
If your recruitment strategy isn’t geared towards addressing this, you risk missing out on top talent and stunting your company's growth.
Understanding the skills gap
The skills gap refers to the difference between the skills employers need and the ones job seekers have. The pace of technological change is a major contributor, with sectors like tech seeing nearly half of employers struggling to find candidates with skills such as cybersecurity and data analytics. This disparity between available skills and demand affects innovation, productivity, and business performance, making it a pressing issue to address.
Why does it matter?
Traditional recruitment methods often rely on experience-based filtering, but this is no longer effective. Each year, 750 million quality candidates are passed over because of experience-based hiring, and 70% of people are in roles for which they are misaligned. This misalignment not only impacts individual businesses but also poses broader risks to economic growth. Without a skilled workforce, businesses struggle to innovate and retain talent.
Here's how you can tackle the skills gap, boost your hiring process, and future-proof your workforce.👇
Conduct a comprehensive skills assessment
Integrating skills assessments into your hiring process allows you to evaluate candidates' competencies directly. Tools such as practical tests or skills-fit interviews offer insight into how well a candidate can perform real-world tasks. This goes beyond CVs, focusing on the skills needed for the role.
But before addressing the skills gap, you need to pinpoint where the gaps exist. Skills mapping is an excellent first step. It helps identify the existing skills within your workforce and compare them with what’s needed to meet future goals. With these insights, you can adapt your hiring process to focus on skills-based hiring, ensuring you're bringing in candidates who can bridge the gaps.
Fostering a skills-first culture
A skills-first culture emphasises relevant abilities rather than formal credentials. Fostering such a culture involves promoting continuous learning and encouraging knowledge sharing across teams through workshops or lunch-and-learns.
Focus on hard vs. soft skills to ensure candidates have the right blend of technical and interpersonal abilities. In today's collaborative work environments, soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and adaptability are just as critical as technical expertise.
Embracing a more inclusive hiring strategy
To close the skills gap, expanding your talent pool is essential. Instead of focusing solely on job titles or qualifications, shift towards skills-based hiring. This approach emphasises role-specific skills, making your process more flexible and aligned with actual business needs. Traditional hiring methods, which focus on formal education and rigid job experiences, often exclude highly capable. candidates. Embracing inclusivity means looking beyond typical qualifications to consider those with unconventional backgrounds, such as graduates of coding boot camps or self-learners.
Adopting this approach broadens your access to valuable skills while improving diversity. In fact, diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform their peers (Glassdoor).
Invest in upskilling and reskilling
Addressing the skills gap isn't just about hiring; it’s about investing in your current workforce. Upskilling and reskilling initiatives help close immediate gaps while preparing your team for future challenges. Providing access to continuous learning platforms or mentorship programmes can help retain employees while ensuring they grow with your business needs.
Monitoring market trends and skills needs
Once you’ve implemented your skills-based hiring strategy, don’t stop there. Ongoing skills assessment and tracking are vital to keeping up with changing business needs. Additionally, regularly reviewing labour market data and industry reports can reveal which skills are on the rise, helping your organisation adjust its hiring strategies to remain competitive. Remember to create feedback loops to measure your hiring process’s success, adjusting your strategy based on talent alignment and performance metrics.
Closing the skills gap in hiring is no longer a want—it's a need
As the market shifts, organisations that adapt will thrive—those that don’t risk falling behind. By adopting skills-first practices, investing in upskilling, and using innovative tools like Clu, you can build a future-ready workforce. Businesses that prioritise skills will enjoy increased retention, diversity, and productivity.
Want your TA function to be more cost-efficient, data-rich, legally compliant, and significantly more equitable? Clu’s TalentGPS™ is the AI plug-in that significantly increases your hiring accuracy, equity, and ROI.
We exist because 90% of applicant tracker systems initially filter candidates based on keywords, career dates, and previous job titles—none of which determine whether someone can do a job.
It’s time to get a Clu.
