Closing Skill Gaps During Tech Disruption

Adapting to the evolving demands of technology is a priority for many organizations in 2019, but the tech skills shortage is making it harder for companies to achieve this goal. Technological disruption is driving this talent crisis, forcing employers to re-evaluate their talent management strategies.

All employers require tech skills within their business. But resolving this challenge isn’t simply a case of streamlining your recruitment process to attract more candidates. Once your talent is onboard, HR must prioritize staff development and retention to ensure your organization is able to meet your future skills requirements.

This not as easy as it might seem. Gartner estimates that only 20% of employees have the necessary skills for both their current role and future career.

In addition, employers are facing high attrition levels – and jobs which require tech skills have the highest turnover rates at 13.2%. The Society For Human Resources Management (SHRM) also estimates that attrition costs reach 50-250% of an employee’s annual salary.

Addressing the tech skills gap with career pathing

By implementing a successful career pathing strategy, your organization can begin to address both of these underlying problems in two stages:

Stage 1 : Identify internal skills gaps

Before launching a career pathing program, it’s important to understand where the skills gaps exist within your workforce. If you are struggling to keep up with rapid digital transformation and compete in your sector, you have a skills gap.

To understand exactly where that skills gap exists within your business we recommend:

• Identify your overall company objectives. All career pathing strategies should be developed within the context of your goals.
• Identify the skills that are preventing your organization from achieving its objectives.
• Identify the skills your employees already have. Technology is the workplace disrupter so even your highly qualified long-term employees may have skills gaps where their job has evolved due to digitization. Allowing your employees to evaluate their own skills gaps is a critical part of a successful career pathing program. Ask them to focus on the skills which are required to perform their job effectively, both now and to enable them to develop in the future.

Stage 2 : Develop your employees

Empowering your employees’ personal and career growth enhances engagement and job satisfaction as well as improving attrition levels within your organization.  According to research:

• LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if their employers invested in their career.
• 45% of employees ranked the lack of career advancement as their #1 reason for leaving their jobs (compared to 34% for better compensation).

Career pathing helps employees to objectively evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses, while providing access to coaching and learning resources which can help them to realize their career aspirations.

The most successful career pathing programs are interactive and utilize tools such as talent profiles, gap analyses, and organizational insights in a user-friendly interface to create customized career paths and insight on how to develop critical skills.

At a time of continued technological disruption, retaining and developing professionals with specialist skills could prove to be the critical difference in your company’s transition to a digital enterprise.

Discover more about the best practices for career pathing.

Support your talent management strategy with award winning software from TalentGuard. Our dedicated career pathing software supports your employees to map multiple career path scenarios, review job competencies and evaluate skills gaps in order to achieve their career goals.