In a snap poll during Remchannel’s recent mining industry webinar, we asked participants to name their biggest concerns regarding the sustainability of the sector. Bridging the skills gap came out on top. In financial services, too, people who have the necessary specialised actuarial skills are few and far between; and despite high unemployment rates, vacancies are rife.

Every organisation knows which key skills it requires. Yet when they embark on recruitment drives, many are either met with a lack of interest or, when there is interest, exorbitant salary expectations.

If, as an employer, you are struggling to fill your vacancies, it’s worth considering whether your expectations of applicants’ skills and experience are too specific or too high. No matter their qualification, someone without work experience would in most cases not be your first choice. Why not?

Employers often tell us that they want candidates with experience. This creates two challenges. First, technology changes so rapidly that it is difficult to find employees with experience in emerging technologies and work practices. Second, if educational institutions, employers and individuals aren’t keeping up with these changes, the workforce will be left behind.

Our higher education institutions simply do not skill jobseekers sufficiently. Here I don’t mean technical skills; I mean life skills, which people need to build a career and contribute substantially to an organisation. The competencies required to be a manager, for example, are well known but are not taught at university.

What your HR should look for – and do

When hiring, employers need to look for a balance of specific technical skills and critical success skills and competencies. Most importantly, they need to look for a positive work attitude and self-management skills. As the old saying goes, you can teach skills but you can’t teach a good attitude.

In the past, employers regularly engaged with universities to identify the top talent before they graduated and offered them bursaries or internships; bursaries because they almost guarantee that bursary holders would join the organisation, and internships so that they can gain the necessary experience early on.

Another concern for many employers is that a generation of baby boomers is now retiring. Many are in senior roles and have a wealth of institutional knowledge, and they are fully occupied in their roles until the day they retire. That makes it difficult to put a succession plan into action. In many instances, retired baby boomers are brought back into the organisation on a contract basis, with the sole job of mentoring and coaching the talent that has replaced them. This is a great initiative, if done correctly, but if you bring someone back to fill a gap in your organisation, you’re only making the problem worse.

Too few new entrants are being groomed almost from the beginning to ultimately fill key positions. I see many organisations going in search of highly qualified, highly skilled individuals, only to find that they are in short supply. This increases demand, which in turn increases salaries. Such people are also highly mobile and could come into your organisation for a short period only before departing for the next greener pasture with an even bigger salary and even better benefits.

Workforce planning is no easy task, but no matter what skills your organisation requires, one of your first investments should be to align HR and your workforce strategy to your long-term business strategy. If you plan ahead, knowing now what skills you will need in the future, you will be in a position to nurture talent through the ranks throughout your organisation.

This article originally appeared in Remchannel’s HR Quarterly (June 2021).

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