HIRING Are You Ready to Take on the Skills Gap? The time is now for business, government, and educational groups to work together to develop qualified candidates for tech jobs. I have good news and bad news. My 15-year-old technology services firm, Tribridge, added 200 positions in 2013, and we are looking to hire even more people in 2014. The problem is not with our current growth trajectory or company vision. What’s keeping me up at night is wondering where my future team members will come from and how I’m going to scale the business to meet market demand. Like many entrepreneurs, I’m facing a very real shortage of highly skilled talent. Something Has to Give The U.S. unemployment rate was 6.7 percent for December, down from 7.9 percent for the same month in 2012. The number is moving in the right direction, but why are millions of Americans still on the bench when there are so many job openings? One third of those unemployed have been jobless for more than six months. My HR and recruiting teams are working diligently to attract candidates with the right blend of leadership, cultural fit, and technical knowledge. For every potential good fit they find, there are several more applicants who are employable but lack the specific skill sets, like cloud architecture or programming, needed to hit the ground running. Our situation is far from unique. I’ve had conversations with countless entrepreneurs across the country who share the same frustrations. As business owners, we are doing our part to stimulate the economy, put innovative products and services on the market, and create jobs, only to be challenged with a skills gap we aren’t equipped to manage. Something has to give, and the answer isn’t to steal talent from the competition. We Aren’t Moving Fast (or Big) Enough Do a search on “technical skills gap” and you’ll get about 11 million results. Academics and politicians are debating the effects of dealing with so many unfilled positions, and the...
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 12:28:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015