US companies blame unemployment on skills gap

Drew Greenblatt has been looking for more than a year for three sheet-metal set-up operators to work day, night or weekend shifts.

The president of Marlin Steel Wire Products, a company in Baltimore with 30 employees, Mr Greenblatt says his inability to find qualified workers is hampering his business’s growth. “If I could fill those positions, I could raise our annual revenues from $5m to $7m,” he says.

He is offering a salary of more than $80,000 with overtime, including health and pension benefits. Yet in spite of extensive advertising, he has had no qualified applicants. He is trying to train some of his unskilled staff but says none has the ability or drive to complete the training.

Mr Greenblatt’s predicament speaks to one of the biggest economic debates about today’s 8.6 per cent US unemployment rate: is it merely a cyclical problem that will shrink as demand recovers? Or is it something deeper and more structural, a “mismatch” between the skills workers have and those companies need?

Read more at ft.com

Training for a Turnaround

Some valuable insights from the current cover story in The Human Factor magazine and our good friend and associate Dr. Pi Wen Looi of Novacrea Research Consulting on the importance of training in this economy.

Dr. Pi Wen Looi, who has led a global research team for Hewitt’s Best Employers Study, says, “If you have had a layoff, some of your employees are likely to take on additional responsibilities and have increased workload. Sometimes employees are asked to take on roles that they are not trained for and are beyond their current capabilities. At best, this can result in employee resentment and burnt out. At worst, it can cost your company its reputation and lose its customers, as employees who are not trained for their role are more likely to make mistakes and the quality of products or services will suffer.”

To avoid such a disastrous scenario from unfolding, training is the single most effective measure of keeping employees engaged when times are tough. Hewitt Associates’ Global Best Employers Study has tried to answer the question of what makes a ‘best employer’ through its survey conducted every year. The company clearly says that “best employers have a commitment to people that is more substantial than the latest fad in employee benefits”,and that this trait of a best employer is “consistent acrossnational culture, economic conditions, and political situations”.This would suggest that the current global economic downturn is no different a situation for those companies which take the responsibility for ‘taking care’ of their employees seriously.

While the specifics of how this is done may vary across industries and regions, there is no doubt that training plays an imperative role in keeping star performers engaged at a time when the economy as a whole maybe going through a tough time. Moreover, continuous learning opportunities reinforce the organisational values and commitment within the workforce and this especially helps in maintaining morale and motivation levels across all levels of employees.

Link to Novacrea Research Consulting