Skills gaps create more than just hiring headaches. They affect the entire organization, slowing productivity, frustrating employees, and ultimately limiting your ability to serve the people who depend on your programs. That’s because finding people who are prepared to handle your job requirements is becoming harder and harder each day.
That’s what the skills or talent gap is: when your employees or potential hires can’t keep up with the abilities you need for today’s roles. Luckily, you can take proactive steps to identify and address skills gaps to position your organization for long-term success. This guide will show you how to identify when it’s impacting your programs and what to do to bridge the skills gap.
What Is a Skills Gap?
A skills gap is when the abilities and qualifications that employers need don’t match what job seekers or current employees have. This mismatch creates a frustrating cycle in which businesses struggle to fill open positions despite having plenty of applicants, while workers find it hard to get a job because they’re unqualified for the available opportunities.
The skills gap has grown wider and wider as technology advances more quickly and industries evolve. What worked five years ago may no longer be relevant to companies today, especially those in the tech sector. Digital literacy and specialized technical skills now dominate many job descriptions, leaving new graduates and even experienced workers scrambling to keep pace.
For example, a nonprofit organization may try to hire a program coordinator who can manage both client databases and grant reporting software. The HR coordinator might receive dozens, or even hundreds, of applications from candidates with strong interpersonal skills but limited technology experience, which means they would have to train the candidate in-house to handle the nonprofit’s requirements.
How the Skills Gap Affects Hiring and Workforce Development
The skills gap affects everyone at the organization, even those whose skills match their job duties. When employers can’t find qualified candidates, positions remain vacant for months and force the existing staff to deal with additional responsibilities.
This is a big deal because almost 75% of all employers struggle to find new recruits with the appropriate skill set, according to a survey from ManpowerGroup. This shortage forces organizations to either lower their standards or operate with understaffed teams that limit their ability to serve their clients.
The productivity implications also go beyond the organization. The World Economic Forum has identified the need to reskill employees as one of the most important threats to economic productivity in the modern workplace. This is a real challenge for entire sectors as they’ll deal with slower growth and reduced innovation without the right people in the right roles.
And the problem is that this isn’t something a simple training course can correct. The National Skills Coalition found that more than half of all jobs require skills beyond a high school level but don’t require a four-year degree, creating a middle-skills gap that traditional education fails to address. This makes it difficult for workforce development programs to adapt their training options to match evolving industry needs.
Key Signs Indicating Your Organization Is Facing a Skills Gap
Recognizing a skills gap early is a good way for you to get ahead of the game before it has a big impact on your operations and client services. There are a few warning signs that indicate there may be a mismatch between the available skills and job requirements:
Roles That Stay Open Too Long
When positions remain unfilled for an extended period of time despite active recruiting efforts, it usually means there’s a disconnect between what the role requires and what the candidates can offer. If a position has stayed open for more than 90 days, then it’s likely because of skills misalignment.
The bad part is that extended hiring cycles create cascading problems for the entire organization. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that replacing an employee can cost up to three times that person’s annual salary when factoring in recruitment expenses and lost productivity during the transition period. That means the longer a position stays open, the more expensive it is for the company.
Performance Gaps Among Existing Staff
If you’re finding that your employees consistently struggle to meet performance expectations despite adequate support, then it might be because of underlying skill deficiencies. These gaps usually manifest as missed deadlines or an inability to use essential technology platforms effectively.
Research from Gallup found that almost $2 trillion is lost every year due to disengaged employees. This is what happens when employees feel unprepared or inadequately skilled for the work they’re supposed to do.
High Turnover in Specialized Positions
Feeling disengaged at work due to inadequate skills could make anyone search for greener pastures. If your employees don’t see a clear way to align their skills with their job responsibilities, then they’ll likely end up resigning.
A survey of more than 50,000 employees across 59 global organizations found that engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their positions. That’s because employees who feel confident in their abilities and are properly equipped to handle their responsibilities have higher job satisfaction and a stronger commitment to their organization’s mission.
Real-World Examples of Skills Gaps in Action
Skills gaps show up in different ways across roles and organizations, but their impact on daily operations stays just as disruptive. Here are a few examples of what a skills gap crisis might look like in different industries:
- Case management technology: A family services nonprofit hires experienced social workers who excel at client rapport but struggle with the organization’s new case management software. These workers spend hours manually entering data that should take minutes, creating backlogs that delay client services and increase staff frustration.
- Grant reporting and data analysis: A community development organization needs program coordinators who can analyze participant outcomes for funder reports. The current staff understand program delivery but don’t have the skills for data visualization and statistical analysis. This means their funder reports consistently fail to communicate the program’s impact.
- Digital communication platforms: A youth mentoring program adopts secure messaging and videoconferencing tools to stay in touch with clients. Older counselors struggle with the technology, which causes them to miss appointments and affects their relationships with their mentees.
- Financial management systems: A housing assistance agency implements new budgeting and expense tracking software. Administrative staff who previously managed paper-based systems find themselves overwhelmed by the new digital procedures, which delays client application processing and reimbursements.
Why Closing the Skills Gap Should Be a Priority
You’ll need to make some upfront investments to address the skills gap at your organization, but that’s well worth the initial costs. Organizations that proactively bridge these gaps position themselves for long-term growth while avoiding the mounting expenses associated with such workforce challenges.
Here’s what you can expect:
- More innovation and productivity: Teams equipped with essential skills drive organizational success through improved processes and creative problem-solving. Deloitte research showed that organizations with strong learning cultures are 92% more likely to develop innovative products while enjoying 52% higher productivity than their peers.
- Improved employee retention: Workers value professional development opportunities and see skills training as evidence of an organizational investment in their future. According to a LinkedIn survey, 94% of employees agree that they would stay with their company longer if it invested in their career development.
- Future-proof operations: Skills development helps organizations adapt to changing industry requirements and technological advancements. A PwC survey found that 79% of CEOs worldwide worry that skills shortages threaten their organization’s future growth, highlighting the strategic importance of workforce development.
- Better client outcomes: Staff who have the skills they need to do their job are much more equipped serve the organization’s clients. And higher-quality support is more likely to lead to improved program outcomes and a stronger impact on the community.
Key Strategies to Close the Skills Gap in Your Workforce
You’ll need to be strategic if you want to address these skills gaps without spending your entire budget on employee education. To do this, you’ll want a program that combines immediate training solutions with long-term workforce development planning.
Organizations that implement comprehensive skills-building strategies can build stronger teams that are more resilient to future changes.
Launch Targeted Training Programs
Upskilling effectively starts with identifying specific competency gaps and designing training programs that address real job requirements rather than generic skill sets. Organizations can develop internal training programs led by experienced staff members who understand both the technical requirements and the practical applications of the most important skills for the job.
Another option is engaging with third parties that can expand your training options beyond your internal capacity. There are many providers of professional development programs and technology vendors that have specialized courses that keep pace with evolving standards and best practices. For example, many software companies have certification programs that can help your staff maximize the capabilities of their platforms.
You may also want to cross-train employees to build redundancy and prevent single points of failure. The benefit of this is that multiple employees will understand how to stay on top of different processes and systems, which means your organization won’t run into a bottleneck stemming from the sudden retirement of the only person who knew how to do something.
Create Employer-Education Partnerships
Working with educational institutions like trade schools or community colleges can create pipelines of qualified candidates with training programs that stay relevant to current industry needs. The schools benefit from employer input as they develop their curricula, while organizations gain access to students who have learned job-specific skills.
Another option is to work with workforce development agencies to connect your organization with training resources and potential candidates. These partnerships usually include apprenticeship programs and internship opportunities that prepare participants for the job before they’re officially on the payroll.
Invest in Ongoing Skills Assessments
Regularly evaluating your team’s skills helps you identify emerging skills gaps before they start affecting your performance and client services. You can conduct annual assessments to establish baseline measurements that will let you know what your training and professional priorities should be for each member of the team.
You can use competency mapping exercises to document current skill levels across teams and departments. To do this, start by listing the specific skills each role requires and then rate your current employees’ abilities in those areas on a simple scale. For example, you might rate data analysis skills from one (beginner) to five (expert) across your program coordination team. This visual overview will let you spot patterns that highlight areas where multiple employees need similar training.
Finally, incorporate skills-based discussions into performance reviews to identify growth opportunities and ways for your teams to advance their careers. This will help employees understand how skill development connects to their professional goals so they engage more enthusiastically in your training programs.
How Casebook Supports Workforce Development Goals
You can use case management platforms like Casebook to stay on top of participant progress through comprehensive data tracking and outcome measurement. Workforce program directors can document skill assessments, track training completion rates, and measure job placement success across entire programs.
Case managers can quickly access individual participant histories to identify skills gaps and recommend appropriate next steps in their career development. When you have all the training records and assessment scores in one place, you can make more informed decisions about which skills to prioritize for each member of your team.
You can also take advantage of automated reporting features to streamline the way you demonstrate your program’s effectiveness to funders and stakeholders. Real-time dashboards show you training completion rates and skill improvement metrics that prove just how effective your upskilling efforts are.
Building a Future-Ready Workforce Starts Now
Skills gaps won’t fix themselves, and waiting only makes the problem more expensive to fix. Organizations that act now will gain a competitive advantage by having higher productivity, more employee satisfaction, a lower turnover rate, and better client outcomes.
Casebook’s employment case management software gives you the tools you need to implement these strategies effectively. Track participant progress and measure training outcomes with our sophisticated software.
Try Casebook’s employment and workforce development case management software today to streamline your upskilling efforts.
