What If the Skills Gap Isn't About Finding Talent?
The Skills Gap in our Workforce Isn't Solely About Hiring, It's Also About Development
In 2025, the most competitive advantage isn't finding people with the perfect resume. Although those unicorns do exist, they are rare! It's more about investing in skills-based development that grows with your team.
What I've noticed, businesses and organizations that prioritize continuous learning that's focused on employee development have higher retention, more engagement, and continuous performance improvement. This is solely from my observations working with mid-sized businesses as an HR Consultant.
What's different is that in the past, we hired for skills. We included and excluded candidates based on the skills they currently have as we are interviewing them. It may be time to shift from "hiring for skills" to hiring people who are capable and also possess a genuine growth mindset. Perhaps consider hiring that entry-level candidate who shows potential and develop them into the talent you need. Or, maybe you invest in developing a cohort of managers into the people leaders your organization is desperately missing?
This is not a quick-fix solution. Generally, investing in this type of strategy takes time to reap the rewards, but when it works inside organizations, it's magic! 💫
If you recognize that you're struggling to hire the talent that you need in your organization, invest in employee development systems that will help you grow talent internally. This is a long game. Organizational patience is required.
What does skills-based employee development look like in your organization? How is your organization investing in employee development? Your thoughts and comments are welcome!
I've been consulting on a strategic employee development program for a client. This prized client is making a huge shift to skills-based development with the goal of preparing people for future roles and reducing the need to hire externally. It's a long game and will be magical when it pays off.
If you'd like to talk about an employee development program for your business, reach out!
