4 tips to close your company’s skills gap

The hiring process has become more difficult for human resources teams due to a skills gap among recent college graduates. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, lack of work experience, competition from other employers and the absence of technical skills hold potential employees back from being hired. Recruiting possible candidates with the skills gap in mind is important for companies and HR. With greater training and focus on improving certain attributes after hiring a person, the hope is that the skills gap will begin to close for companies. Here are four tips for hiring during the skills gap:

1. Partner with a college or university
Collaborating with a higher education institution is one way to ensure graduates come out of college with more of the skills they need to get hired. Ask programs that pertain to your industry if you could review the curriculum or syllabi so your company can better inform the institution what talents you will look for in college graduates. With this advice, colleges and universities can enhance their classes with additional lessons that will help students in the long run. By adding your company's expertise early in a students' careers, they can hopefully graduate from college with a more well-rounded skill set.

2. Utilize company peers to decide on necessary skills
Job descriptions can become outdated or too stringent upon what kinds of talents a candidate should have if hired. It's important to go back through these run-downs to make sure they don't immediately turn people who are ready and willing to learn away. Using members from different levels of the company, especially those people whose teams will be directly affected by the hire, in conjunction with HR helps a company better understand what kind of employee is best, according to Recruiting Blogs.

3. Promote on-the-job training
The perfect employee may be hard to find, but he or she could be groomed while on the job, if willing to learn. According to a CareerBuilder study conducted by Harris Poll, about 49 percent of employers planned to train workers who did not have the skills necessary for the company's industry in 2014. Being more flexible in the hiring process could help employers close the skills gap and provide employees real-time, applicable knowledge for the job. Quick learners help your business fill a costly position, while priming candidates for helpful skills for the jobs they were hired for, as well as others that come after.

4. Use professional certification programs to broaden your candidate pool
Continuing education can come in the form of a program that grants certification based on the acquisition of important industry skills, according to HR Bartender. These courses are helpful for current employees looking to learn more, as well as for finding potential workers who would fit into your company. Utilizing these seminars to develop your list of possible employees could help your business find candidates who may need less on-the-job training.

Every employee will need a different approach to help him or her develop the skills necessary to succeed on the job. Pairing with an educational institution or providing additional instruction once a candidate has been hired helps your human resources team's recruiting process start to close its individual skills gap, while contributing to the cessation of the larger issue. HR outsourcing also assists companies in finding the best potential employees for the position.