Member-only story
I guess we should start out by defining what exactly a “skills gap” is. You probably have an understanding of the term, but for the sake of clarity, here goes:
- An employer believes that job-seekers need to have specific skills in order to work for them
- As they go through a hiring process, they realize those skills aren’t common in the candidate pool
- This is a “skills gap”
A big example in recent years is a specific type of coding experience (say, /r) or some type of data management system background. Some hair-on-fire hiring manager is chasing those skills because he keeps getting nailed by his boss about balls being dropped, and he can’t find those skills. So he bellows constantly about a “skills gap.” Others come to believe in this skills gap as well.
This is a dangerous road to go down and yet, we let companies and managers go down it every single day. Why is it a problem, though?
Skills Gap, Tier 1: Hiring and recruiting processes
I won’t belabor this section. Most hiring processes are terrible to the point of being totally broken. Many “recruiting strategies” do nothing but alienate the best candidates, automate everything to the hilt, and make people feel like a nuisance for asking follow-up questions. The ways we…
