By Stacey Harris, Vice President, Research and Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group
As we discussed in the March/April 2013 edition, Brandon Hall Group has partnered with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Training magazine to better understand how today’s organizations are individually addressing the skills gap. The research goal was to understand the solutions that are working today—particularly how organizations are hiring and developing their skilled workforce.
Preliminary results, with more than 800 organizations participating in the survey, looked at skills gap issues in three of the hardest-hit industries: high tech, health care, and manufacturing. More than 82 percent of the organizations surveyed hired some form of skilled labor workforce. These are employees who are identified as having a specific set of technical or practical skills that are obtained through a mixture of technical or practical education, as well as hands-on practice.
Of the organizations that hire skilled labor, more than 83 percent said it’s difficult to find skilled workers at either a regional or enterprise level. Manufacturers reported the most difficulty, with more than 88 percent struggling to find skilled workers.
Stacey Harris is vice president of Research and Advisory Services for Brandon Hall Group (http://www.go.brandonhall.com/home), a research and analyst firm serving the performance improvement industry throughout the United States and abroad.
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