A PATH TO TALENT SUSTAINABILITYWhy Education Programs are the Key to Avoiding Skill Gaps

For the unprepared employer, the talent drought promises lingering job openings and revenue risks. To create a sustainable source of talent, employers will need to become less reliant on just recruiting from outside and more focused on strategically developing talent from within.

By 2020, a shortage of approximately five-million employees with post-secondary degrees is expected1 — roughly the population of Los Angeles and Dallas combined.

1 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, “Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020,” June 2013

While college skills are critical, degrees alone aren’t the only need. So-called “middle skills” — computer technology, medical coding, high-skill manufacturing, and other fields that often require non-degree training2

— are notoriously difficult to fill and constantly evolving. Keeping up is essential; but in the hot talent market, replacing a lost employee is often neither practical nor cost effective.

THE NEED FOR A NIMBLE WORKFORCE

Employees cost roughly 1.5 times their salary to replace4

66% of employers are increasing

new hire salaries3

76% of employers are offering signing bonuses —

an all-time high5

2 PWC, “Redefining Business Success in a Changing World; CEO Survey,” January 2016

3 Thomas A. Kochan, David Finegold, Paul Osterman; “Who Can Fix the ‘Middle-Skills” Gap? Harvard Business Review, December 2012

4 Tara Seigel Bernard, “Why Companies Have Started to Coach New Parents,” New York Times, July 22, 2016

5 “Bonus Programs and Practices,” World at Work, July 2016

RECRUITING AND RETAINING WITH EDUCATION

Recruitment — specifically of employees with the right skills and who are the right fit — is a challenge in itself. The average time it takes to fill a

position rose to nearly two months in 20166; and more than a third of companies with extended vacancies (12+ weeks) reported

diminished revenue7. Faced with a dwindling supply of job-ready talent on the external market, employers are looking at other ways to keep

workforce skills on pace with technology and competitive threads.

One approach is appealing to employees’ hunger for education. Offering employees a development journey has the distinct advantages of both appealing to new hires (and potentially reducing the amount of time a

valuable position remains vacant), and grooming existing, highly engaged employees to fill new and expanded roles. Job candidates today are

looking for a career path, not just a paycheck. Employees who receive access to education become more committed to their employer.

60%

81%

79%

would pick a job with strong development potential over one with regular pay raises8

of employees call tuition assistance an important or very important factor in joining their company9

say tuition assistance makes them more likely to stay with their organization10

6 50 HR and Recruiting Statistics for 2016, Glassdoor, 2016

7 Matt Ferguson, “There’s Skill Involved in Solving the Skill Gap,” Workforce, March 20, 2016

8 “Millennials Desperate for Financial Stability, in Search of Employer Support to Get There,” EdAssist, 2015

9 Lasting Impact of Employer-Sponsored Tuition Assistance, Bright Horizons, 2016

10 Susan Sorenson, “How Employee Engagement Drives Growth,” Gallup, June 20, 2013

As the market tightens, recruitment alone (which is costly to an organization) will not be enough to keep up with talent needs. Skill gaps are a reality but organizations that develop and engage employaees with education strategies will be able to count on a sustainable resource to avoid them.

A BOOST FOR THE BOTTOM LINE

So what can you do? Download our eBook to learn more.

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To learn more about how strategic education programs are helping organizations score on multiple fronts, download our eBook.

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