Gary Beach has ideas for CIOs on how to bridge the IT skills gap at their companies.

IT Talent, Bridging the Gap

With nearly twenty-two million Americans unemployed, or underemployed, and five million posted jobs in the United States labeled as “open”, one might logically come to the conclusion that there is truly a skills gap impacting U.S. businesses, the workforce and our overall economy.

Over the past three years the “skills gap” has become one of the most contentious, high-profile labor issues in America. The Business Roundtable, an organization comprised of the Chief Executive Officers of the top 250 firms in America, reported that 96% of CEOs believe the skills gap is a “serious challenge” to their businesses. CIOs agree. The Society for Information Management, the largest organization representing the interests of CIOs and senior IT leaders in the country, reports in its 2015 IT Trends Study that next to security, the skills gap was the “most worrisome” issue for chief information officers.

IT Skills Gap Has Deniers

Those who “laugh out loud” at the existence of a skills gap rely primarily on economic data such as hourly wages and length of work week. If a skills gap existed, they say, there would be an accompanying increase in wages as corporations are forced to pay more for scarce talent. Moreover, a worker’s length of work week would logically be longer as currently employed workers are forced to put in more hours to cover for all those “open” jobs.

Critics of the skills gap report they can find no trend data for wage increases or more hours being put in per week. Economists like Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman call the skills gap as a “zombie issue that should be killed” and prominent media like the editorial board of The New York Times say the skills gap is “mostly corporate fiction” caused mainly by the business sector which is 1) too selective in hiring, 2) too stingy with wages and 3) unwilling to invest in training and development.

Both sides of the skills gap argument bring “fact” based data to the debate. But nothing gets resolved because each side seems more intent on winning the debate rather than framing solutions.

And the debate has proved costly. Indeed.com, the global job posting company, projects the skills gap annually costs the U.S. economy a whopping $160 billion a year.

Bridge, Rather Than Debate, the Technology Skills Gap

My advice to readers: stay far away from the skills gap debate. Instead, consider ways you can help bridge it. That is, of course, if you believe the gap is real. Here are several ideas:

Most businesses have begun the process of digitally transforming their firms. That is one mighty task. Particularly when you consider the “median” age of an IT worker is 53-years old!

I have created a matrix where the “Y” axis is the number of digital transformation projects at your firm scaled from low to high. The “X” axis is the “digital proficiency skills” of your IT staff. The Future Works Skills 2020 report from The Institute for the Future provides a great overview of digital skills needed now and in the future.

Where does your firm land in the matrix? What about your competitors? As in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” reports, where you want to be is in the top right quadrant.

Technology Skills Gap Matrix

My matrix may be simplistic but it visualizes a complex challenge you face. In order to navigate the skills gap successfully you must constantly assess your present skills needs. And, more importantly, you should estimate the digital skills you will need in the future. I would recommend at least three years.

Digital Skills is a People Issue

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow a tree. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.” - Confucius

“Technology don’t mean nothing, it’s people that count” – Will Rogers

My next suggestion is for you to sit down with your human resource department and assess your current corporate training and development efforts. Accenture recently reported that 80% of corporations have not implemented comprehensive corporate training and development programs in the past five years. If you are counted among that 80 percent, start a training program. Now.

Here’s something else you can do. Pretend you are applying for a tech job at your company. Go on your favorite job posting site, pull up a listing for your firm and ask these questions: 1) Does this seem like a company I would like to work for? (Few firms do good work “branding” their business as a preferred place to work), 2) Does the listing seem too selective? (In my experience studying the skills gap, too many companies look for what HR executives call “purple squirrels” – a blend of desirable skills that no one on earth possesses – rather than selecting a candidate who has 90% of the skills required and who can be trained on the rest.

Intent on hiring “digital transformation” staff? Here’s a radical idea. Don’t ask candidates for a resume. Instead, screen candidates by reviewing their presence on social media. As one CIO shared with me, “give me sixty seconds with social media and I can immediately tell if a candidate will be a cultural fit for our firm.”

Consider this: When was the last time you took time to visit a local high school, junior college or four-year institution and shared with them the kind of skills you need right now in your workplace? Too many CIOs “bark at the caravan” but few roll up their sleeves and get involved in helping our nation’s education infrastructure focus finite resources on skills needed rather than skills that tenured professors want to teach.

Your CFO will like this final question: Are you paying too much for technology skills? The National Skills Coalition claims 36% of all IT jobs in America are held by workers who do not hold college degrees. Yet Burning Glass Technologies reports a whopping 98% of all IT job postings require a college degree. Could you -- should you -- be recruiting for more associate degree candidates?

The skills gap is real. The skills gap is global. The future trajectory of your career will depend more on how you bridge the gap and “grow people” rather than showing off your technology acumen.

Until we do close this widening gap our nation, your business and your career remain at risk.

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