Talent shortage: myth or reality?

by Jan 14, 2021HR & Management, Sourcing & Recruitment

According to a new study by France Stratégie, recruitment difficulties are linked to companies' inadequate or non-existent skills management policies.

According to a new study by France Stratégie, recruitment difficulties are linked to companies’ inadequate or non-existent skills management policies. Is the government’s insistence on supporting candidate training a mistake? Shouldn’t the government be concentrating its resources on developing skills-based management?

Is the “skill gap” a problem of training or skills?

150,000 to 250,000 jobs remain unfilled every year in France.

23% of companies are affected by these recruitment difficulties, reports Manpower Group’s “Talent Shortage 2016” study.

According to the 2017 BMO survey (“Besoin en Main d’œuvre”) conducted by Pôle Emploi, for more than 80% of employers, the problem is mainly linked to a shortage of candidates or the unsuitable profiles of applicants.

While France is said to have a under-utilization of skills produced by the education system according to the OECD (1), one fact seems to be unanimously accepted: in certain sectors, such as the hotel and catering, tourism, industry and commerce sectors, the assets would insufficiently trained to meet business needs.

The government intends to take strong action by releasing 15 billion euros for training jobseekers and young people over the next 5 years.

The aim is to put an end to mass unemployment in France by 2020.

→ To close your skill gap, discover the solutions we use: emilee.ch

 

Talent shortages: have companies identified their needs?

A study published at the end of August by France Stratégie sheds light on the situation. ” Strengthening companies’ ability to recruit “asks, among other things, what’s in it for you? imbalance between supply and demand on the job market, shifting the focus from training to the individual’s own skills. employers’ difficulty in anticipating and identifying their skills needs and to determine those of the candidates.

To break the deadlock, the document encourages companies to reference the skills they need and will need in the future. The effort required seems substantial: the survey highlights that less than 15% of companies are involved in skills management. Instead of focusing on training, shouldn’t the government also be helping recruiters to adopt a skills-based management policy, or supporting them in improving it?

→ To find out more about the challenges and key stages of skills-based management, read our white paper.

 

Skills vs. qualifications

This awareness is all the more urgent in a rapidly changing job market. At a time when companies are undergoing transformation – both in terms of organization and business lines – some specialists are warning that we need to reconsider our approach to recruitment. The idea is no longer to think solely in terms of diplomas and professional experience, but mainly in terms of skills.

Furthermore, although technical skills are important, working together is becoming increasingly crucial, not least because of the still greatly underestimated emergence of artificial intelligence and its impact on employment (massive job destruction and creation of jobs requiring other profiles). As a result, behavioral skills take center stage, and here too, companies are generally ill-equipped to measure or develop them.

On June 22, a debate was held in Paris on the impact of automation on employment. Catherine Poux, Director of Business Services at Pôle Emploi, stressed the importance of developing “a skills-based approach and encouraging companies to talk in this way”.

→ To better measure your employees’ behavioral skills, our competency-based management software incorporates a psychometric tool to assess their behavioral preferences and motivations.

Innovation for skills management

With this in mind, Pôle Emploi has launched a new platform: Pole-talents.fra site that gives jobseekers access to job offers listed by skills. The tool is still being tested, but this approach demonstrates the critical importance of the shift we need to make.

→ Convinced of this need at Skillspotting, we have developed a tool that changes the recruitment paradigm and enables the deployment of simple, high-performance skills-based management, not least because it relies on the tool being appropriated by all players (candidates/employees; HR; managers).

Whether you need support in building your competency-based management model or want to optimize it, we’re here to help. We can also help you develop the skills of your managers, so that they can work together, through tailor-made courses combining individual coaching and action-oriented training modules.

(1) 44% of workers have a level of qualification that does not correspond to the job they hold: 31% are overqualified and 13% underqualified (OECD figures quoted in the France Stratégie study commented on here).

Sources :