One of the biggest problems faced by both employers and prospective employees today is specialization. There are so many different sets of skills needed for many businesses to manage effectively.
My own company is looking to lay off staff in some departments, even while other departments have a desperate need for talented workers. The simple problem is that the employees in Group A don't meet the company's needs for Group B.
Fixed. There is no labor shortage only a wage shortage.
Yes, good point. And there is no shortcut to getting experience.
“My own company is looking to lay off staff in some departments, even while other departments have a desperate need for talented workers. The simple problem is that the employees in Group A don’t meet the company’s needs for Group B.”
Agile.
Heard of it? Companies used to promote and retrain from within, that is, until the agile mindset hit.
Agile is short term thinking. You hire someone with the skills to do the job TODAY. If they job changes, you let them go and hire someone else that already has the skills to do the job TODAY.
Agile treats people as if their skill sets are set in stone; as if they can’t change, grow, or learn new skills. So, workers become replaceable cogs.
The irony of the agile mindset is the most important aspect of an employee isn’t skills, it’s attitude. Something agile completely misses.
I am in the exact opposite situation in that I am trying to find an old school IT mentality where I can find someone that is not an expert in any one thing but competent in a lot of things and willing to learn/try anything we assign to them. Salary is not great since I am not looking for someone with a Masters degree and 14 certifications but it is pretty good and yet I cannot find anyone that is interested because all of the younger ones want to be a specialist and only a specialist. The older people are in higher level jobs or want more money than I can afford for this position at least up front until the prove themselves. Through in that we require travel and sometimes last minute travel due to the fact that we support sites across the US from one central location and no one wants to do that either.
I cannot afford specialists. I need generalists that have the old school attitude of I will jump in and learn whatever is necessary. Heck I am a VP and just cleaned up someone else’s mess in the break room that obviously does not know how to make coffee. Grinds and coffee everywhere. Had to meet with the Fire Marshall and take him around the office and fix a couple of minor things like an electrical outlet that did not have a face plate. Not my job but I do it because that is how I got to where I am by jumping on problems and working them.
Attitude is gone from most of the younger generation now and everyone wants one easily defined job and nothing else.
+1
My company has had several job openings that we haven’t been able to staff because we do not get any applicants with the requisite skills.