Although 9% of Americans are unemployed, 52% of organizations recently surveyed by ManpowerGroup are having trouble filling positions. The problem is not that unemployed workers are living large off their unemployment benefits but that they lack the exact skills employers need.

At FastCompany, Donna Wells, CEO of Mindflash, suggests a solution that does not involve blaming our education system or the work ethic of our labor force: Hire for the qualities you seek and teach the skills they need.

Wells provides an example. Con-way Freight of Salt Lake City couldn’t find and hire qualified drivers fast enough to meet its needs. Rather than being chronically understaffed—and losing revenue as a result—it started free driving schools at 75 of its truck yards and guaranteed a job for anyone who passed the training. In the first 18 months, it graduated nearly 440 drivers and has retained 98% of them.

The Baldrige Criteria ask a number of questions that you can use to evaluate your hiring and training processes:

• What are your key human resource or workforce plans to accomplish your short- and longer-term strategic objectives and action plans?
• How do you assess your workforce capability and capacity needs, including skills, competencies, and staffing levels?
• How do you recruit, hire, place, and retain new members of your workforce?

As Wells concludes, “With technology and industries shifting so quickly, our economy’s open positions aren’t necessarily a perfect fit for our unemployed workers. Rather than simply wishing that mismatch away, businesses need to embrace training to reduce it.”

To read more about building a competent and engaged workforce, click on these articles:

• Strategic Human Resources
• Best-in-Class Workforce Planning
• How to Hire for Values
• Evaluating Training Effectiveness
• Why HR Needs Baldrige

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