The skills gap is everyone's challenge
By Mary Jawgiel
The issue of not being able to find the right candidate with the necessary skills to perform the job has been around for a while. This is a huge hurdle employers have been grappling with for years, yet there is little sign the gap is abating. The lack of qualified candidates industrial distribution requires for the positions of inside/outside sales, warehouse work, delivery jobs and more is causing problems for employers. The skills needed for these types of jobs are the basic workplace skills needed in any professional working environment including communications and listening skills, the ability to absorb and apply information through critical thinking and the ability to work in a team, in addition to certain product knowledge.
To make matters worse, many other businesses, including our manufacturing partners, are also looking for candidates in the same job function areas with these same skill sets.
So, what can you do to assure that those applying for your open positions now and in the future will meet your job requirements?
One way is to establish retraining programs for new hires with some skills but not the right skills, and regular training programs for new hires who need the basic skills in the first place. Plenty of manufacturers and their industry associations offer training programs. Programs that are good for the trade/technical skills needed in the manufacturing area, like welding and CNC operation, may help fill some of the gap. But these programs don’t address the so-called soft skills needed by inside sales reps, like listening, problem solving and strong verbal communication.
Many organizations will work with you to develop specialized training to provide the skills you need in your employees. A quick Internet search on www.trainingindustry.com reveals dozens, if not hundreds of service providers. Training can be expensive. You might want to approach your neighboring employers and ask them if they would be interested in sharing the costs by including some of their employees in a group training program. By banding together with neighboring employers, you can share both the expenses and the benefits. Research has shown that providing this type of training to existing employees is viewed positively in most cases and can help your employee retention efforts as well.
Once your neighborhood coalition is formed, you can also work together to encourage your local high schools and community or technical colleges to include courses to prepare the future workforce for the jobs you will have available. If you can get together with other employers in the area who are also looking for candidates with soft skills (communications, listening, professional demeanor, organizational ability, goal setting, etc.) and together meet with school administrators to stress the need—and maybe even more importantly to administrators, how many open positions you have to fill—it is possible that courses could be developed or enhanced to better prepare students. There is power in a group approach when dealing with learning institutions.
Many distributor associations, such as the Power Transmission Distributors Association, have information on position titles, the skill sets needed for each position and training available to build or refine each of these skills. PTDA has these resources available on its website at www.ptda.org/CareerProgression.
Additionally, there are courses, both online and face-to-face, to help train your employees in various areas of industrial distribution. Industrial Careers Pathway offers Elements of Industrial Distribution, an online course, which provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial distribution business model, the role of distributors in the supply chain and their relationships with suppliers and end-users. The Association Education Alliance (AEA) consortium offers University of Industrial Distribution each March where hundreds of employees are sent to learn in university-style lecture halls about various aspects of the distribution business, from branch and operations management to selling value and service for your distributorship to improving profitability. The courses are taught by well-respected industry professionals and consultants with years of experience.
And, you can always set up internships or co-op programs where you can “try-out” potential employees while they are still in school to test if they are a good match for your company. Internships usually offer young people an opportunity to learn the business and develop some skills and experience while offering a small salary or school credit. If you are interested in more information on starting such a program, you can access the ICP Internship & Co-ops Guide for free when you subscribe to the ICP Talent Tipsheet (also free!). To subscribe and receive your copy, go to www.industrialcareerspathway.org/Subscribe.
Another option is to look for veterans to fill your open positions. Veterans have the skills that are needed for many industrial distribution positions–leadership, teamwork and communications.
A recent post in the Wall Street Journal/At Work Blog stated that human resources professionals are now looking at the “potential” a job candidate brings to the position, rather than their past experience. You might want to review applications and résumés a little differently to find desirable candidates. When reading résumés, ask yourself, “Does the candidate have the soft skills they’ll need to work with customers? Have they worked in a team environment? Did they help solve customer (or colleague) problems, while in part-time jobs or school groups?” These skills are transferable to the work environment.
There are no easy answers about how to fill the skills gap. The solutions all involve work. Employers need to screen and/or develop new employees. This can happen either after they have been hired or while they’re still growing up within the community. If every employer invested in his/her community’s youth development and educational endeavors, then every employer would have a qualified workforce at the ready. What have you done lately to make this a reality? We’d like to hear from you. Drop us a line at info@industrialcareerspathway.org.
Mary Jawgiel is ICP program director for the PTDA Foundation and has recently overseen the launch of the new ICP Job Board at www.industrialcareerspathway.org (Click on the Jobs tab to explore). For more insights on recruiting, hiring and training Millennials in the distribution industry, subscribe to the ICP Talent Tipsheet at www.industrialcareerspathway.org/Subscribe.
This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2012 issue of Industrial Supply magazine. Copyright 2012, Direct Business Media.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The November/December issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Kimball Midwest. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and Mike Marks, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
