How Can Staffing Firms Do Their Part to Help Close the Skills Gap?
Posted by Jake Sotir on April 4, 2018
As technology continues to evolve at an incredibly fast rate, the role of staffing firms has changed with it. The average worker is finding it more and more difficult to stay current with the necessary skills to succeed in a labor market that's requiring more of them each and every day, and the result is a growing skills gap. As that gap widens, the role of staffing firms has become more important than ever. No longer are staffing firms able to simply play matchmaker between an employer and a prospective hire; in order to remain competitive, they must be able to cultivate highly qualified candidates and successfully find homes for them with the right organizations at the right time.
In this article from the US Chamber of Commerce, Penn Foster CEO Frank Britt and EmployBridge VP of Brand Support Cathi Canfield examine the impact of the current state of nationwide employment on the evolving responsibilities of staffing firms. They argue that the complexity lies not in gaps for one singular skill or trade, but in the "multiplicity of skills gaps that affect states, regions, industries, and individual businesses." With CEB data suggesting that fewer than 20 percent of job applicants are qualified to perform the jobs they're seeking;,¹ there's a very clear area of opportunity for staffing firms to expand their roles as liaisons between job-seekers and employers.
In order to do this successfully, staffing firms must take responsibility for making sure that prospective hires are equipped with the right skills. For EmployBridge, that meant partnering with Penn Foster to deliver a multitude of courses for logistics, manufacturing and clerical upskilling to associates at EmployBridge's portfolio of brands. For more information on how Penn Foster and EmployBridge are working together to pioneer the next generation of staffing services.
