Organizations Combat Skill Gap Through Placement Agencies

The skill gap essentially refers to the difference in the skill set required by an employer for a certain business process and the absence of the same in the labor market or within the organization itself. Arising of a skill gap shows that a company falls behind in competition. This situation has cropped up quick steadily in the recent times. The major skill gap industries are healthcare, engineering sciences and advanced manufacturing. There are certain steps that can be used to identify skill gap within an organization.

• Performing skill testing across the workforce of a company is one of the basic steps towards identifying the skill gap. First, the management needs to identify the existing skill set of the workforce and then match it with the required skill set. If the difference is minimal then it is manageable, but if there is a huge difference between the two, then it calls for serious measures.
• If the organization has a significant amount of baby boomers retiring in the near term, it might attract a skill gap. The baby boomers are the people between the age group of 52 to 70 years who were associated with the process for a long time and have the maximum knowledge. If this section of workforce retires in bulk, then this results in a serious knowledge and communication gap within the remaining workforce. It might also lead to the lack of guidance and support.
• Keeping up with the new technological and skill innovations in the industry and specific markets is crucial for a business to survive. Always looking for fresh talents is not feasible every time. The existing workforce needs to be trained and informed regarding these as well.
• Infrastructural issues may result in skill gap as well. Shortfalls in infrastructure results in lowering the employee satisfaction levels which impacts their performance as well as urge to learn, in turn hampering the skill development process. It might also results in employee resignations.

Hence skill gap can seriously impact the company and workforce together. There are certain measures that can be taken to come out of this scenario.

• A close assessment of the skill gap scenario is very important to begin with. Placement agencies can successfully assist and carry out such assessments in order to understand the issue, infrastructure and management related matters.
• The placement agencies can then chalk out a step by step plan to overcome the situation. It includes considering the budget, analyzing the training content and level, training providers, duration and related elements.
• If the skill gap has arisen or is nearing the business, in both cases, the training should be made compulsory. It should not be kept in sidelines under any circumstances.
• Regular inspections and evaluations helps in keeping track of the developments as well marking the areas of shortfall.

Lastly, involvement of management people in the training programs has a significant impact on successful handling of the issue. When an employee sees that his or her manager or anyone from the leadership is taking part in the process, it channelizes a sense trust and increases the confidence levels.

The New Phase Of Work Culture Is Collaborative Work Environment

Technology has influenced many work environments of organizations across the globe. With the usage of technology finding its way in to new arenas, it has now ventured in to building up of collaborative work environment. Many manpower consultancy firms are making active use of technologies that build and support collaborative work environment which makes communication within organization as well as with the clients much easier and sorted. In recent times, there are five market best tech tools that help in creating the collaborative environment.

• First is the extremely popular messaging app Slack. It is considered one of the best tools for inter team communication. Communication channels can be set up by the users so that the updated information regarding projects and meeting remains visible to the team members associated with the project. There is option of private grouping as well. It is a stable platform for sharing documents and reports with its easy drag and drop facility. There is option for commenting as well as searching and bookmark files for easier access. Well known brands like NASA, Buzzfeed, Salesforce, and Ebay are already using Slack.
• Yammer is team collaboration software that facilitates conversations, file sharing and team collaboration on projects. It can be used for discussions related to deadlines and project details. It also facilitates relative search feature which allows users to find relative documents and groups. There is option to prioritize certain message and save some of them to unread segment for addressing them later. User profile can be created in this software that highlight project status and useful methods for working together. Brands currently using Yammer are Intuit, Verizon, Xerox, DHL and UNICEF United Kingdom.
• SaaS application Hoopla is next on the list. It is specially meant for high velocity sales and target based HR teams. It can be used for performance tracking by setting up a leader board and broadcasts the scores live on various media platforms like TV and mobiles within office setup. This facility is available both online and offline. It can help towards boosting productivity by organizing internal rewards for target meeting. Hoopla TV can provide real time updates with the sales progress and latest developments within organization while Hoopla Mobile allows effective communication between managers and field executives. Thus this application facilitates overall connectivity within teams for collaborative environment.
• Digital workspace Evernote facilitates productivity by providing flexible work environment. It integrates various project operations at one place. It is convenient for those who work towards digital information collection as it allows clipping web articles, capturing hand written notes and snapping pictures. There is provision for effective communication as well between team members. There is a screen friendly layout which helps in sending notes.

The last but definitely not the least is the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It is one of most well known in the list. Google office suite helps in writing, editing and collaborating in the most effective way possible. One can get access to documents any time over any device like mobile, tablet or PC and can be shared with similar ease. Real time editing helps the users to view the latest changes with ease and it gets saved automatically with an update. The conversation can be performed as well on this platform.

Identifying The Candidates During The Selection Process And Its Associated Challenges

In the new age corporate structure, effective and efficient workforce is one of the primary foundations towards business development, operation management and achieving long term business goals. While the modern world has advanced and provided a huge candidate pool for recruitment and selection in to various functionalities, it has increased the challenges as well. The recruitment firms and companies have to identify the candidates based on the criteria as stable candidates, early leavers and usual leavers based on professional background and behavioral pattern. Finding the right candidate for the job within a limited time frame is probably one of the toughest challenges faced by the hiring managers these days. Hence, we point out the major challenges of recruitment.

• Probably one of the initial and most important steps towards hiring is to attract the right applicants with required skill sets. While it may seem that many companies receive a ton of resumes each day for specific job postings, it becomes difficult to find the most eligible of the lot. It not only includes the right skill set but also other aspects including professional behaviour, communication, past experience and much more. It is not easy to shuffle through huge amount of resumes and shortlist a few candidates.
• The traditional hiring process has swiftly become outdated and difficult to manage. Also, just relying on the experience and gut feeling of an HR professional is no more sufficient to hire the right people. The new hiring process includes many elements like skill assessment problem solving abilities, soft skills and much more. Hence, the new system needs to br streamlined.
• Casting a good impression works both ways. It is not only from the candidate end but also need to be managed at the company end. This is important in order to keep the talented applicant interested in the opportunity till the end of the process. Employer branding is crucial and at the same time challenging to handle.
• Social media recruitment has gained momentum in the past two years. People remain active over social media platforms than any other online forums. Hence reaching out to them via these platforms effectively takes in a lot of strategic planning and proper execution.

With all these challenges in hand, there are measures available which can aid in recruitment and selection of candidates in an organized manner.

• Application Tracking System (ATS) is the new age automated approach that eliminates the hassle of manually going through and evaluation of resumes on regular basis. It sends out emails regarding offerings and posts jobs on portals. It stores the resumes in an organized manner so that HR professionals can devote the time towards screening and evaluation of the candidates.
• Centralizing the candidate information and communication process undertaken during hiring helps in streamlining the entire process and saves ample amount to time.
• Maintaining a professional image in the industry through various channels and open forums is essential towards building a brand image in the industry and market. Often candidates look in to such mediums for gaining knowledge about the company and its policies.

Lastly social media presence is important for quality recruitment. It is essential to understand the dos and don’ts of social media recruiting for a sound hiring strategy.

Exit Interviews - An Important Aspect Of Work Environment

Exit interviews are the interviews that are conducted with the departing employees before they finally leave the organization. From the company or the organization end, it is the initiative that is taken up to understand the reasons of the departure of the employee including knowledge regarding the employee experience while that person was working with the organization. The aims and outcomes of the exit interviews are as follows.

• It is one of the most progressive and productive steps to create a peaceful relationship with the disgruntled employees before they leave. Otherwise, there are chances they leave the organization with a vengeful intention.
• It creates a positive work culture for the existing employees as well. It shows that the company is compassionate about their employee which in turn increases the loyalty among the employees.
• For the managers it becomes a source of useful information in terms of management of resources. Gaining knowledge from the feedback system helps in understanding the employee behavioral pattern which helps in modifying the recruitment process accordingly.
• It forms an important aspect of well structured HR practice.  It contributes majorly towards the effective and quality people management which is beneficial to the organizational structure.
• Exit interviews help in understanding the loopholes of the employee knowledge as well. Thus it helps in structuring of the training sessions in required segments.
• The recruitment process and the induction procedure can be improved through knowledge gained from their interviews.
• It is an effective tool that helps in formulating the employee retention strategy in an effective manner.
• While it might sound a bit off course, it might be a final step towards retention of a valuable employee. Often resignations are accepted without further discussions. But if a productive discussion taken place during the exit interview then, it might happen that the departing employee may reconsider the decision and plan on staying with the organization.
• At the organization end, in certain cases, it might appear a significant loss to let go of the employees. This often happens when such employees are denied recognition or promotions which they deserved. The company can track such feedback, necessary measures can be taken and it might lead to better retention among the organization.

With all these aims and outcomes, there are certain pointers that need to be taken care off while performing the exit interview process at the employee end as suggested by many companies and executive search firms.

• It is better to refrain from venting entirely during the process. If you had certain issues with your managers, convey that in a professional yet polite manner ahead of time rather than on exit interview.
• It is better to plan ahead what you are going to say in the interview. Be prepared for a series of predictable questions that might be asked.

Lastly, we all know that you had your differences, but presenting that with too much attitude might close the doors for future opportunities. Be graceful in your approach and handle the entire process professionally.

SMART Goals In Recruitment Aid In Achieving Business Objectives

There is a recent trend of achieving SMART goals or targets in the business environment which is influencing every business process in the positive manner. There are five parameters to this trend. They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. Be it in case of performance analysis or achieving business objectives, the SMART concept has become very popular across every aspect. As per the definition, each parameter has its own meaning. Specific means laying out the set of objectives in a systematic manner for a particular business goal. Measurable is the number value of a desired outcome such as profit margins, production figures and such like. Achievable is the fact that all participating employees have validated the target cause. Realistic refers to the fact that the target is achievable in current market conditions. Last parameter is time bound which specifies that the target is achievable within a particular time frame. Taking the SMART goal concept, the recruitment segment is currently showing certain targets which are expected to benefit the industry and the companies as to a great extent. Some of the targets are as follows.

• The companies trying to focus on passive candidate location and relationship building. This can be considered as a SMART goal as passive candidates are usually the ones who are employed at a certain organization which is in most cases the competitor within the same industry segment. This represents that they have a particular skill set which is being effectively utilized. Gaining access to such top notch professionals influences the productivity and quality of delivery to a great extent. Hence targeting such professionals makes sense for a company as well as a recruitment consultancy.
• Social networking is a major business priority in the recruitment segment. The whole world is one the go currently. With mobile internet becoming accessible across all parts of the world even in the emerging markets and highly affordable smartphones making way to the consumers, people remain connected at all times. Apart from that it is also the source of entertainment, news, online shopping and much more. Reaching out to people through mobile applications is a profitable trend. Social media platforms are very popular now days and people remain most active on such platforms. When these two trends are combined, it creates a perfect opportunity for effectively reaching out to candidates in a systematic manner and within a limited time frame.
• The last but definitely not the least of the SMART goals in the recruitment segment is a bringing in and implementing a sales strategy in to the hiring process in order to make it more streamlined and effective at the same time. Proper identification of the targets, gathering relevant information about the candidates and finally closing the deal by making a job offer and completing the selection process helps in managing the entire system in a closed loop manner.

Thus SMART goals have impacted the recruitment front in a positive way which will enrich the entire functions of hiring process.

Addressing A Critical Recruitment Crisis In Terms Of Talent Gap

Talent gap is one of the significant crisis points that a company faces in recent times. It is defined as the visible gap between the skill set needed within the organization and available knowledge base of the current workforce. This is due to the lack of experienced professionals in the specific technology segments and work areas. It has become one of the prime challenges for the recruitment agencies as well. So we bring to you certain measures that help you identify the talent gap within your company.

• One of the primary initiatives that need to be taken for understanding the skill gap scenario is the analysis of the current talent present within the organization. The existing workforce can be subjected to a skill test which provides a good benchmark. It clears the existing stand point of the company with respect to the knowledge base.
• Another analysis can be done in terms of productivity. The delivery of the teams in terms of timing and quality, involvement in the creativity arena, proposing of new methodologies that help in improving procedures and communication are some of the basic parameters of this initiative. If there are certain shortfalls in these factors, then it is quite clear that the business is lacking the necessary skills.
• If it happens quite often that a project is taken up and it starts off on a positive note but slacks after a certain period of time to such an extent that the management needs to look for temporary solutions in terms of resources for project completion and closure then it is a clear indication of talent gap.
• Lastly, if the quality of the product thus developed is not up to the mark and the client comes back with major feedbacks then shows a prominent skill gap.

With all these pointers, we put forth certain measures that can be used for coping up with this issue. A manpower consultancy can be helpful towards implementation of such measures.

• The first and foremost step is to identify the type and extent of the skill gap through a thorough and logical assessment. For this the company needs to pen down the skills required for specific job roles and the current skill level available. Depending on the contrast the next step can be formulated.
• Training and development is one of the most adopted and secure measures of filling in the talent gap. There is not always a necessity to hire additional resources for certain skill set, an existing employee with a basic understanding of certain skills can be further trained to take up additional responsibilities.
• The planning of addressing the skill gap needs to take in to consideration the budget, type of training content and level, trainer and the time period. Then only the probable outcome can be determined.

Lastly, adding on to skills through training or recruitment of additional resources, in both cases it should be performed on the basis of future objectives in long term.

Grooming Tips For Men In The Work Environment

The work culture of the corporate world has been very dynamic in recent times. Hence the employment terms and conditions have changed drastically in recent times. Right from the time of interview, the first impression scores the points that are essential for the final selection of an individual. While there has been a lot talked out the resumes and profiles, communication, way of presentation in terms of appearance and grooming has also become an important criteria of selection. Be it a recruitment consultancy or a company, all have talked about necessity of grooming that creates an impression which is carried on to the evaluation phase. However, while women grooming has been quite in talks, not much have been spoken about the men grooming tips and techniques. Some men will say that it is not very usual affair but the times are changing pretty fast and this factor has been applicable for male candidates as well. So we list down certain essential tips for men’s grooming range.

• First and foremost, you need to take this thought process out of your mind that being a man means just wearing a shirt and trousers and going to work. Taking care of yourself has nothing to do with gender and now days that trend is pretty evident. So even before we go in to the grooming tips the basic pointers need to be addressed first hand. Keeping yourself clean is essential. Taking bath using preferred soaps and lotions is essential not only for presentation, but it keep you fresh all throughout the day.
• The second pointer that requires a serious attention is the hair and facial frizz. Choose a hairstyle that suits your facial structure and enhances your features. Same goes for the facial hair. If at all confused take professional help. It is better to keep away from over top hair styles that take the attention away from your performance. If at all you feel to have something wild, better to stick to temporary options rather than permanent dying or cuts.
• Next in line is the choice of clothes. Now days there are most companies who have reformed their policy towards business casuals’ rather strict formals. This opens up a huge option door for the choice of clothes in terms of semi casual shirts and trousers or jeans. But that does not essentially mean that you can go to your workplace wearing ripped jeans, over the top T-shirts and slippers. Keep your style toned down and choose colour options in pastel shades.
• Keep your shoes and socks in line with the trousers. You can either go for leather ones or if you feel like carrying a casual yet sophisticated look, the you can also opt for basic canvas shoes in single colour which goes well with business casuals.

Lastly, be careful with the accessories you carry. Be it a backpack, tie or pen. You need to keep in mind that just carrying an eccentric bag does not give out good impression. Be careful with the style and colour that is more formal.