Recent data from Gartner, Inc. has shown that the total number of skills required for a single job has been increasing by 10% year-over-year since 2017, and that one in three of the skills typically required for a role in IT, finance, or sales back in 2017 are now obsolete[1].
Nicolas Speeckaert from skeeled, a provider of predictive talent acquisition software, says this emerging skills gap could be a big challenge for companies in the future, especially factoring in the disruption caused by COVID-19.
Nicolas says, “The pandemic has changed the world of work and the skills needed must reflect new ways of working. Digital skills are highly sought after following a surge in technology usage during the pandemic.”
“Companies are also seeking people with great soft skills – they want candidates who are resilient, emotionally intelligent and able to build rapport at work, creative thinkers and good communicators, who can help them adapt to the new way of working and help their business thrive in the future.”
“We recommend companies review their existing skills set and whether job requirements have changed and make use of AI technology to recruit the right people with the right skills and talent they will need in the future.”
One way AI technology can support talent acquisition is in the screening and sifting of the CVs of job applicants. skeeled offers a pre-screening tool, powered by machine learning and Natural Language Processing, which accurately sifts through CVs and selects only candidates that match the requirements and ranks and evaluates them against an employer’s job specification. The technology not only saves companies hours of administration time and money, but accurately selects candidates based on their skills.
Speeckaert adds, “Soft skills are in high demand right now, and companies can make use of AI-based assessment technology to help identify these skills because the technology uses algorithms to predict a candidate’s desirable traits and future performance and identify if they would be a good fit for a specific role.”
“Because AI technology selects in a completely objective way, it helps companies remove bias from the early stages of the recruitment process and enables them to build diverse and inclusive teams and make fairer hiring decisions. With diversity and skills being key priorities for businesses this year, this approach to talent acquisition could be a real game changer and enable companies to focus on growth and success with the right teams in place.”
For more information on skeeled visit: www.skeeled.com