With all the headlines about the Great Resignation and people leaving jobs in droves, it’s clear that talent shortage is at a 10-year high and growing. This is causing a perfect storm: exorbitant demand coupled with a shrinking talent pool. In the tech sector alone, it’s predicted that the gap between qualified cybersecurity professionals and unfilled positions soon will reach 1.8 million.
Compensation and benefits are and will remain an important part of attracting and retaining talent, but that’s not enough. Employees are seeking learning and development (L&D) opportunities; rapid career growth; and a company that embraces Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Upon digging further, the opportunity to continuously learn and develop new skills has emerged as a common goal between organizations and current/future employees.HR leaders should focus on employee success by narrowing in on strategies to attract and retain top talent. That means providing every employee with opportunities to learn, grow, build confidence, and put new skills to work.
Building and nurturing a diverse and high-performing workforce begins with committing to comprehensive training—not just once a year or sporadically, but as part of an organizational mission. Sundararajan Narayanan, EVP & Chief People Officer at Virtusa, shares his thoughts with Training Magazine on closing the skills gap with learning and development.