The Penn Foster Blog

Destini Willis, a veteran and a mother, had skills before furthering her education, but she needed expert training to succeed in a new career after leaving the military. Here's her story.

Melissa Holstein is the employee every veterinary clinic and hospital hopes to hire. She's completely devoted to the work and always ready to learn something new. 

As the skills gap puts pressure on businesses in various industries, those businesses turn to staffing firms to fill open positions. There's just one problem; staffing firms are facing the same challenges as the businesses they're supporting. Record low unemployment rates, weak workforce participation rates and changing skills demands make finding the right temporary employee more difficult than ever. 

Depending on your perspective, the construction industry is facing either a serious problem, or a valuable opportunity. Throughout the building boom from 2012 to 2015, general contractors and construction companies struggled to find enough workers to do the job. Now, as growth levels off, general contractors and other industry leaders find that the construction skills gap is as pressing as ever. But that problem masks a valuable opportunity.

For many in the service industry, the struggle to balance life and a retail shift schedule leaves little time for chasing career aspirations or returning to a traditional brick and mortar institution. And the opportunity to apply for jobs with better hours, better pay, or greater responsibilities often require a high school diploma. This can leave valuable workers like Chantel Maull, a two-year employee of Church's Chicken without many options for improvement. But Chantel has a lot to celebrate having recently earned both a high school diploma and a promotion from her employer. 

Recruiting and retaining dedicated employees who are a good match for your company, and are passionate, reliable, and talented is a struggle for hiring managers in any industry. In a high-stress field such as animal medicine, it can be especially laborious for practice hiring managers to source, train, and retain skilled talent. It becomes even more so when your candidates need to meet certain prerequisites, such as experience in the field, basic knowledge of how animal medicine works, and - depending on the position - national credentials. Adding to the often arduous and expensive process, hiring managers or veterinarians also must balance the workload for current staff and attempt to ameliorate potential problems in order to avoid the higher than average turnover veterinary practices face.

In the luxury hospitality business, front of house employees are the most visible members of your staff, but they don't work alone. These guest-facing roles are supported by dozens of behind the scenes team members. 

As unemployment numbers continue to hover below 4% nationwide, many organizations with open positions have found it difficult to find skilled workers. As a result, many are turning to education in order to reduce the need to hire externally; employers are opting to train and upskill their workforce from within. While the return on investment for providing in-house skills training is more than worth the initial cost for most employers, generating demand and momentum for your workforce development program from the beginning is vital to long-term success.

The healthcare industry is growing thanks to the aging boomer population, new technologies, and the relative accessibility of care. The gap between open jobs in the industry and employees ready to fill those jobs is expected to grow over the next decade as well. To hire for middle skills roles during this healthcare boom, hospitals, pharmacies, and nursing care systems need to rethink their standards for candidates.

Businesses succeed or fail on the strength of their investments. Ideally, your investments don't just solve an immediate problem. The best ones have a positive and lasting effect on the success of your business. Out of all the investments you can make -  in technology, equipment, buildings, infrastructure - one of the most impactful is employee development.