Talent vs. Training: Where Are You Putting Your Money?

Posted on: Jul 10, 2014

Categories: Mentorship

In 2018, 52% of employers felt that there was a skills gap in candidates applying for positions at their company. In other words, that they have difficulty filling openings at their organization because the candidates lack technical and “hard” job skills.

Yet, of these same organizations, only 28% are growing their staff training and development programs.

In other words, employers are looking for people who have all of the skills they need the moment they walk in for the interview. They don’t want to invest in providing training that could transform an “unskilled” candidate into the perfect candidate.

This is unfortunate, both for our nation’s companies and our nation’s economy.

How? Here are just a few ways that having training and development programs in place could dramatically change the way these organizations function:

  • Companies could hire individuals based on passion, not a checklist of skills. You can teach skills, but you can never make a dispassionate person enthusiastic.
  • Employees would understand how their job is important to the overall organization
  • The practices of the company would become standardized and more aligned across the company as information is passed down to each new generation of employees
  • Expectations would be clear from the day the employee starts and there would be fewer miscommunication struggles
  • New employees would have access to lessons learned by senior employees, who can share years of history, experience, and wisdom
  • Employees would enter the company knowing they have a learning curve ahead of them, and they would be more prepared to work hard from day one, as opposed to assuming they already know all the answers and can continue doing what they’ve always done

Talent is a myth, and hard work and passion will always supersede natural ability. Invest in training, and let passion be the measuring stick for your candidates.

So tell me: talent or training? Where are you putting your money?

You Might Also Like

Person wearing a white shoe on the road

Why I Signed a Shoe

For ten consecutive years, I gave my keynote at Florida State University’s New Student Orientation, which involved six weeks of speaking to 6,000 students and 10,000 parents. It was awesome to see how…

Read More

This is What Real Leadership Sounds Like

It sounds like “That was my mistake” rather than “My new employee doesn’t know what he’s doing.” It sounds like “I appreciate your ideas, please tell me more at our meeting” rather than…

Read More

Forget Employee Engagement: Create the Dream Job

Every day, when I walk into the office, I sit at my desk and spend 30 minutes writing. This is Caroline, Curtis’ marketing manager, and I want to tell you why I have…

Read More