As we enter the year 2025, companies are struggling to develop a suitable recruitment policy. This is because the hiring industry is evolving. However, some obstacles remain, one of which is a skills mismatch. Often, recruiters find that the candidates they hired were not a perfect fit for the role.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), almost 40 percent of the global workforce was either underskilled or overskilled for the job. This shows that there is a great gap between the skills required for the job and the actual skills that the candidates have.
Skills mismatches cost billions of dollars and are harmful to both employees and employers. This is why companies are now investing in new policies to help them find not only the best but also the most suitable candidate.
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Types of skills mismatch
Skills mismatches are of various types, which range from skill to education or technology. Companies need to understand each of them. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management(SHRM), the cost of a bad hire can be anywhere from a candidate’s six to nine months of salary.
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Qualification Mismatch
The most common type of mismatch is the qualification mismatch. This type of mismatch can be further divided into two parts: overskilled and underskilled mismatch. In the former, workers possess more skills than are actually required for the job. This leads to a lot of underutilization of the employee’s skills, which can lead to frustration and affect their efficiency.
In the latter, however, workers do not possess the qualifications required for the role. This affects their ability to execute all the responsibilities required for the job. This type of mismatch generally results in a bad hire, which, as earlier mentioned, costs companies huge amounts of money.
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Skill Level Mismatch
Just like qualification mismatch, skill level mismatch is also of two types: overkilling and underskilling. In the former, an employee may have accrued skills that are more than what is required for the job. Thus, in the long run, employees may become dissatisfied with their jobs, which can decrease productivity.
Underskilling occurs when employees do not possess the skills required for the job. Such employees are the least productive workers, and companies either terminate their services or spend additional money to upskill them. In both cases, though, it costs the organization both time and money.
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Field-of-Study Mismatch
In today’s age, field-of-study mismatch is the most common. Due to the advent of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), certain new avenues crop up every few years with huge salaries that attract everyone. This leads to several people leaving their industry for better prospects.
While some employees fare better due to upskilling, the majority are there for better opportunities irrespective of whether they have skills and passion for the job. With so many people working in jobs unrelated to their studies, productivity declines, which affects an organization’s working environment.
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Technological Mismatch
As mentioned earlier, technological improvements are so rapid that even people with the right skills and education need to constantly upskill themselves to remain relevant in their industry. One of the major instances of technological mismatch, which happens regularly across various industries, is automation.
For example, a company may have installed machines in a factory to increase efficiency, but its workers would not have the skills to operate them, leading to their layoffs. Another example is the rise of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, which have massively affected traditional retail, leading to the loss of a large part of its customers and revenue.
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Behavioral Skills Mismatch
In recent times, companies have started to care about both soft and hard skills when hiring employees. Research has proven that without effective soft skills, an employee cannot operate at his peak efficiency. This is where employees who might have the necessary skills for the job but are not effective communicators or managers may find themselves in a mismatch with their roles.
There have been certain instances where talented employees were let go because they could not show effective teamwork skills, which affected the entire morale and efficiency of the team.
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How to counter skills mismatch
With technology evolving, skills mismatches will continue to occur, and it is up to organizations to establish effective policies to counter them. The policies should be multifaceted to tackle the various types of skills mismatches in the workplace.
Promote Training and Upskilling
Due to technological improvements, companies will always find themselves in a situation where their employees are mismatched. On-the-job training can help employees constantly upskill themselves. This makes them relevant for the job and also helps companies save money that would have been spent on hiring new candidates for the job.
In fact, governments can also help companies by launching initiatives that provide subsidies to organizations to promote upskilling.
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Build Flexible Hiring Practices
Companies should promote flexible hiring practices when it comes to jobs that require easily transferable skills. Candidates who are willing to learn should also be provided with opportunities to upskill, which will allow them to stay relevant in the corporate structure. Some companies are also altering their hiring strategy to tap into non-traditional talent pools such as references and gig workers to ensure their workforce is skill-relevant.
Also Read: Dunning-Kruger effect: Definition, causes and how to counter it
Use Technology for Matching and Learning
In the last few years, Artificial Intelligence has gone from an idea to becoming a part of several aspects of our lives. Corporations have witnessed a revolution due to the introduction of tools that rely on AI. This technology can now be used to align a company’s hiring practices with candidates who will match the roles or who could match the role with minimal learning or upskilling.
Since this is a boring and cumbersome task, using AI tools will massively increase the efficiency of companies, who can now hire quickly without affecting the quality of candidates being hired.
Identifying and then hiring candidates who are willing to learn and upskills when the time comes is also a great way for companies to foster a culture of continuous improvement. This is where companies can use BarRaiser, an Artificial Intelligence tool that can take your company’s recruitment process to the next level.
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Our state-of-the-art tool gives companies the perfect interview tool that makes Quality hiring easy. With BarRiaser users get our Ai interview copilot that helps the recruiters in conducting a smooth, flawless interview.
Our product analyzes the interview and gives helpful suggestions to the interviewers on what questions to ask and to maintain the speed of the interview. In addition, it also analyzes the recruiter to ensure the interview process is not discriminatory in any way. Our tool can raise an alert if the Hiring manager is asking for information which may be pertinent to the interview or the job description. This ensures perfect checks and balances in the system.
We also provide Interviewer training to ensure organizations have the perfect team for the job. Furthermore, we also provide Interview as a service in which we will conduct the entire interview process on the behalf of an organization.
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Using BarRaiser we guarantee you quality hiring that will also bolster Diversity and inclusion. BarRaiser is the best AI Interview platform that features Structured interviews, AI-generated interview notes, and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service