At SkillSmart, we know that your data is an asset that can develop trust and confidence.  Data that is easily captured on a daily basis and formally structured is vital to making business decisions while bringing transparency to each project and helping present the positive impact it is having.

As we have shared throughout 2022 in our blog posts, our technology platform offers companies, communities, and project teams a level of data accuracy and transparency while encouraging collaboration and the ability to show positive economic impact throughout all aspects of a project.

Here are the series that have been the most popular topics throughout the past year. These posts have not only educated many different sectors on how the correct collection of data can benefit all organizations working towards a common goal but the data, collected through the SkillSmart platform, has brought forth exciting revelations for companies in education, capital infrastructure, local and state governments, construction, airports, mixed-use development, healthcare and others.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

https://www.skillsmart.us/7-things-to-know-about-iija/

Top Questions to Ask When Researching Construction Technology

https://www.skillsmart.us/top-8-questions-to-ask-when-you-are-looking-for-certified-payroll-reporting-software/

https://www.skillsmart.us/top-8-questions-to-ask-when-you-are-researching-dei-tracking-and-labor-compliance-software/

https://www.skillsmart.us/top-9-questions-to-ask-when-you-are-a-project-manager-researching-construction-data-tracking-software/

Industry Focus: Wage Theft

https://www.skillsmart.us/is-wage-theft-more-prevalent-in-the-construction-industry/

https://www.skillsmart.us/wage-theft-what-to-look-for-and-what-to-do-when-you-see-something/

2022 Client and Project Spotlights:

https://www.skillsmart.us/amplifying-construction-dei-strategies-using-technology/

https://www.skillsmart.us/skillsmart-and-dragados-usa-ohl-usa-to-partner-on-marylands-purple-line-project/

In September, SkillSmart launched a monthly blog post that places a spotlight on topics that demonstrate how working together and using the right technology organizations can make people, communities, and businesses stronger. The last four months of 2022 brought these thought-provoking posts:

The InSight Minute

https://www.skillsmart.us/the-insight-minute-labor-day-reflections/

https://www.skillsmart.us/the-insight-minute-wage-theft/

https://www.skillsmart.us/the-insight-minute-strengthening-communities-by-making-a-bigger-pie/

https://www.skillsmart.us/the-insight-minute-data-insights-action/

Have a question or want to set up a demo to see how our software is working to provide data, insights, and action for companies across the country?

Find out more here: https://www.skillsmart.us/insight-demo/

A Gallup publication. Find the original here.

According to Gallup, companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for management positions 82% of the time. That means organizations hire the best managers fewer than two out of 10 times.

Business experience and the data agree: Picking the right person for a job is far more difficult than people realize.

The solution is to use a selection process that is fair and objective and that identifies true job-related talent — not just good interviewing skills.

Using talent-based assessments for hiring not only helps minimize hiring bias, it also improves business performance:

1. Talented employees outperform others by a wide margin. Gallup has found that when organizations systematically select high-talent managers and individual contributors, they can see up to 33% higher revenue per employee.

2. When people do what they are good at, they find work enjoyable, engaging and rewarding — which leads to even higher productivity.

3. Hiring the best people for the job can improve nearly every measure of business health. When companies select the top 20% of candidates based on a scientific assessment, they realize 41% less absenteeism, 70% fewer safety incidents, 59% less turnover, 10% higher customer metrics, 17% higher productivity and 21% higher profitability.

But more importantly, scientifically valid hiring assessments remove subjective bias by narrowing your candidate pool to those who are objectively qualified for the role.

Read more >

Learn how SkillSmart is helping companies across the US remove bias and hire strictly on skills matching.

Learn More

Our friends at General Assembly recently published a policy briefing worthy of a read by every business. Here are a few of the most salient points.

Explosive job growth in high-tech fields is creating unprecedented opportunity for social and economic mobility. But it also creates unprecedented risk of exacerbating income gaps and inequality if new categories of jobs exclude a generation of talent because they didn’t attend the right schools or have the right initial job experiences. Skills-based hiring isn’t about abandoning the college degree, but it is about using data to identify job candidates that can succeed, without regard to signals like college ranking or social networks. Innovate+Educate defines skills-based hiring as “the act of incorporating a tangible and objective measure of skills and skill level into the hiring process.” It’s not a new idea, but it’s a powerful one.

Building “a global community of individuals empowered to pursue the work they love” starts with developing the skills and competencies to launch a career. It’s about cultivating the talent that exists in unexpected places, and creating a more diverse workforce that draws upon our nation’s collective skills and perspectives. But it also means addressing the “last mile” challenge of bridging education and employment that leads to diversity gaps in high-growth fields and hybrid jobs.

Large employers know that a more diverse workforce is a more talented workforce, but often struggle to identify candidates from diverse social and educational backgrounds. The use of predictive analytics in the hiring process is in its infancy. As a result, employers often fall back on sorting mechanisms like college rank or degree that make the hiring process manageable—but risk excluding hidden talent.

“Employers are the most important piece of the skills-based hiring puzzle,” said Jamai Blivin, founder and CEO of Innovate+Educate. “Employer demand has the power to impact every other component of the ecosystem, from which competencies job-seekers must demonstrate, to the process by which they can do so.”

Skills-based hiring is particularly relevant to technology jobs, where skills (quality of code, for example) are easier to assess. It is no surprise that investors have been drawn to skills-based hiring startups focused on technology skills. In fact, VC funding for recruiting technology startups was $219 million in 2014, double the investments seen in 2009.

“Employers are eager to use practical assessments because they are strong predictors of success on the job,” said Kieran Luke, General Manager of Credentials at General Assembly.

Assessments for workplace competencies allow employers to more quickly identify individuals with important skills, saving time and money. According to a report by Innovate+Educate, skills-based hiring practices can lead to reductions in turnover (25-75% improvement), reductions in time-to-hire (50-70% improvement), reductions in cost-to-hire (70% improvement), and reductions in time needed to train employees (50% improvement).

Read the Article

For generations, the middle class has played a central role in the American economy – promoting the development of human capital through skilled workers and creating stability within political and economic institutions. However, despite its significance, the middle class has been shrinking steadily since 1971; it is at its lowest point in history. While the middle class shrank, the opposite held true of the lower and upper classes. Now, for the first time, the upper and lower economic tiers combined are now equal in size to the middle class.

A growing upper class without a continued strong middle class will lead to inequality on many levels outside of income alone, including family structure and education. The middle class is the foundation for the majority of jobs that comprise the domestic workforce.

There are tens of millions of middle-skill jobs in the United States today making up the largest segment of our labor market. Despite the presence of 5.4 million open positions nationwide, we are experiencing the highest unemployment or underemployment rate among our young people in history, including those with a college degree.

Read more about how the decline of the middle class can be reversed.

Download the White Paper

As the hospitality industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, so does the potential for economic impact across the US.

Hospitality employs over 15 million people in the US today. It represents almost 10% of all private employment, and is expected to add over 1 million new jobs to the economy in the next few years.

Despite its size and breadth, jobs in the hospitality industry are often overlooked. In our latest white paper we debunk the myths surrounding the fast-growing industry.

Myth 1: Hospitality isn’t a significant contributor to the economy

Fact: With more than 25 sub-sectors of the American hospitality industry – including, tourism, food services and hotels – it is a significant contributor to the economy. Read more >>

Myth 2: Hospitality isn’t for everyone

Fact: Few industries are as diverse in job opportunities as hospitality, in both the positions and the personnel who staff them. The industry successfully attracts, hires and retains a diverse talent pool. Read more >>

Myth 3: Hospitality jobs don’t pay a living wage

Like all industries, salaries in hospitality vary. There are jobs that require less experience and carry a lower salary. There are also jobs within the hospitality industry with annual salaries earning $75,000 or more. Read more >>

Myth 4: Hospitality jobs have no future

The transferrable skills that employees develop in the industry, such as customer service and a variety of other technical skills, can lead to advancement within the industry or jobs in other industries. Further, many managerial positions are available to individuals regardless of their educational background. Read more >>

Learn more about the industry’s economic value and its increasing contributions to employment.

Download the Whitepaper »

Published by McKinsey & Company

In advanced and emerging economies alike, individuals are struggling to find work and build careers that make use of their skills and capabilities. The strains in global labor markets have been worsening for decades, and the challenges have been magnified in the aftermath of the global recession. In many countries, concerns about employment have been exacerbated by long-term trends of stagnant wage growth and automation. But at the same time, there has been a constant refrain from employers about the difficulties of finding talent with the right skills. The growing use of online talent platforms may begin to address these problems—and even to swing the pendulum slightly in favor of workers by empowering them with broader choices, more mobility, and more flexibility. These tools are fundamentally altering the way individuals go about searching for work and the way many employers approach hiring.

The power of a digital platform is not always apparent until it reaches a certain critical mass. Online talent platforms appear to be approaching exactly that sort of tipping point. As these platforms rapidly expand the size of their user networks and the volume of data they can synthesize, the cumulative benefits are growing larger. We believe there is potential for online talent platforms to create real macroeconomic impact in the years ahead—and as these technologies continue to evolve, they may change the world of work in ways that we can only begin to imagine today. This research aims to build a deeper understanding of how these platforms can affect labor markets, although it does not attempt to address the many broader issues affecting employment prospects, including wage stagnation, automation, and aggregate demand.

Download the Report »

There are tens of millions of middle-skill jobs in the United States today. These jobs are defined as those that require education beyond high school but not necessarily a traditional two or four-year degree. Middle-skill jobs make up the largest segment, roughly 54%, of today’s labor market. However, employers across various industries struggle to find enough skilled workers to fill these vacancies and experience the cost associated with an insufficiently skilled workforce.

Read more about how skills-based hiring can help meet employer demands for qualified talent in our latest white paper.

Download the Whitepaper »

There are significant challenges facing our young people that consequentially cost our economy over $6 trillion. Youth unemployment is now a critical issue; sitting at about 14%, it is two times the national average and represents more than 6.7 million youth aged 16-24 (this group has become known as “Opportunity Youth”). While so many of our youth are unemployed or underemployed, employers wrestle with the skills gap and finding qualified talent to fill their vacant positions. While many business, education and political leaders are working to address each issue independently, one solution may be the answer to both problems.

Read more about Opportunity Youth and the effects on our economy in our latest white paper.

Download the Whitepaper »

“Fifteen years into the new millennium, Montgomery County finds itself at an economic crossroads. Over the last decade, even as national and regional economies suffered through a near economic depression, employers and employees in Montgomery County have continued to provide the jobs and services that have regularly made the county one of the best places in the United States to work, live, and raise a family.”

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