Everybody's heard the complaints about recruiting lately.

Even with unemployment hovering around 9%, companies are grousing that they can't find skilled workers, and filling a job can take months of hunting.

Employers are quick to lay blame. Schools aren't giving kids the right kind of training. The government isn't letting in enough high-skill immigrants. The list goes on and on.

But I believe that the real culprits are the employers themselves.

With an abundance of workers to choose from, employers are demanding more of job candidates than ever before. They want prospective workers to be able to fill a role right away, without any training or ramp-up time.

To get America's job engine revving again, companies need to drop the idea of finding perfect candidates and look for people who could do the job with a bit of training and practice.

The Big Myths

The perceptions about a lack of skilled workers are pervasive.  52% of U.S. employers surveyed say they have difficulty filling positions because of talent shortages.

But the problem is an illusion.

Some of the complaints about skill shortages boil down to the fact that employers can't get candidates to accept jobs at the wages offered. That's an affordability problem, not a skill shortage.

The real problem, then, is more appropriately an inflexibility problem. Finding candidates to fit jobs is not like finding pistons to fit engines, where the requirements are precise and can't be varied. Jobs can be organized in different ways so candidates with different credentials can do them.

A Training Shortage

And make no mistake: There are plenty of people out there who could step into jobs with just a bit of training—even recent graduates who don't have much job experience.

Unfortunately, companies don't seem to do training anymore.  The amount of training the average new hire gets in the first year can be measured in hours and counted on one hand.  Much of that includes what vendors do when they bring in new equipment: "Here's how to work this copier."

Employers rightly point to a significant constraint that they face in training workers: They train them and make the investment, but then someone else offers them more money and hires them away.

The Way Forward

That is a real problem. What's the answer?

I'm convinced that some of the problem we're up against is simply a failure of imagination. Here are three ways in which employees can get the skills they need without the employer having to invest in a lot of upfront training.

Work with education providers: If candidates don't have the skills you need, make them go to school before you hire them.  Colleges can partner with employers to tailor applied course work to the specific needs of the employer.  Candidates qualify to be hired once they complete the courses.

Going back to school isn't just for new hires, either; it also works for internal candidates. In this setup, the employer pays the tuition costs through tuition reimbursement.

Bring back aspects of apprenticeship: In this arrangement, apprentices are paid less while they are mastering their craft—so employers aren't paying for training and a big salary at the same time.

Of course, a full apprenticeship model wouldn't work in all industries. But companies could offer new workers a longer probationary period—with lower pay—until they get up to speed on the job.

Promote from within: Employees have useful knowledge that no outsider could have and should make great candidates. In recent years, however, an incredible two-thirds of all vacancies, even in large companies, have been filled by hiring from the outside (compared to 10% a generation ago).

These days, many companies simply don't believe their own workers have the necessary skills to take on new roles. But, once again, many workers could step into those jobs with a bit of training.

Pursuing options like these vastly expands the supply of talent that employers can tap, making it both cheaper and easier to fill jobs. It helps build the supply of human capital in the economy, as well as opening the pathway for more people to get jobs.

Original from Wall Street Journal...