Businesses across the United States are struggling to find workers to staff their operations. Many are at a loss to find even entry-level employees for frontline retail and service roles. As one can imagine, that challenge can become even more acute when a company starts to add more robust qualifications to their hiring criteria.
Consider, for instance, a company that wants anyone holding a particular position to have completed some post-graduate business courses, such as an MBA program. Hiring these types of workers can be significantly more challenging than hiring frontline workers, precisely because there are far fewer people in the labor pool who meet these added criteria.
Companies Rising to the Challenge
The needs of the business world are dynamic. This has become particularly clear during the pandemic. Many companies feel the knowledge and skills taught in traditional MBA programs don’t always match up perfectly with the challenges of a real-world career.
Some companies with sufficient resources are addressing these challenges by instituting some business-focused training and education in-house. In an article for Bloomberg, Chris Stokel-Walker writes that in 2020, his company, EY, introduced an in-house MBA to focus on tech-centric skills in particular. And EY is not alone in this approach.
“EY is among a growing number of companies developing bespoke MBAs after concluding that university programs aren’t keeping pace with their needs,” Stokel-Walker says. “Employers want B-school graduates to be equipped to tackle broad-scale digital transformation, according to executive education consultant CarringtonCrisp, which recently published a survey of international employers finding that 77% believe the traditional MBA needs to change.”
In-House Training to Address Talent Needs
It’s often difficult for companies to find the talent they need with the right set of knowledge and education. The recent labor market shortages have made that challenge even more acute. On top of this recent and presumably cyclical challenge, the private sector has long lamented its perception that institutions of higher education don’t necessarily instill in students the skills needed to succeed in the real world.
This critique extends beyond the often-maligned world of liberal arts education to curricula specifically designed to prepare students for particular professions, such as law school and even business school. In response, major employers like EY seem to be taking an old adage to heart: “If you want something done right, you’d better do it yourself.”
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
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