In research, there is a question called “Needham Question.”  This question was a famous journey undertaken by Cambridge University professor Joseph Needham in the early 1940s.  Dr. Needham developed a work called “Sci -in general in China – Why not develop.”  The main question in this work was if places like China and India had so much scientific knowledge from the early days, how did the west overcome them in Science.  Dr. Needham went on to document this effect and wrote several theses around this.  But after all this work, there was no answer to the original question!.  (of course, the studies were brilliant and very useful, but it could not answer the question)

From a talent gap standpoint, we have two Needham questions that bother me and keeps me awake at the night

• Why has Reskilling not taken its full force (Our research shows about 18% of the workforce are reskilled in Tech in the US and about 30% in places like Norway – fantastic Norway!). 
• The other question is, when will Enterprises view Recruitment as a Science and not a tactical activity.  When will Enterprises fully empower Recruiters to get the right talent for companies?

Throughout our journey at Draup, this question has been the driving force.  We hope to add practical value to these questions in our journey

 This week, I came across a fascinating talent story.  Post 50th birthday, Kelly Egan, who had devoted her career to executive management and sales, started going blind.  Ms.Egan noticed that she could not detect the color of the traffic lights and tripping over objects. What can one do in this situation?   Well, if you are Kelly Egan, here’s what you do.

You get yourself into a six-month training course to learn blindness skills. While some might see vision loss as a reason to drop out of the workforce, Kelly Egan says it simply never occurred to her that she would not have a job. Kelly Egan served as a customer relations manager for Sprint, responsible for expanding the company’s accessibility efforts to include blind or visually impaired customers. Ms. Egan now runs her own company.

I highlight this story because, when confronted with challenges, we need to refine the strategy. Today Google, Apple, and the big tech companies are going after all the available talent.  So what can Recruiters of Enterprise companies do well?  I have specifically focused on a few points through the lens of Big Data (the actual action points may be a larger number of steps)

If you look at the figure below, you can see how different pay bands open up different addressable markets.  Setting this upfront will solve a lot of headaches in terms of what to expect in the market.  This trend is valid for all Global markets such as the UK, Eastern Europe, Sweden, Norway, Germany, South East Asia, India, and China. The factors will differ by geographies, but the relationship is the same

Modern-day Candidates expect a lot from Recruiters. When I interview recruiters, I often wonder how they can absorb the pressure and execute.  Here we have attempted to summarize the key aspects that Candidates have rated high across various Global job forums.  This study may be helpful for you.  The diagram below shows that Recruiters should understand the technologies and the skills they are hiring for in a deeper way

While many actions may come out of this study, we are launching this Skills Weka as a first step.  This feature will give you a full view of the skill and how it is used.