CHICAGO, March 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Time to hit
the books again? According to a new CareerBuilder survey, nearly a
third (32 percent) of employers have increased their educational
requirements over the past five years. More than a quarter (27
percent) are hiring employees with master's degrees for positions
primarily held by those with four-year degrees in the past, and 37
percent are hiring employees with college degrees for positions
that had been primarily held by those with high school degrees.
More than 2,300 hiring and human resource managers in the
private sector across industries participated in the nationwide
survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder
from November 4 and December 1, 2015.
What Employers Are Looking For
According to the survey, of the employers who have increased
their education requirements in the past five years, most have done
so for middle-skill jobs:
- Entry-level or low-skill: 46 percent
- Middle-skill: 61 percent
- High-skill: 43 percent
When asked why they are hiring more employees with college
degrees for positions that had been primarily for those with high
school diplomas in the past, 60 percent of these employers said
skills for those positions have evolved, requiring higher educated
labor, and 56 percent said they're able to get college-educated
labor for those positions because of the tight job market.
As a result of increasing their educational requirements,
employers have witnessed a positive impact on:
- Higher quality work: 57 percent
- Productivity: 43 percent
- Communication: 38 percent
- Innovation/idea generation: 37 percent
- Employee retention: 32 percent
- Customer loyalty: 25 percent
- Revenue: 21 percent
Higher degrees not only boost candidates' chances of hired, but
they can help their chances of getting promoted as well — more than
a third (36 percent) say they are unlikely to promote someone who
doesn't have a college degree.
Companies Take Responsibility for Training
Not all of the pressure to increase their education is on
employees, however. Some companies are taking a proactive approach
to bridging the skills gap and overcoming the talent shortage by
reskilling employees themselves. More than a third of employers (35
percent) trained low-skill workers and hired them for high-skill
jobs in 2015, and a similar proportion (33 percent) plan to do the
same this year. Similarly, 64 percent of employers said they plan
to hire people who have the majority of skills they require and
provide training to them for the rest.
To help employees gain the skills they need, half of employers
(50 percent) pay for training and certifications that employees
earn outside the company, and 2 in 5 employers (40 percent) are
sending current employees back to school to get an advanced degree
— with 23 percent funding it partially and 12 percent providing
full funding.
Others are taking training in-house. Nearly 7 in 10 employers
(68 percent) said their company offers training programs to
employees, and the majority of these employers say these training
programs offer soft skills (71 percent) or hard skills (72
percent).
"Continuous training empowers employees. It gives them the
confidence that they are up-to-date with new developments in their
industry and have a stronger understanding of the company's
future," said Rosemary Haefner,
chief human resources officer for CareerBuilder. "One of the
biggest excuses to putting a training program in place is often the
perception that it will take too much time; however, there is no
investment that you can make that will do more to improve
productivity in your company."
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll
on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,338 hiring and human resource
managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed,
non-government) between November 4 and
December 1, 2015. With a pure probability sample of 2,338,
one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall
results have a sampling error of +/- 2.03 percentage points.
Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.
About CareerBuilder®
As the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder
specializes in cutting-edge HR software as a service to help
companies with every step of the recruitment process from acquire
to hire. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries,
providing job distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and
analytics in one pre-hire platform. It also operates leading job
sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), Tribune
Media (NYSE:TRCO) and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI),
CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South
America, Canada and
Asia. For more information, visit
www.careerbuilder.com.
Media Contact
Ladan Nikravan
312.698.0538 x70538
ladan.nikravan@careerbuilder.com
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR
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SOURCE CareerBuilder