Dive Brief:

• Seventy-eight percent of 2,800 people polled in a new Robert Half survey said they would apply for a job without the necessary skills. Fortunately for the applicants, although the survey found 42% of applicants lack the required skills for a job, 84% of the 300 HR leaders polled said they are willing to hire and train those without the required skills.
• The survey found that 62% of employees were offered a position even though they were under-qualified, and most workers surveyed (70%) think their companies are "somewhat open" to hiring and training less-than-qualified candidates, according to Robert Half. Among the 28 U.S. cities in its survey, Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego; Austin; and Washington, D.C., have the most professionals who landed a position without meeting the requirements.
• "When it's challenging to find candidates who check off all the boxes, companies may need to re-evaluate their job requirements to hire the right talent," Paul McDonald, Robert Half's senior executive director, said in a statement. "Workers can be trained on duties for a role, but individuals with the right soft skills and fit with the corporate culture are often harder to come by."

Dive Insight:

Pressured by talent shortages, employers are easing up on hiring requirements and becoming more amenable to training under-qualified applicants. But many recruiters and hiring managers still want candidates with soft skills, defined as effective verbal communication​, leadership, time management, team collaboration and other uniquely human capabilities. According to a 2018 LinkedIn jobs report, the skills gap is impacting soft skills the hardest.

Employers recognize that nearly every job will require some tech know-how. However, the fear that automation and artificial intelligence would push masses of workers out of the labor force is somewhat stifled by speculation that technological advances will usher in more jobs than it drives out. The challenge for employers is preparing workers for an inevitable digital transformation. The trick is not to focus entirely on the technology itself, but to prepare the people in the workforce for an era of likely constant change, experts told HR Dive. For this reason, education benefits — including benefits for front-line, hourly employees — have taken off as a way to both train workers up for digital change and retain them for the long-run.

As the demand for tech jobs and soft skills grows, employers might find the need to invest more heavily in training, upskilling and reskilling to get workers ready for their new roles in a changing labor market and their organizations' successful transitions into workplaces of the future.