Dive Brief:

• The latest report is available from the Society for Human Resource Management, Recruiting Difficulty and Skills Shortages in California, highlighting the current challenges that CA has with talent and skill shortages. 
• 70% of polled organizations in California have reported that they are experiencing recruiting difficulties for full-time positions in the last year. The top reasons for this include the highly-competitive market and lack of adequate job-related skills. Not surprisingly, technical skills are in most demand but hard to find. 
• California recruiters are turning to social media networks, followed by the use of recruitment agencies and training existing employees to take on more skilled roles. Nearly half of the companies indicated that they had increased their training budgets in 2016. 

Dive Insight:

California has a long history of requiring specialized skills from candidates, based upon its strong technology and entertainment base. The increased focus on employee cross-training and development in CA is something that all states can learn from. Is this the wave of the future? Organizations in other regions and industries may be able to learn from the example of how CA companies are overcoming staffing shortages by internal training and succession planning.