The ill-prepared US workforce: exploring the challenges of employer-provided workforce readiness training

Employers report hiring substantial numbers of new entrants who are poorly prepared, requiring additional company investment to improve workforce readiness skills. And while many employers provide workforce readiness or remedial training to bring their new entrants up to speed, many report less than strong results. The results of the survey accompanying this report raise the question whether compensating for poorly prepared new workforce entrants with on-the-job workforce readiness training is the most effective way to address the readiness gap. Taken as a whole, the survey results raise...  [+] Show more

Employers report hiring substantial numbers of new entrants who are poorly prepared, requiring additional company investment to improve workforce readiness skills. And while many employers provide workforce readiness or remedial training to bring their new entrants up to speed, many report less than strong results. The results of the survey accompanying this report raise the question whether compensating for poorly prepared new workforce entrants with on-the-job workforce readiness training is the most effective way to address the readiness gap. Taken as a whole, the survey results raise critical questions that business needs to address: Do workforce readiness training programs represent the best use of business resources, particularly during these tough economic times? Is the workplace the most efficient place to be spending remedial dollars? And what are the true total costs of a deficiently prepared workforce, considering the lost productivity and time it takes to bring new entrants up to company expectations? Furthermore, if companies aren't tracking the cost of these programs, there's no way to evaluate their impact on the bottom-line measures that matter most to business.

Excerpts from publication.