As the job market has evolved, so too have the skills required of seekers. But when 75% of human resources professionals say a skills shortage has made recruiting particularly challenging in recent months, it would appear as though the workforce hasn’t quite kept pace. Now LinkedIn is stepping in to help close the gap.



On Tuesday, the professional social network announced the launch of a “Skills Assessments” tool, through which users can put their knowledge to the test. Those who pass are given the opportunity to display a badge that reads “passed” next to the skill on their profile pages, a validation of sorts that LinkedIn hopes will encourage skills development among its users and help better match potential employees with the right employers. &nbsp;



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“We see an evolving labor market and much more sophistication in how recruiters and hiring managers look for skills. &#8230; We also see a changing learning market,” says Hari Srinivasan, senior director of product management at LinkedIn Learning. “The combination of those two made us excited about changing our opportunity marketplace to make the hiring side and the learning side work better together.” 



So how exactly does it work? Let’s say a user wants to showcase her proficiency in Microsoft Excel. Rather than simply listing “Excel” in the skills section of her profile, she can take a multiple-choice test to demonstrate the extent to which she is an expert. 



If she aces the test, not only will a badge verifying her aptitude will appear on her profile, but she will be more likely to surface in searches by recruiters, who can search for candidates by skill in the same way they might do so by college or employer. If she fails, she can take the test again, but she’ll have to wait a few months—plenty of time to develop her skillset. &nbsp;&nbsp;



The tool has been in beta mode since March, and while just 2 million people have used it—a mere fraction of LinkedIn’s 630 million members—early results seem promising. According to LinkedIn, members who’ve completed skills assessments have been nearly 30% more likely to land jobs than their counterparts who did not take the tests.



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“This has been a really good way for members to represent what they know, what they are good at,” says Emrecan Dogan, LinkedIn group product manager.



While new to LinkedIn, the practice of assessing candidates’ skills has been a standard among hiring managers for decades. But when research commissioned by LinkedIn revealed that 69% of employees feel that skills have become more important to recruiters than education, LinkedIn felt as though this was the time to give job seekers the opportunity to prove themselves from the get-go.



As important as the hard skills that members can put to the test through LinkedIn’s new tool may be, Dawn Fay, senior district president at recruiting firm Robert Half, encourages those on both side of the job search not to forget the importance of soft skills. “You wouldn’t want to rule somebody in or out just based on how they did on one particular skill assessment,” she says. 



“Have another data point that you can use, question people about how they did on something and see if it’s something that can feed into the puzzle to find out if somebody is going to be a good fit.”



-Samantha Todd; Forbes

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How LinkedIn Is Looking To Help Close The Ever-Growing Skills Gap

August marks Women’s Day in South Africa, a day
commemorating the efforts of more than 20,000 women of all races, who marched
to the highest political office in the land, on the morning of August 9 in
1956, to raise awareness around women’s rights and present a petition against
the carrying of passes by women, to the then prime minister.



More than six decades on, the call for the equitable
treatment and acknowledgement of women’s rights remains a battle for a global
community of women – for recognition and also for fair and equitable economic
opportunities.



Think back to the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup, where champions, USA, returned home with the trophy but also a very small paycheck for their efforts. During their return tour, their victory was overshadowed by calls from supporters to ensure authorities offer them salaries equal to their male counterparts. 



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Whilst efforts have been made in this regard, the
discrepancies in pay between men’s and women’s football, much like many other
sectors, remain too large to ignore.



FIFA, the world governing body of football, doubled the
total prize money for the 2019 Women’s World Cup from $15 million to $30
million but it is still a fraction of the $400 million received by players in
the men’s tournament last year.



The disparity across sub-Saharan Africa is even more glaring. Despite a great showing from teams represented by Nigeria, South Africa and Cameroon, the reality for many local players is that there are no local leagues. As such, players are expected to train and perform at a professional level while still managing a separate full-time job to pay their bills and make ends meet.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">On closer inspection of recent data, one is hit with the enormity of the task at hand. The Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum in December 2018, revealed that at the current rate of change, it will take about 108 years to close the overall gender gap and 202 years to bring about parity in the workplace. </blockquote>



This is a long time to wait for parity of any sort – what
more for the sports field, the political sphere and new digital industries that
are likely to emerge?



As women, we certainly can’t sit by the wayside in hopes of
being rescued from this dilemma. 



I believe that our focus and rhetoric need to be adapted and
realigned. I believe it goes beyond just empowering females, but unlocking
economic opportunities for all through the advancement of women.



It’s well documented that female-headed households lead to
the advancement of all and everyone wins. 



Beyond this, the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup reminded me that while the battle for gender equality remains a major challenge, the real issue is around equal and fair recognition – on the soccer field, in the boardroom and in places of political leadership.



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As a society, we should be empowering, supporting and
rewarding those who go above and beyond to achieve levels of excellence in
their respective sectors.



“We should all be feminists,” a popular quote by Nigerian
novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a lot of truth to it, in driving the
awareness and active citizenry for change.



I believe we should take this a step further and we should
all be activists who reward excellence, regardless of race or gender. 



Let’s reward excellence! And the economic benefits will
naturally follow – for all. 



– Gugulethu Mfuphi is an award-winning radio broadcaster, financial journalist, conference moderator and CNBC Africa alumni. She was recently named one of South Africa’s 200 young leaders in media by Mail &amp; Guardian.

Tag: equality

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

How LinkedIn Is Looking To Help Close The Ever-Growing Skills Gap

Not Just Equality, But Recognition Of Excellence