How Training in the Classroom and on the Job Can Fill the HR Skills Gap

In 2011, GAO declared human capital a mission-critical issue. Over the past decade, offbeat waves of retirement have contributed to sizable skills gaps in government. For the human resources world, this means the loss of workers whose on-the-job knowledge has become strategically essential over time.

"There is a considerable skills gap in the human resources occupation, and a lot of people ready to retire will take with them their historical knowledge,” says Rose Gwin, who herself previously served as a director of human resources at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Gwin now works as an adjunct instructor at Graduate School USA, where she teaches human resources courses to federal employees.

Though the skills gap is undeniable, Gwin is convinced that government has the means to bridge it by closely assessing the protocol around training new employees.

“We're just not good at looking at the return on investment of training dollars that we use,” she says. “We have to start thinking about succession planning and looking at organizational structures that support the development of human resources skills.”

According to Gwin, a mix of classroom and on-the-job training (OJT) is the practical way to fill the skills gap and plan for the future. As increasingly capable technology eliminates rote tasks through automation, agencies have the opportunity to cultivate the analytical powers of their human resources teams, making them even more strategic assets.

This is where OJT can be beneficial, especially when seasoned veterans are able to impart knowledge of agency-specific human resources practices. But while this kind of hands-on training can make an enormous difference, relying on it alone runs the risk of new employees picking up long-proliferated practices that may not be the most efficient — OJT needs a buffer, which agencies can find in the classroom.

In conjunction with and complementary to OJT, classroom learning can refine and supplement a human resources professional’s growing skill set. It allows for a different sort of exposure, Gwin says, in which courses are designed around the troublesome and sometimes high-risk scenarios that are part and parcel with human resources work.

“Learning these things in the classroom allows people to stop and think,” Gwin says. “And if you make a mistake, there are no real-world consequences.”

Having the trial ground of the classroom is what allows human resources personnel to improve, and Gwin says feedback in the workplace is vital to locking in that improvement. Managers should be conversant enough in all verticals of human resources work to properly evaluate, coach and encourage their employees.

And as for getting started, Gwin believes that if you build it, they will come.

“There are lots of individuals who identify their own training needs, go to their managers and ask for training,” she says. And whether an individual is initiating their own need for training or an agency mandates it, both parties stand to benefit from a more knowledgeable and well-rounded human resources staff.

“This work asks its practitioners to identify management problems, translate the underlying human resources issues and ultimately create a way to fix them," Gwin says.

With the right combination of classroom training, on-the-job experience and managerial investment, the workforce of tomorrow will be prepared for that challenge.

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