The United States is facing a shortage of skilled workers, even though employers are paying the average four-year college graduate 75 percent more than they pay high school graduates, up from a 40 percent differential 25 years ago. The shortage is being created because the nation's pool of educated workers is not expanding rapidly enough to fulfill demand. One factor behind this is that a smaller cohort size currently exists due to fewer births following the baby boom era. In addition, approximately one in five American 18-year-olds does not graduate from high school. Harvard University economics professor Claudia Goldin says the American educational system's tendency to provide second chances may be detrimental for young people's motivation to finish school. Another factor is that although roughly two-thirds of new high-school graduates enroll in college right after graduating, a large number drop out even before they complete a two-year degree or certificate. The steps needed to counteract this trend include improving pre-K and K-12 education, motivating teens to finish high school, providing more guidance to community college students on learning marketable skills or transferring to four-year colleges, and improving and streamlining student financial aid, experts say.

Hiring the right employees and investing time in their training and career development is the most effective way to create strong and viable businesses. It is important the induction and instruction of new employees is in-depth and done within the initial few weeks of their hiring. Training and development should be offered at the beginning as well as throughout employees' careers. Investing in a company's talent is a good way to get the most out of them and can be beneficial when it comes to keeping important members. Companies can avoid high turnover by mentoring employees in order to upgrade their performance and permit them to move up the corporate ladder. Such actions will enable companies to promote their brands as the market will regard them as firms that care about their staff. In addition, businesses that promote and develop their employees will have an edge over their competitors.

Enterprise-wide change initiatives are increasing in frequency, rendering a company's ability to manage employees throughout the change process a top priority. Elements of change management include communication, developing training programs, a road map for change sponsors, and a strategy for handling resistance. For example, the Tennessee Valley Authority, a large power company, selected a change management manager and created a template for outreach plans. Experts agree that change management should start as early as possible, particularly during the project's problem-identification phase. Executives must communicate with the staff to explain "that change is coming," and need to remain active during the entire process. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of executives, one obstacle to change is middle managers lack of change management skills. Therefore, managers must build competencies and softer skill sets so they can reassure, coach, and empathize with employees during these periods. Employees, too, need a chance to ask questions and raise concerns; "town hall" meetings, discussions with supervisors, and surveys are some methods of getting feedback that can identify problems as the organization adjusts to change.

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Making a solid business case for training requires formulation of metrics proving the value of training to an organization, yet few organizations have comprehensive processes in place to put a dollar value on their programs, says Gartner Executive Program research director Andrew Walker. "Very rarely do they look at whether they are getting value from these training programs," says Walker. "You can tell training is not valued if it keeps getting cut. It's the first point of cuts for most finance people because no one is able to do a good business case to keep it in there. That sends a message to people that you don't value training." This unintended message can lead to turnover, as highly valued employees seek personal progress elsewhere. Tying training to project outcomes is one valuable tool for making a business case. "It's so useful to integrate training into a project because a project has an up-front business case," Walker said. "This is the value we're going to get or these are the things we are going to be able to do as a result of this project." Other ways to demonstrate the value of training include customer and trainee surveys.