BY DAN BIEWENER WHEN SKILL REQUIREMENTS MOVE TOO FA S T TALENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES | 32 The skills gap in business is real, and hiring talent isn't doing enough to solve it. According to the "New Talent Landscape: Recruiting Difficulty and Skills Shortages" report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), about two out of every three human resources (HR) professionals surveyed had a hard time hiring for full-time jobs in 2016-up from 50 percent since a similar report in 2013. SHRM President and CEO Hank Jackson says this is largely due to a lack of skills and required work experience. According to the research, 84 percent of HR professionals reported seeing applied skills shortages in job applicants over the last 12 months. In a recent annual survey of employers, Deloitte and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists (ISCEBS) remarked, "The shortage of qualified talent and the skills gap has emerged as the biggest challenge facing employers over the next three years." This skills gap continues to widen, despite the available pool of domestic and H1B job applicants. How can employers expect to fill their needs for such capabilities in emerging technologies? The answer lies within. More and more smart companies are training their existing employees to acquire the skills they need in the technologies and disciplines that are critical to their evolving business objectives. USE TRAINING STRATEGICALLY TO FILL SKILLS GAPS As technologies rapidly evolve and corporate initiatives change, talent development is proving to be a faster and more cost-effective solution than talent acquisition. Certification-level training takes a typical investment of only $1,100 per employee. Meanwhile, the direct and hidden costs of hiring someone new averages 20 percent of the annual salary