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By: Dan Campbell, CEO, Hire Dynamics

Recently, I had the honor of sharing my “Viewpoint” with Atlanta Business Chronicle readers on the manufacturing “renaissance” currently underway in Georgia. In the article, I shared insights I learned firsthand attending a recent Next Generation Manufacturing Signature event at the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute.

The event hosted several Georgia manufacturers who enthusiastically shared their plans for investing in Georgia facilities. Many shared stories of offshoring their business, only to bring those jobs back to Georgia because production is more cost efficient and allows them to produce an equal or even higher quality product than they could overseas. Many of these manufacturers cited Georgia’s Quick Start program which trains local workforces on the specific needs of a facility, as a reason doing business in our state makes sense. This is all good news, and every new business that comes to Georgia furthers the economic development and health of this state. But … there’s more to the story.

With the influx of manufacturing jobs coming into the state, a big responsibility falls on staffing firms. Plenty of manufacturers are relying on staffing firms already and for many reasons. Three big ones – economic uncertainty, regulatory changes in areas such as healthcare, and most importantly, the skills gap. This is when there are too few skilled candidates to meet the demand for trade positions within the manufacturing industry.

The implications of the skills gap are weighty if we as a state can’t meet the demand for talent that these manufacturers need. Our economic health relies on businesses, like manufacturers, wanting to bring their business here. We have a responsibility to make it easy for them.

At Hire Dynamics, we believe that “What We Do Matters.” And, when faced with a challenge like the ever-growing skills gap, that statement has never been truer. As an industry, what we do is meaningful and I hope that we all operate with that in mind.

Bridging the skills gap is a passion of mine, and an endeavor I take very personally in both my position as CEO of Hire Dynamics and as the current Chair of the American Staffing Association. In the coming months and through this blog, I plan to share more on the topic of the skills gap to both inform and offer ideas for companies, staffing leaders and job seekers to begin to use it to their advantage so that we can all work together to close it.