Coming soon · Book Profile
Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs
The so-called skills gap is largely a myth; the real reason good people can't get jobs is that employers have adopted flawed hiring practices, unrealistic requirements, inadequate wages, and abandoned training.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Peter Cappelli dismantles the popular narrative that unemployment persists because workers lack the skills employers need. Marshaling labor market data, employer surveys, and hundreds of first-hand accounts from job seekers and recruiters, he shows that the 'skills gap' is mostly employer whining amplified by uncritical media and self-interested employer organizations. The true culprits are employers who demand candidates who can 'hit the ground running,' who won't pay market wages, who let automated applicant-tracking software reject perfectly capable people over trivial keyword mismatches, and above all who have gutted their investment in training. Cappelli reframes the problem as a training gap, not a skills gap, and lays out concrete, financially sensible ways employers can develop talent on and for the job—from in-house programs and apprenticeships to shared and public-private training arrangements—so both companies and workers win.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An employer, HR leader, or executive who wants to fill vacancies with capable people quickly and cost-effectively—and job seekers who want fair access to work.
- The problem
- Vacancies go unfilled while qualified applicants are rejected, hurting both companies and the economy. Employers feel frustrated they 'can't find talent' and workers feel unfairly shut out and demoralized.
- The plan
- Stop assuming a skills gap; examine the actual data and your own practices.
- Audit your hiring process—simplify job descriptions and stop screening out capable people with rigid software.
- Calculate the real cost of leaving vacancies open.
- Reintroduce training and ramp-up time, hiring for attitude and basic ability.
- Adopt in-house, shared, public-private, or apprenticeship models to develop skills affordably.
- The payoff
- Vacancies get filled quickly with capable people. · Companies build human capital and retain loyal, productive workers. · Job seekers get fair access to work and paths to needed skills.
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Additional reading
- Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock Potential in Yourself and Your Organization · Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
This is the authors' previous book, which provides a deep dive into the ITC framework that is presented as a key tool in Chapter 6 and used by the fledgling DDOs in Chapter 7.
- In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life · Robert Kegan
This book lays out the foundational theory of adult development and mental complexity that underpins the entire DDO concept, explaining the 'adaptive gap' that DDOs are designed to address.
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success · Carol Dweck
The book explicitly references Dweck's work, contrasting the 'fixed mindset' (prevalent in ordinary organizations) with the 'growth mindset' that is fundamental to a DDO's culture.
- Organizational Culture and Leadership · Edgar H. Schein
Mentioned in the book, Schein's work provides a foundational understanding of organizational culture, which is the primary medium through which DDOs operate.
- The Functions of the Executive · Chester Barnard (1938)
Chapter 10 identifies this book as providing the seminal concept of 'willingness to contribute to the cooperative system,' which forms the theoretical foundation for the modern construct of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB).
- The Psychology of Careers · Donald E. Super (1957)
Chapter 3 cites this as a foundational work that established the concept of career stages, a model that has profoundly influenced career development theory and research for decades.
- Decision-making in the employment interview · E. C. Webster (1964)
Chapter 6 highlights this as the key report from the influential McGill University studies, which revealed the cognitive biases inherent in unstructured interviews and shifted the focus of research toward understanding the interviewer's decision process.
- Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures · Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
Multiple chapters (e.g., 13, 15) refer to this document and the related AERA/APA/NCME 'Standards' as the authoritative professional guidelines that define best practices and core concepts, like the modern unitarian view of validity, for the entire field of personnel selection.
- Managing Human Assets · Beer, M. et al. (1984)
This is a seminal book that introduced the 'Harvard framework' of HRM, emphasizing a multi-stakeholder approach that considers the interests of employees, not just shareholders. It provides a foundational 'soft' HRM perspective.
- Strategic Human Resource Management · Fombrun, C. J., Tichy, N. M. and Devanna, M. A. (1984)
This book introduced the 'Michigan framework,' which advocated for a 'hard' HRM approach focused on tightly matching HR strategy to the business strategy (vertical fit). It is a foundational text for the strategic alignment concept.