Is there a gap between the skills your employees possess and the skills that will be needed – even in the future – in your organization? Then you are dealing with a skills gap. <\/b><\/p>
To close a skill gap, you can conduct a skill gap analysis. Because that’s how you keep your organization innovative and successful in the future. Moreover, it will ensure that people can make the best use of their talent. But how do you approach such an analysis? And how do you then bridge the skill gap? You can read about that here.<\/span><\/p> \ud83d\udc49 Getting started with the skill gap? \ud83c\udfa5 Join our online masterclass ‘Understanding the skill gap’ on March 27<\/a> <\/b><\/p> <\/p> A skill gap or skills gap is <\/span>the difference<\/b> between your employees’ current skills and the skills needed to achieve your organization’s goals – including future goals.<\/span><\/p> The gap in <\/span>skills or competencies<\/span><\/a> may consist of: 1) <\/span>soft skills<\/b> or interpersonal, transferable skills, such as communication and organizational skills; 2) <\/span>hard skills <\/b>or job-specific, technical skills, such as knowledge of a particular method, machine or software.<\/span><\/p> Do employees in your organization <\/span>do not possess all of the skills required<\/b> to perform their <\/span>function<\/span><\/a> now or in the future, you can speak of a skill gap.<\/span><\/p> A skills gap can occur at multiple levels:<\/span><\/p> <\/p> \ud83c\udfa5 Want to know if a skill gap exists in your organization? \ud83d\udcc6 Sign up for our online master class on March 27<\/a> <\/b><\/p> <\/p> Skill gaps can occur in any type of organization and at any job level. <\/span><\/p> This is simply because of the <\/span>speed<\/b> of technological developments right now: the skills needed in certain jobs are changing at an increasingly rapid pace, making it more difficult for employees to keep their skills up-to-date. For example, 44% of employees’ core skills will change in the coming years, according to predictions by the <\/span>World Economic Forum<\/span><\/a>. <\/span> <\/p> Because of those technological changes, accelerated by <\/span>AI<\/span><\/a>, we see 2 trends in skill gaps:<\/span><\/p> While technical skills retained half their value in the labor market for about 10-15 years a few years ago, now they only <\/span>2.5 years<\/b> (source: <\/span>IBM<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p> And looking at soft skills<\/strong>, some of the most important soft skills for “reskilling” – skills in which employees need to be retrained:<\/span><\/p> But regardless of what is going on in the world in terms of technological changes and market developments, there may be a skill gap in your organization (individually or throughout the organization) due to a variety of reasons.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Factors that can contribute to a skills gap:<\/span><\/p> <\/p> These are 2 examples of a skills gap that can occur:<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Mark has over 10 years of experience in project management, but his knowledge of new AI tools lags behind. Thus, he lacks the technical skills<\/strong> to make processes more efficient. <\/span><\/p> An IT agency works with a team of fairly inexperienced software developers who were hired because they were trained and retrained in the latest code languages. But they are still inexperienced when it comes to collaboration, planning<\/strong> and communication<\/strong>: so there is a skills gap when it comes to their soft skills. This is where the developers receive coaching from a senior colleague. <\/span><\/p> <\/p> The world of work may look completely different in 5 years. And the only solution is to prepare your organization as well as possible for that. <\/span><\/p> With the tight labor market<\/strong> and rapidly changing technological skills, only the best-performing organizations can remain productive and profitable. And you as HR can play a key role in that – by addressing the skill gap. <\/span><\/p> The benefit when you improve skills in your organization is that you can do more with fewer people. You continue to retrain<\/strong> employees in the skills they need to do their jobs as well and efficiently as possible. <\/span><\/p> More benefits of bridging the skills gap:<\/span><\/p> \ud83d\udc49 Here you can read more about <\/b>the benefits of improving employee performance<\/b><\/a><\/p> <\/p> To recap: if you do nothing to improve skills in your organization, you could fall behind competitors, miss out on talent and lose your best performers.<\/span><\/p> So you want to avoid a skills gap, or if there is a gap, you want to bridge it as quickly as possible. <\/span><\/p> The first step to getting ahead of the skill gap is to <\/span>more insight<\/b>: you get that by doing a <\/span>skill gap analysis<\/b>. In short, you then determine: <\/span><\/p> Here’s how exactly to conduct such an analysis \ud83d\udc47<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Addressing the skills gap begins with <\/span>planning ahead<\/b>. You can’t predict the future, of course, but you can think strategically about the skills that are going to be crucial in your industry in the next 5 or 10 years. <\/span><\/p> These are some points to think about:<\/span><\/p> \ud83d\udca1 Tip<\/b>: it helps tremendously if you already have in <\/span>job profiles<\/span><\/a> what skills and competencies are needed to perform a job successfully.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> The next step is to maintain the <\/span>current level <\/b>of skills in your organization. <\/span> <\/p> Skills measurement can be done in a number of ways:<\/span><\/p> (a) With assessments <\/b>of soft skills, behavior and cognitive ability: for example, a motivational test such as from <\/span>TMA<\/span><\/a>, a Big Five personality test, a traditional assessment (as widely used in recruitment) or a neuro-cognitive test such as <\/span>Equalture<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> (b) With evaluation and <\/b>performance reviews<\/b><\/a>, including 360-degree feedback to get as complete and honest a picture as possible<\/span><\/p> (c) With interviews<\/b>, for a more qualitative insight. But beware that the least gives objective results: someone can give socially desirable answers in a live interview, and interviewers always have unconscious biases that color their picture. <\/span><\/p> These methods are complementary; you can combine them.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> But whatever method(s) you choose, the most important thing is to capture the current skill level of employees <\/span>capture<\/b>. You do that in a <\/span>skill matrix<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Then we go back to the crucial skills from step 1. <\/span><\/p> Now create an overview of the future skills that are going to be needed in your organization.<\/span><\/p> Because these are future required skills, you can change the <\/span>level<\/b> that employees possess yet.<\/span><\/p> But what you can do is capture these future skills in your process for evaluating, coaching and providing advancement to employees: your <\/span>performance management process<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> Also, don’t forget to ask what skills employees want to develop themselves.<\/span><\/p> When do you speak of a skill gap?<\/h2>
How a skills gap can occur<\/h3>
Example of a skill gap<\/h2>
(a) Senior project manager<\/h4>
(b) Team of junior developers<\/h4>
Why you want to address the skills gap<\/h2>
Understanding the gap: here’s how to set up a skill gap analysis<\/h2>
1. Determine the most important skills for your organization (including future ones)<\/h3>
2. Map your employees’ current skills<\/h3>
3. Capture future skills and determine the ‘gap’<\/h3>