Being nimble and dynamic in the way businesses manage skills through performance is going to be important moving forward into the next 12 months – 2023. Having the capacity to use the Skill sets of employees across multiple business silos / departments is a way to keep costs down and improve employee competencies rather than having to hire. Whether your organisation uses a formal or informal performance management approach, it’s important to capture key information and then be able to quickly query it and report on it to make decisions. In our last HR Blog we looked at how important re- or upskilling is to creating a 'Learning Culture.' In this Blog, we dive deeper into tracking skills and filling skills gaps throughout the Employee lifecycle.
The results of a 2022 study conducted by SHRM and TalentLMS indicate that more than 50% of HR Managers said that their company is facing a skills gap. 32% of those HR Managers indicated that they're overcoming this issue by hiring new employees, 17% by leveraging independent contractors/freelancer and 51% of HR managers surveyed said they're choosing to train existing employees instead.
The verdict - not only is training your existing team more sustainable than constantly hiring new talent or relying on freelancers, it is also a solid investment for your company’s future. Organisations need employees who can learn and grow along with the business. Smart organisations know that skills development should support and enable employees’ career advancement. It’s critical that organisations clearly communicate about what competencies workers should focus on in order to progress. Having made the investment in training them to close skills gaps, the business should then ensure that they can retain those employees so that they can rise vertically within the business.
How to Close Skills Gaps in Your Organisation
Throughout the Employee Lifecycle, there are a variety of ways in which you can capture skills data, understand the gaps and use that intel to train Employees. This can start with the recruitment process and then flow through to the Employee Onboarding and Employee Induction / Mandatory Training process. By managing and capturing skills-based data in an integrated/connected manner, HR admin is reduced so decisions can be made faster and with more accuracy. This doesn't just apply to Skills, it also relates to other areas like Certificates and Licences, Education and Qualifications and Continuing Professional Development. In addition to directing Employees towards training that will enable them to close their skills gaps, integrated learning & development will empower Employees to make their own decisions about the type of training they want and need.
IWhen providing commentary on the results of a study conducted a study at the end of 2020 by Chief Learning Officer they propose that the future of learning will include co-creating learning strategies with employees for the following reasons:
-
Employee use various learning resources : Study participants shared that they regularly used company learning resources and open-source learning content. Resources such as podcasts, YouTube, on-demand or self-paced learning platforms, books, stretch assignments and communities of practice were some of the higher-rated responses. Employees also invest in formal education through colleges and universities and educational MOOCs.
-
Employees are closing their own skills gaps : Employee interests aligned with skills generally identified for competitive advantage. Participants shared that they were interested in — and in some cases developing their skills in — data, machine learning, cybersecurity, digital marketing, project management, customer support, leadership and agility, among others.
-
Employees are solving business challenges : They used a just-in-time learning strategy to solve business challenges. Some respondents shared how they engaged with peers and business leaders to solve challenges through micro-learning content, among other methods.
-
Employees are preparing for career advancement : Employees were independently gaining the certifications they felt were necessary for career opportunities. Some of the areas identified were credentials for Amazon Web Services, ITIL, Lean Six Sigma, Project Management Professional, and CompTIA.
Managing Performance to Close Skills Gaps
Depending on the size of the business, the amount of HR Resource and the industry, the detail and structure of a Performance Review process can and needs to vary. If HR and Managers are time poor, a more informal process can be adopted, whereby Managers and Employees identify goals and skills / skills gaps and then engage Mentors to manage learning & development through real-time catch-ups (forward facing). Employees can also be empowered to self-select training and link that training to some sort of Development Plan. Being able to devolve responsibility here is key - this is possible by allowing participants to use technology to support their skills enhancement and training journey.
If there is a need for a more formal and structured process, a Performance Review Cycle can be put in place based on start date of the Employee or based on employees going through the process all at once. A more formal Review process will allow the business the ensure that all of the employees are being managed based on a best practice, inclusive cycle. A cycle which adopts all of the key steps by engaging the Employee and Manager in a process to define goals, skills etc, create a Personal Development Plan (PDP), review performance. If there is a PDP phase involved, being able to link training to goals is an important part of ensuring training budgets are spent in the right manner. Allowing employees to attend face-to-face training or engage in e-learning in an effective way based on the outcomes of the Review process is key to remaining efficient and profitable.
Systems and Processes Are Key to Closing Skills Gaps
Once your organisation has systems and processes in place to record, search and report on skills-based data, the business can reorient around enhancing the skills of all Employees. That will make it possible for decisions around Succession Planning and Project focus to be made based on skill sets as well as performance. Being able to look at this data right across the Employee lifecycle is important for all businesses regardless of industry and size. Compliance reporting is also a key here in terms of proving that skills and qualifications meet industry compliance standards. Talent pools, global searching and dynamic HR and people-based reporting becomes the focus of the management team to allow for changes in direction, expansion or downsizing decisions to be made accurately and quickly.
Get Started Today With a No Obligation Free Trial
Do you work for a mid-sized organisation in Australia or New Zealand? Is your business in need of tools to deliver in-the-flow-of-work Learning & Development to help your Employees reskill for the future of work? To do exactly that, you can use Subscribe-HR's suite of 13 codeless, cloud HR software solutions to seamlessly manage every touchpoint of the employee journey, from the first hello, to the final goodbye.
Want access to the Training Widget so that you can test it yourself? Try it now using our 7-day FREE trial, which gives you no obligation access to the full functionality of the Subscribe-HR platform.
The FREE Trial also gives you instant access to the Activation Hub, which includes our out-of-the-box, templated functionality to get up and running quickly, Then you can use our powerful and flexible configuration tools to adapt your unique, HR process into Subscribe-HR.
You'll be amazed by how fast and easy it is to set yourself up.
