Skills Gap Analysis

Every business needs a skilled group of people to achieve its goals. Doing a skills gap analysis will help determine which skills will aid in reaching those goals.

It is important to analyze current skills and determine what steps to take. This can be a challenge when some new or different project is being considered.

Do new staff need to be hired, or do current employees have the needed skills, or can be trained to fill those roles?

Long Term Benefits

It is also good to consider the long-term benefits of training new or existing employees. If training is provided, will it benefit the company in the future with different projects?

Will newly acquired skills enable the company to pursue a new direction or expand?

If it is a one time only need, would it be better to contract out that portion of the project?

Training with a long-term benefit in view becomes an asset, not an expense.

Assess the Needs

Once the needs are identified, the next step is to determine what capabilities are available among current staff.

Both hard and soft(human) skills should be considered.

•  Technical skills. Whether production, IT or other fields, do they have the skills for the required tasks?
• Human skills. A team leader needs to communicate well and help each part of the team to see their value to the project.
• Organizational skills. Assigning tasks, and caring for scheduling,
• Sales. It takes the right person to promote the product and manage the sales.
• Budget. The project needs to be completed within certain cost considerations.

At this stage, you may find you have everyone you need to successfully complete the project.

You might also find that some further skills training is needed, and existing staff can be trained in these skills.

Your employees should be directly involved in the process. In this way you not only assess their needs, but will learn how interested and willing they are to learn new skills that will enhance their value to the company.

You can use various methods such as:

Surveys and Assessments:

• Gather feedback from employees.
• Interviews: Discuss skills and competencies.
• Performance Reviews: Evaluate existing skills

Once you have assessed the needs, you can start training and/or hiring.

Encourage your employees to reach out to learn new skills or improve their current skills.

Human Skills Development has a series of courses to help you train your employees in many skills.

View our courses here.

Read a further guide for needs assessment for training.