In the wake of the pandemic, employers may have overlooked a phenomenon: the Skills Gap. In Natural HR’s The Top 10 HR Stats to Bring to the Board, we discuss the Skills Gap and the tools that we can use in order to close it.
What is the skill gap?
The Skills Gap is the difference between the abilities of an employee and those expected by their employer. The Skills Gap has reached an all-time height in the current climate:
Businesses are less able to hire skilled workers because of cost-cutting measures in recruitment.
Unsuitable candidates apply for jobs because of inaccurate or misleading job descriptions.
The pandemic has forced employees to perform tasks that are outside their skill set.
Companies are under more pressure due to a global shortage of skills in areas like software development.
How can we close the skills gap?
Employers should invest in internal learning and development rather than solely relying upon recruitment. This will not only improve your company’s value proposition but will also motivate employees and increase employee retention.
This will also reduce costs. According to the Chartered Institute for Personal Development, the average cost of hiring a new employee is more than PS6,000. This can reach PS19,000. For managers and senior positions, it could be even more.
Staff who believe that their employers are interested in their development and learning are happier. According to a report by Udemy, eight out of ten employees are more likely to be engaged in learning and development. It gets better, as engaged employees are 22% productive in general.
Tools to measure the skills gap
We can do more to track the impact of learning and developing. The ability to measure skills and competencies will reveal weaknesses within the individual and company.
Natural HR recommends a scoring matrix in HR software. This involves mapping out the skills needed for each job and assessing how staff members compare.
We could, for example, create a spider chart with ratings ranging from 1 to 5. The employee’s performance would be evaluated based on:
Then, we would compare their score (out of 5) with the required core competencies. We can plug all employee scores into a single dataset to identify the weaknesses of the company. This is particularly relevant for soft skills such as organization that may be needed across the entire business as opposed to only departmental competencies.
Results of measuring skills, competencies, and abilities
This data opens up a world of possibilities. We can not only tackle the Skills Gap crisis, but we can also invest in long-term pursuits like better employee engagement. This could also have an impact on other business decisions, such as the potential job roles that we still need to fill.
It may also lead to the development of training programs that would benefit all employees. It is not a crisis management strategy to invest in the skills of employees. It is a long-term commitment to the well-being of employees and the resilience of your company.