Implementing a Skills Gap Analysis within the Talent Management Process

The skills gap analysis process helps employers identify which skills they have available to them within their workforce currently, while also pinpointing the skill areas they are missing.

Implementing this process can help you:

Identify the skills your business is lacking
Direct employee development programs based on identified skills
Enhance the recruitment strategy to find people with the missing skills

The Gap Analysis Process

If you have an inkling that your workforce is missing out on some key skills that would really enhance business objectives, but are not sure how to go about the process of identifying them, then keep reading.

1. Strategy is key

When planning a gap analysis process, you approach this at two different levels.

1. By individual employee—Compare employee’s skills to missing skills and determine the need from there.

2. By team or company—Determine if the current team can handle an upcoming project, or if an external hire is needed. Over time, the data acquired will help shape your training programs to fill in missing skills.

This is a process that will need to have HR, management and c-suite fully aligned if you want to identify all the missing skills and attain them efficiently. The process can be addressed by internal improvement and training, and/or by hiring externally to fill in the missing skills of need.

If bandwidth is short within your company, there are third-party companies who can help you build a gap analysis process.

2. Pick your playbook

To identify the skills your company needs, there are a couple of questions you can ask yourself:

1. Which skills are of most value to us?

Think of broad-reaching skills that are needed within every open position you are filling. Attributes including communication, collaboration and organizational skills are a good starting example. From there, narrow down the needs by department and by specific job type. Keep in mind, each area of your business is going to have different needs.

2. What attributes do our employees need to have in order to be successful now and into the future?

To successfully obtain the answers to these questions, you are going need to implement several initiatives to gather this data. As mentioned above, the alignment between HR and leadership stakeholders is crucial. If there is a break in commitment by even one leader, you may not be able to truly obtain the data needed to make company-wide improvements to identified business objectives.

Think about business goals and strategy, corporate values and job descriptions. Think about missing skillsets and what the future holds. Get everyone in leadership and employees involved with a survey. Combine their insights to make actionable-decisions on identified missing skills and the future.

3. Evaluate current workforce skillsets

Approach this method purely on gathering data from all employees within the business. You can issue out surveys and assessments; interview employees; analyze feedback from performance reviews and training modules and decipher information with the help of automated systems, platforms, modules and applications.

With needed skills identified, you can create a scoring system to rank where each employee falls in the identified skills. From there you can decide if you need more internal training, or if outside help will be needed for your company to move forward.

4. Let the data guide you to your goals

Completing the previous steps will help you acquire a roadmap that will aid in developing a gap analysis process based on real, tangible evidence. With that said, there are two routes you can take with the data to fill in the missing skills.

1. Train internally

Offer your employees the tools to improve their abilities to perform in the modern workforce. You can offer them:

Subscriptions
Online courses
Continued education opportunities
Access to industry material
Voluntary employee mentorship programs
Opportunity to attend events and conference

You can also bring in third-party firms to manage training sessions, seminars, workshops and more.

2. Hire externally

If training internally is too time-consuming or not possible, you may have to hire from outside of the business to find the missing skills you need. To enhance this process, HR automated solutions in recruitment and applicant tracking can be used to improve and speed up the process in hiring to fill in the needs.

To enhance the process of finding candidates with the skills you’re looking for, you can add assessments and/or scored tests to effectively measure if they possess the skill level(s) of what you’re trying to find. For example, if your marketing department was looking to fill a copywriter role, they could add a few writing assessments to see how their candidates do under pressure with an allotted amount of time and the quality that comes from it.

Don’t forget to do your due diligence in search of passive candidates too when looking to fill in missing skills. This process can be achieved through various social media outreach efforts, conversing in niche job boards, or using a third-party to help convince these candidates that your pastures are greener.

For a deeper conversation in what tools you can use to develop your gap analysis process, click here.

Benefits of a Gap Analysis

A gap analysis can provide you and your employer with the following benefits after implementing it:

A comprehensive overview of organizational structure is laid out
Priorities are hashed out and strategy is established
The future becomes less foggy and more clear
Skills that are lacking are found and added
The talent management strategy becomes more successful as employee skills match company mission

The Arcoro Talent Management System

With a dedicated Talent Management System, featuring scalable modules, customized to meet business requirements as they adapt over time, Arcoro offers automated cloud-based modules that cover the full spectrum of a Talent Management process.

The automated tools available include:

Applicant Tracking System
Onboarding
Performance Management
Learning Management
Succession Planning

Evaluate your missing skills with Performance Management and Succession Planning. Bridge those gaps with internally with a Learning Management System, and/or use an Applicant Tracking System to find those missing skills externally.

Use the modules to track and manage your gap analysis process seamlessly. All modules share data with one another, creating a harmonious flow automated processes combined with real people. The system is integrated with over 300 partners, allowing you to sync your technology with an abundance of other tools.

The Full Arcoro HCM Platform

Aside from the talent management modules, Arcoro also offers cloud-based modules to cover essential HR processes. Those include:

Core HR
- Employee self-service (Employee Portal)
- Workflow Management
- Reporting
- EZ Sign (electronic signature)
- Employee Record Management
- Surveys
Benefits Management
ACA Compliance
Payroll Processing
Time and Attendance