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Skills   •   Article   •   5 mins


DON’T LET THE SKILLS GAP SWALLOW YOUR ORGANIZATION

by Lisa Spinelli, August 16, 2022
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When I hear “skills gap,” I think of a chasm as wide as the Grand Canyon
quaking, like it’s the backdrop for the penultimate scene in a bad 90s action
movie. Maybe I’m a little dramatic, but the skills gap is really rocking the
talent development space lately — and it’s only getting worse. 

From the United States to France and Germany to India, the rapid pace of change
is being felt across the world.  And it’s costing us all. The U.S. alone is
expected to lose out on $8.5 trillion in unrealized revenue from the skills gap
and talent shortage by 2030. 

If you are in the  human resources or talent management field, it’s easy to get
a little dramatic when it’s getting harder and harder for your company to find
the right fit for empty roles. Human resource leaders are reporting that skills
only have a four-year average shelf life before a worker needs upskilling. 

The skills businesses need for the future are constantly evolving. We’ve all
seen how important adapting to digital offerings can be. Digital transformation
either created a lifeline or a crushing cannonball to one’s business during the
COVID lockdowns. But by growing creativity, adaptability and digital skill sets,
your organization can upskill and reskill your workers more quickly  — and even
survive the next pandemic. 

Understanding your organization’s skills gaps can help you boost engagement,
drive productivity and keep your organization competitive for years to come. L&D
leaders know upskilling (especially digital upskilling) and reskilling are top
priorities, describing them as the most important functions of their L&D
programs after leadership and management training. 

Let’s take a look at the impact of the widening skills gap — and how you can
build a stronger bridge over that shaky canyon.


WHAT IS THE SKILLS GAP?

The skills gap is the difference between the skills a job seeker, candidate or
employee has and those they need for the role they’re seeking, interviewing for,
or hold. It’s the great divide between what an employer needs and what an
employee (potential or established) can deliver. A skills gap can also occur
across  a team, department or entire organization when its aggregate skills
don’t line up with what’s needed to drive the business forward. 

The gap can include technical skills or not. While companies in France are
currently seeing a major digital and technical skills shortage, many in Brazil
are experiencing a time management and leadership skills shortage. And because
an enormous amount of us are still communicating through pixelated rectangles on
our computer screens, communication skills are the most important skill for the
future, according to Duarte.  


THE IMPACTS OF THE SKILLS GAP 

For many organizations, the impacts of a widening skills gap are long-term.
Having a large skills gap can create added stress, lower the quality of work,
slow down employee productivity and create disengagement with your workforce,
which leads to issues with retention and cuts into your bottom line. 

Looking for talent and not finding the right fit is also leaving companies in a
precarious position. As vacancies remain open, workers find themselves doing
more work and stretching themselves thin to fill holes in production. Stretching
employees to cover too much work can lead to increased burnout and low morale,
which leads to even more turnover and more open positions. 

All of these impacts can lead to a big loss in revenue from the top to the
bottom line. 


BRIDGING THE SKILLS GAP

You can’t glue a canyon back together, but you can start crossing the divide by
laying one board of your bridge at a time. 

As with anything in talent development and workforce planning, an analysis is
needed. Performing a skills gap analysis will help highlight the skills your
organization values, which ones you have, which ones are missing and how exactly
you should go about creating your bridge to the future. 

To perform a skills gap analysis, first find out what skills your organization
has. You can do this by creating a skills taxonomy, which is an evolving list of
skills for each current and future role within your organization. Once you have
this taxonomy in hand, you can determine if the skills it describes are
outdated, need refreshing or good to go. 

Next, create a skills map of what your employees already have. This is different
than a taxonomy because it’s a visual representation of what skills your
employees possess or are working toward. It’s often confused with competency
mapping, but there’s an important difference rooted in level of detail.

Once you have your skills gap analysis in place, you can decide how to create
your rainbow bridge to Valhalla. From there, everything boils down to two
options: develop your internal talent or hire new external talent. 


DEVELOPING INTERNAL TALENT

If you develop internal talent, you can drive success by creating strategic
upskilling or reskilling programs using a learning platform that supports
self-directed development. You can also offer stretch assignments focused on
missing skill sets to help current employees build new skills or even grow
hidden expertise. And by offering your people upward mobility pathways that are
accessible to all can infuse your workforce with new energy and close the skill
gaps you need to address. 

Eighty-seven percent of organizations surveyed worldwide recognized the widening
skills gap occurring or about to occur amongst their staff, but only 53 percent
of them were able or willing to reskill their own workforce to close those
gaps. 


BRINGING IN EXTERNAL TALENT

Sometimes you have to hire outside talent or consultants. Your skills map and
gap analysis is going to help you find the people you need, because you can use
it to ask staffing agencies or job candidates great questions about the skills
they can offer. And this can save you a lot of heartache — and splinters! — in
the long run. 


GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR LEARNING TECH

When COVID hit, many organizations realized they needed reliable video
communication platforms, online collaboration applications and instant messaging
software to compete. This necessitated generous IT budgets, and L&D received
some of that largesse. 

The great digital transformation is not only upon us, it’s pricey. Organizations
across the world will spend $4.4 Trillion on IT  in 2022. But what good is
having the most impressive instructional design software if there are no
well-versed eLearning professionals in your organization? What are you going to
do with the data you receive from your learning systems if your people can’t do
data analysis? Who will integrate your tech stack if you keep purchasing the
right software but don’t have the right people to correctly deploy those
applications?

Your organization could lose millions of dollars if you don’t prepare your
workforce. To stay in the game and support your growing business, start
recognizing and fixing your growing skill gaps. Do anything less and you’ll 
risk getting sucked into the void of business history books.

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Learning Strategy Skills Gap


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