It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, but if you don’t pay attention to the performance and skill gaps of the workforce, you may end up getting yourself into a fine kettle of fish. No one can be an expert at everything, but whether it’s at work or in personal life, identifying areas where your employees are excelling and opportunities, where they could improve, can go a long way in boosting your company’s success. To enhance professional skills, Corporate Training is critical to the success of any business. Here are seven tips to assess performance and skill gaps.
- Signs your employees aren’t meeting their potential
It can be hard to pinpoint the reason your team isn’t meeting its potential. They could be suffering from skill gaps, or simply not putting enough time into their work. The good news is that there are a few signs that will help you tell the difference.
- Employees are working around others’ mistakes instead of fixing them themselves.
- Employees don’t take responsibility for their actions, but instead blame others for causing problems.
- Employees have trouble admitting when they’re wrong about something, even if it’s obvious to everyone else.
- Employees feel overworked because they’re overloaded with tasks but still expected to get everything done on time; yet, they never seem to be able to catch up with all of the tasks they have on their plate at once.
The large majority of companies worldwide (87%) are aware that they either already have a skills gap or will have one within a few years, according to McKinsey & Company. Skills gap is the difference between an ideal employee’s performance and their actual performance. From a business standpoint, the organization’s strategy is to build and address these differences in the long-term and near-term through different means such as training, mentoring, or organizational restructuring.
- Tip 1 – Assessment
Assessing your employees is an excellent way to identify skill gaps. There are many ways to do this, including tests, quizzes, and practical assessments. The key here is to base the assessments on real work contexts so that you can identify the actual skill gaps and training requirements. As for how this can be implemented quickly and effectively? Even your LMS can help: a skills gap analysis solution can help identify skill and knowledge gaps in the workplace.
According to the latest LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report: 64% of training and development professionals say retraining today’s workforce to fill skills gaps is a priority, and post such assessments, understanding whom to train on what and how becomes easier.
- Tip 2 – Ask Those Working Around
Another strategy to identify skills gaps is through feedback. One approach is the 360-degree review. One important method of employee performance reviews involves soliciting feedback from colleagues, managers, and direct reports. It’s not unusual for feedback reviews to also involve customers, clients, and vendors. This appraisal approach can be used as a data-gathering method, too. Rather than obtaining feedback on one particular employee, you can get feedback regarding general performance problems and use the data for your team’s or individual training analysis.
- Tip 3 – Asking Tough Questions
Everyone knows that numbers do not tell the whole story. The best way to assess the gap between skills and performance is to ask tough questions. Do they have a sense of why they underperform or do things that cause failures in the workplace? Have they figured out how to prevent these behaviors from affecting future success? The fact is, answering these questions may not be easy for everyone. But if we can identify what led us astray in the past, we can choose a new path for our future.
- Tip 4 – Be there as a Mentor
Here are some ways you can help develop your employee’s skills:
- Have them mentor a junior colleague on the team.
- Have them take on specific responsibilities like improving time management or cost-efficiency for the team.
- Assign them a project outside of their day-to-day work that might help increase their skill set in an area they want to explore.
- Tip 5 – Check for Behavioral Fit in employees
Just as important, if not more so, is to check for behavioral fit in your employees. Take time to observe how your employees interact with customers, handle issues that arise on the job, and work with their peers and managers. If you think I wish he would do it this way, consider whether that person might be a better fit elsewhere in your organization. Keep in mind that it’s not always easy to confront people about such issues when they are close coworkers or team members.
- Tip 6 – Conduct an Audit of the workforce
There are two ways to do an assessment audit: The first is by an internal audit conducted by the organization. In this case, every employee at a company should conduct a self-assessment to determine what they need to work on. This can be accomplished by conducting your own Performance Gap Analysis where you evaluate yourself compared to your professional skills and competencies list.
The second option is doing an external assessment from someone not involved with the organization. These experts usually come in for specific assessments but can offer some valuable insights if needed. They will provide feedback about each department’s performance and how employees are performing regarding their individual goals and objectives.
- Tip 7 – Pay Attention to Key Performance Indicators
It can be helpful to look at your key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the status of your company. For example, if you are in the B2B industry, it’s worth examining customer acquisition and retention KPIs to see how well your business is doing. This will help you understand which aspects of your business are working well and what needs improvement. Key performance indicators can also offer insight into where skill gaps may exist. For instance, if you’re noticing a dip in revenue numbers or retention rates over time but cannot identify the cause for this change, it could mean that your skillset doesn’t match what the market demands from a successful business owner in today’s economy.
Overall, the most important thing you can do to address performance gaps is to have a candid conversation with your boss. Have them help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and ask for their help in building upon your strengths. This process should be ongoing to ensure everyone’s skills improve throughout the workday. What steps do you take to ensure you stay at peak performance levels? Let us know in the comments below!